Mike McCarthy relinquished play-calling duties to start last season. After a rocky stretch for the offense, which lacked continuity, the Green Bay Packers head coach took back the job. While he doesn't regret the decision, he won't be surrendering those duties in the future.
"I'll never do that again," McCarthy told Tom Pelissero of USA Today.
Following a special teams blunder versus the Seattle Seahawks in the 2014 playoff, which culminated one of the worst collapses in NFL history, McCarthy handed over play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tom Clements before last season. Part of the reason for relinquishing play-calling was to better oversee the entire team, including those pesky special teams.
The head coach denied it was a reactionary move: "I'm not a knee-jerker," he said.
But McCarthy also doesn't regret taking the play-calling back when things got rocky.
"That's responsibility and leadership is what that was," McCarthy said. "It wasn't popular. It's something that you didn't want to do. But I had to do what I thought was best for the football team. That's what I think about at night. That's what I think about when I get up in the morning. That's my every-day, all-day professional thought."
Allowing an offensive coordinator to call plays is beneficial for that assistant coach. It can lead to head gigs for those assistants and grow a coaching tree. It was an admirable attempt, but the Packers' offense runs smoothest with McCarthy making the calls to Aaron Rodgers.
McCarthy understands that now. And he won't make the same mistake twice.
