7 candidates we’d like to see replace Mike McCarthy as Packers head coach

This is how the Mike McCarthy era ends. Not with a bang, but with a missed 49-yard Mason Crosby field goal.

A strange season in Green Bay took its latest weird twist when the team fired head coach Mike McCarthy Sunday, ending his 2018 with a 4-7-1 record that will almost certainly preclude his Packers from the postseason. It’s the first time since 1953 the franchise will finish a season without the coach who began it. His duties have been passed along to offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, who will try to rally a lame duck team over its final four games in hopes of a longshot revival in Wisconsin.

While there’s a chance Philbin can prove enough in his month-long tryout to get the “interim” label removed from his job title, the Packers are more likely going to be looking for its next head coach this offseason. They’ll need a leader who can glean the most from the tail end of Aaron Rodgers’ prime while rebuilding a roster with some useful young talent but still several fatal flaws.

History suggests the choice will come down to a lineup of offensive minds. With the exception of Ray Rhodes’ lone year with the club in 1999, each of the team’s head coaches since 1988 have served as NFL offensive coordinators before taking a job in Green Bay. Couple that with the burning need to take advantage of the waning light of an MVP-caliber quarterback, and it seems a safe bet the Packers’ choice will be someone with a background in playcalling.

So who could it be? Here are five candidates we’d like to see back their bags and take up residence in Green Bay.

McDaniels famously reneged on a chance to coach the Indianapolis Colts in 2017, opting to remain Bill Belichick’s top assistant instead. But that was Indianapolis, whose quarterback, while talented, hadn’t thrown a football in approximately a year at that point. Green Bay could offer him the chance to go from working with Tom Brady to designing plays for Aaron Rodgers. The opportunity to coach two different first ballot Hall of Famers may be too much for McDaniels to turn down, regardless of what the Pats may have promised him when he stayed last spring.

McDaniels first run as a head coach ended with a 5-17 run over his final 22 games with the Broncos, and he famously clashed with both his players and his front office in less than two years on the job. But many of those issues can be explained away by maturity issues that, though concerning at age 33, may have dissipated after a high-profile failure and seven more seasons of servitude under Belichick.

Hiring former Belichick assistants hasn’t worked out well in the past, but Bill O’Brien is finally turning the corner in Houston. McDaniels has engineered the league’s top-scoring offense in four of his last seven years in New England. Could that combination be enough for the Packers to lure him north?

Kitchens assumed playcalling duties for the Browns after the team fired head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley. In just a few weeks, Kitchens’ spread-the-wealth philosophy has paid dividends in resurrecting a moribund offense. His influence on the playbook helped turn rookie Baker Mayfield from a replacement-level passer into someone who could put up MVP-caliber numbers, albeit against less-than-impressive defenses.

Those numbers took a stark downswing in Week 13 against a stout Texans defense, but there’s no denying Kitchens’ ability to breathe life into lackluster passing game. And that’s exactly what the Packers’ aerial attack has been lately, recording just 232 passing yards per contest over a 1-5 stretch.

Kitchens would be a longshot hire thanks to a lack of major coordinator roles. The former Alabama quarterback had been a positional coach in various pro and college stops before earning a promotion out of necessity thanks to Haley’s ousting. And his playcalling success, so far, has been limited to four games and a 2-2 record. Even so, he’ll be a commodity after the season, and a few good interviews (and Rodgers’ blessing) could lead him to Wisconsin.

Riley is going to be a hot name on the coaching market this offseason thanks to his meteoric rise through the college ranks and his tremendous success at Oklahoma. But while it appeared his biggest overtures would come from the Browns team that now employs his former Sooner quarterback Mayfield, he could get a long look from the Packers instead.

Riley has shown he can spread an offense to take advantage of a big-armed quarterback who can make plays downfield. He’s handled every challenge put in his way over the course of a 14-year rise from student assistant to head coach of one of college football’s blue blood programs. Putting a young, rising star with offensive chops in charge of an NFL franchise is a dicey move, but it’s paid off handsomely in Los Angeles. If the Packers want to take a Sean McVay-style calculated risk, Riley — and not the oft-discussed Kliff Kingsbury — could be their guy.

“But what if,” you may be asking, “there were a way to combine Riley’s youth with Kitchens’ lack of coordinator experience?” Well, my friends, let’s talk about Taylor, the 35-year-old quarterbacks coach of the Los Angeles Rams. Taylor has played a role in crafting LA’s explosive offense, having served as the assistant wide receivers coach the year before. Prior to that, he spent 2016 as the University of Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator (a rebuilding year in which the Bearcats averaged more than 150 fewer yards per game than 2015) and was the Dolphins interim OC in 2015.

Taylor’s riding a hot streak, but he doesn’t have much of a resume on which to fall back, or a record of success without Sean McVay as an accomplice. But he’s a young, outside-the-box hire who would give the Pack a playcaller who is much more comfortable taking risks than McCarthy was.

LeFleur, 39, is another branch of the McVay coaching tree who could be a viable head coaching candidate this offseason. He made waves last fall as the Rams’ offensive coordinator, but his 2018 performance calling plays for an underwhelming Titans team has dulled his once shining star. Even so, he’s learned under offensive minds like Mike and Kyle Shanahan along with McVay, and he helped turn the 2017 Rams from also-ran to divisional champion, so he could be due for a promotion soon.

Carmichael has been the guy designing Drew Brees’ plays since 2009, making New Orleans occasionally great, sometimes mediocre, but never bad. Like McDaniels, a job with the Packers would give him the chance to go from one Hall of Fame quarterback to another, and many of the same principles he’s applied to building around Brees would transfer well to a player who is younger, more mobile, and has a stronger arm.

Carmichael has spent nearly the past two decades as an NFL assistant. He’s not the young gun Taylor or Riley would be, and he may be entirely happy with his role in New Orleans, but he’s got the resume to wind up on Green Bay’s short list this winter.

The last two offensive coordinators to leave the Chiefs (Doug Pederson, Matt Nagy) have done pretty damn well for themselves, so why not hire the third? Like Pederson and Nagy, Bieniemy isn’t the primary playcaller for the Chiefs — those honors still belong to Andy Reid. But Reid seems to have a strong impact on guys in his coaching tree.

The Packers don’t have the absurd amount of talent that the Chiefs do, but they do have Aaron Rodgers. The Packers need a fresh infusion of ideas on offense and Bieniemy might be the guy to bring that. The Chiefs’ up-tempo, wide-open attack would be a nice change of pace from the conservative passing attack that Mike McCarthy had installed in Green Bay over the years.

It’s time for the Packers to catch up with the more creative offensive minds in the league. If they’re willing to step outside their comfort zone and hire someone that’s never been affiliated with the Packers, Bieniemy has a chance to unlock the Green Bay offense.

Of course, there are several other fine candidates available. And general manager Brian Gutekunst could opt for a defensive mind as his head coach to pair with an emerging young offensive coordinator — like, say, Kliff Kingsbury. Or the Packers may want someone with experience as an NFL head coach and turn to a recent, well-liked, but unsuccessful retread like Jack Del Rio or Gary Kubiak. Not everything has to make sense or be expected when it comes to NFL coaching positions.

Plus, if none of these names work out for the Packers, there’s a good chance Hue Jackson will be available.