A hybrid of the 3-4 or 4-3, completely scrap the 3-4 and use the personnel you have in their most productive way, Tauscher and Clifton should start now and sit Lang and Barbre, Spitz should go back to guard since he’s the most experienced…..these are all suggestions and thoughts regarding the Green Bay Packers and the “fixes” that might cure this team’s ills. Are those short term fixes? In a “win now” league you can certainly make a case for each argument but what does that do to the development of your younger players? If the 3-4 takes about 6 to 8 games to fully begin to understand, does that stifle your defenses comprehension of what it is they’re supposed to be learning? Is Dom Capers capable of scrapping his mastery of the 3-4 and thus revamping into a 4-3 or hybrid thereof?

If you’re serious about winning now, then you answer yes to the hybrid defense and yes to the Clifton and Tauscher question. I’ve always said that you, as a head coach, must use your players to the best of their ability and put them in a position to be the most successful. The rest is execution and that’s up to the players themselves.

For losses to prompt 2 prominent defensive players to speak up and question what it is they’re doing is eyebrow raising to say the least. To have guys like Charles Woodson and Cullen Jenkens, who hardly says anything negative, is alarming. You take their words with the preverbal grain of salt because the comments both came after emotional losses but you listen none the less.

A defense that’s ranked 4^th overall is one thing but if you take away the cupcakes, Detroit and Cleveland, they rank 21^st. You have to recognize that there are some problems here. If you don’t, then you’re turning a blind eye to the facts and thus putting your ego or stubbornness in the way of success. An offense that’s producing yardage but not key drives and more importantly “W’s”, plus is on pace to blow away the franchise record for sacks given up (61), you have to realize that your best people must be on the field period.
By the way, thanks to Tom Silverstein’s article in the Journal Sentinel today for those statistics.

If you’re an incoming coach with a 2 or 3 year plan, you have that leeway but if you’re Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson, you don’t have 2 years. You might not have until 2010. You have to ask yourself one simple question; “Do we have the players to do what it is we’re asking them to do?” If the answer’s yes, then you stick with your plan but if you blink for even a second, in a moment of wonderment, then you as a head coach owe it to yourself, your players and most importantly the paying fans to stop sticking round pegs in square holes and maximize your teams ability. The great coaches adapt, the stubborn coaches ultimately look for work.

I’m not saying that the best thing to do is scrap everything and go backwards but what I am saying is that clearly everyone’s not on the same page in philosophical beliefs or understanding and as a coaching staff those things need to be satisfied NOW.