Acts of god aside, the Green Bay Packers struggled mightily on offense for large portions of the 2015 season.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy hardly hid from that fact. He fired two offensive assistants last month in addition to taking back playcalling duties in the middle of the season. During a meeting with reporters on Thursday, McCarthy talked about Green Bay's uphill climb as free agency and the draft approach.
"Anytime you change the responsibility, whatever your area of emphasis is," McCarthy said, via USA Today. "There's a reason I went to those areas. There definitely will be input into the defense and special teams. Offensively, we took a huge step back. We're not a championship defense. That will be the focus of our staff and players. On special teams, we need to take another big jump there, as well."
McCarthy dismissed running backs coach Sam Gash and tight ends coach Jerry Fontenot. Additionally, offensive line assistant Mike Solari left to become the offensive line coach of the Giants.
McCarthy spoke of new running backs coach Ben Sirmans, whose biggest job will be getting Eddie Lacy back to old form. McCarthy called out Lacy's conditioning issues in his end-of-season news conference last month.
"The position coaches are accountable for the performance and training of their players," he said. "Eddie Lacy's conditioning is something I have great confidence will improve and is improving as we speak."
Sirmans has already witnessed Lacy's drive to improve in 2016.
"You can tell he's very hungry this year," said Sirmans, via the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
