After Ugly Ending With Rodgers in Green Bay, McCarthy Gets New Start in Dallas

Rodgers’ relationship with McCarthy had been fraying for years before taking a turn in September 2018.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Sept. 30, 2018, the Green Bay Packers beat the Buffalo Bills 22-0. Afterward, quarterback Aaron Rodgers spoke in the Lambeau Field media auditorium as if the score had been reversed.

He called the offense “terrible,” something he blamed on “the plan” crafted by then-coach Mike McCarthy. While Green Bay piled up 423 yards, it didn’t find the end zone for the final 40 minutes. “It was as bad as we’ve played on offense with that many yards in a long time,” Rodgers said. Later, he added, “We were championship defensive level and non-playoff team offensive level today. That was not great by any stretch of the imagination.”

Rodgers’ relationship with McCarthy had been fraying for years, a byproduct of two strong-willed men spending countless thousands of hours together for 13 seasons. But it was the Buffalo game – and what happened a few days before that game – that marked the point of no return.

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A few days earlier, the Los Angeles Rams had defeated the Minnesota Vikings 38-31. Vikings coach Mike Zimmer’s defenses had challenged the McCarthy-and Rodgers-led Packers offense for years. Sean McVay’s Rams attack, however, tore the vaunted Vikings to shreds. Quarterback Jared Goff threw for 465 yards and five touchdowns as the Rams piled up a whopping 556 yards. Three receivers topped 100 yards and running back Todd Gurley had 156 yards from scrimmage.

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It was total destruction that showed what a cutting-edge offensive scheme led by a great young offensive mind could do against one of the best defenses in the league.

Ultimately, Rodgers got what he wanted. Two weeks after the Rams beat the Chiefs 54-51 in an epic shootout, the Packers lost to the woeful Arizona Cardinals 20-17 on Dec. 2. Within an hour, McCarthy was fired by team president Mark Murphy. 

In January, Green Bay hired Matt LaFleur – McVay’s offensive coordinator with the Rams in 2017 – as head coach. The Packers’ offense isn’t any better than it was last year but the team is 13-3 and will host Seattle in an NFC Divisional playoff game on Sunday.

On Monday, meanwhile, McCarthy was given a five-year contract by Dallas to be the Cowboys’ coach. When the Packers reached the playoffs eight consecutive seasons from 2009 through 2016, McCarthy’s offenses overwhelmed defenses with superior firepower and execution. 

In 2011, the Packers scored 560 points. At the time, that was the third-highest scoring total in NFL history. With Dallas, McCarthy might inherit a powerhouse offense. If the Cowboys can keep the band together, they’ll roll out quarterback Dak Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott, receivers Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and Randall Cobb, and a juggernaut offensive line. Prescott, Cooper and Cobb are scheduled to be free agents but the nucleus is in place.

McCarthy made a name for himself in the NFL with his work with top quarterbacks. He inherited Brett Favre, a past-his-prime interception machine. By Year 2, Favre was an MVP candidate and the Packers reached the NFC Championship Game. After three years of grooming, Rodgers replaced Favre and became a two-time MVP and the owner of the best passer rating in NFL history. 

Now, McCarthy will work with Prescott. A fourth-round pick in 2016, Prescott set career highs with 4,902 passing yards and 30 touchdowns this season, but he hasn’t posted a 100 passer rating since his rookie season.

McCarthy won’t be married only to Prescott. He will be married to Jerry Jones, the outspoken owner and general manager of the Cowboys. 

In Green Bay, McCarthy grew tired of answering on personnel matters. That came to a head a week before the 2016 season, when then-general manager Ted Thompson released Pro Bowl guard Josh Sitton. Instead of answering questions about the Jaguars, the Week 1 opponent,  McCarthy was forced to field questions about the change at guard because Thompson didn’t make himself available to reporters. 

In that light, McCarthy will appreciate Jones’ out-front nature, though he might not embrace any public questioning from his boss. McCarthy no doubt will welcome Jones’ aggressive approach to personnel acquisition after annually coaching one of the NFL’s youngest teams while with Green Bay.

Even so, he beat Jones' Cowboys twice in the playoffs: In the Dez Bryant catch, no-catch game in 2014 at Lambeau Field, and then in 2016 in Dallas when the Cowboys were the No. 1 seed. 

The closest the Cowboys have been to the Super Bowl since they were last there in 1995 is when the game was played in Jerry World following the 2010 season.  The Super Bowl winner that year: McCarthy's Packers.

McCarthy’s success in Green Bay always came with the asterisk of having two Hall of Fame quarterbacks slinging the football. Fair or not, his resume took a ding with the team’s struggles in 2017 and 2018. As he embarks on the next stage of his career, McCarthy has a chance to write a new legacy.