Packers: 10 things they must do in the 2020 offseason
By Evan Siegel
Ten things the Green Bay Packers must do to have a successful offseason.
The Packers were exposed as the complete frauds that most people knew they were but didn’t want to admit to.
With yet another enraging playoff loss behind them, here is what the Packers have to do to finally get back to the Super Bowl.
1. Fire Mike Pettine
It was Christmas Day early in Green Bay when Mike McCarthy Kate Winslet-ed Dom Capers and finally let his best friend slide off the door. Once the team hired Mike Pettine, yet another bad year on defense was summed up as a personnel issue. Now in the second year of the defensive system, Pettine’s group has new players on two of the three levels.
Like clockwork, the Packers defense folded like a cheap tent in a playoff game. Aaron Rodgers is 10-8 as a starter in the playoffs. In those eight losses, the defense has capitulated an average of 36 points per game. Much has been made about the Packers’ “improved” defense in 2019. In reality, it wasn’t a lick better than any of Capers’ porous units. It was just flashier, had bigger names that sufficiently excited the fans with decent showings against terrible quarterbacks.
2. Overhaul middle linebacker
As of the end of the NFC Championship Game, Blake Martinez is no longer under contract.
The Packers have ignored the middle linebacker position as if it wasn’t a crippling deficiency year after year in a completely overwhelmed defense. Martinez is the king of making tackles eight yards down the field and hardly ever makes game-changing plays.
Packers coaches over the years have raved about his ability to control the unit and be the main signal-caller. Here’s a thought — get someone else to repeat verbatim what your defensive coordinator just shouted into your ear.
The Packers have a little over $30 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap, and can create more with several necessary cuts. The minute free agency opens, they should be at Cory Littleton‘s door with a tasting platter of various gourmet cheeses and a blank check.
They should also target Oklahoma’s Kenneth Murray in the draft. Ty Summers should also get a look after an impressive preseason. GM Brian Gutekunst has shown he can be aggressive with his resources in the past. The way he overhauled the pass rush last year is the way he must completely reinvent the Green Bay linebacker group.