Green Bay Packers Mike McCarthy revealed little during his more than half-hour year end press conference at Lambeau Field on Wednesday morning. When asked if he's confident the team made the right decision at quarterback, McCarthy said, "Yes, I think we definitely made the right move at the quarterback position. I was pleased with the productivity from the quarterback position. From an individual standpoint, I think Aaron Rodgers played at a very steady, steady level, which was a high level, based on his statistics. He's given us a baseline, a standard that we will hold him to and the offensive group as we move forward."
Then McCarthy was asked What he liked most about Rodgers' play and he said, "Well, he held true to the type of quarterback that I felt that he was going to be, as far as his decision-making ability and his ball accuracy. That was something that he showed in his opportunities as a young player in our first couple years here, and he was able to sustain that for 16 games. So, that's what I was most pleased about. He was very good outside the pocket, making plays with his feet. I thought he was smart in space. He took a couple hits early in the season that you didn't see later in the season. I thought he lerned from his mistakes. The beauty of Aaron he's young, and he has the opportunity to only improve, but I think he has a good baseline to start from."
When asked about his own performance, McCarthy said, "I didn't get the job done. We're 6-10. Now, I can't stand up here last year and take the credit for our record last year. It starts with me, the coaches and the players. There's always a play or two, you'd like to have back. I think our teams were prepared, our teams played hard. It was clearly evident all the way through the season, there wasn't one time that I walked off the field where I didn't think that we were gout there giving it everything we had. So, we didn't get it done. It was close. I'm not looking for moral victories, because they don't count. We lost 10 games, and I didn't do a good enough job.
Summarizing some of the other thoughts from the coach today, when asked about possible coaching changes, McCarthy said he's right at the beginning of that process. He said he hasn't made up his mind yet on that matter.
Veteran cornerback Charles Woodson suggested earlier that the Packers need more veterans on defense. McCarthy didn't necessarily agree and said that's a convenient opinion. He said it's convenient to attack the youth of the football team, but he's fine with the team and is ready to work to improve on the base corp of players they will have for next season.
When asked if he liked the defensive scheme enough to keep it for 2009, regardless of wh's coordinating. McCarthy said all of the schemes are under evaluation right now, but offered no other hint at any change.
McCarthy said injuries are not an excuse for the 6-10 season. He said injuries are a part of the game and they probably didn't overcome the injuries as well as they should have.
So you can see, not much was revealed by McCarthy. Earlier this week, GM Ted Thompson appeared as a guest on McCarthy's TV show and said that the 6-10 season has done nothing for him to change his mind about free agency vs. building through the draft.
Listen / Download – McCarthy said they made the right move with Rodgers. :20