Back on the December 3, fans of the Green Bay Packers and likely most of their players probably felt like they were getting let out of jail early when the team unceremoniously dumped head coach Mike McCarthy. The Packers were the second and last team to fire a coach during the 2018 season, the first being the Cleveland Browns who jettisoned Hue Jackson before Halloween.
The Packers job is a good one for a single reason; Aaron Rodgers. If Rodgers is healthy, he’s the most physically gifted quarterback in the game and an argument can be made that he’s the best. It’s an argument he did as much as anyone to dispel this season, but the blame can’t fall solely on him. McCarthy has practically ruined the guy’s career. Interim head coach Joe Philbin didn’t help.
So who will take over McCarthy’s post and be handed the keys to the final years of Rodgers’ career? BetDSI has compiled some odds for your entertainment and betting purposes. Take a look.
Green Bay Packers head coach in Week 1 of 2019 regular season
Josh McDaniels +100
Matt LaFleur +250
Jim Caldwell +350
Dan Campbell +500
Mike Munchak +1000
Brian Flores +1000
Chuck Pagano +1500
Joe Philbin +2000
Related: NFL Betting Guide
McDaniels has been connected with this job since it opened and I’ll write this now, just as I did every time his name comes up. I don’t think he’s leaving the New England Patriots. If he was going to bail, it would have been last year when he had already agreed to coach the Indianapolis Colts. You could argue that the chance to coach an Aaron Rodgers-run offense could make him change his mind, but this is the guy that skipped town on Andrew Luck a year ago. Sure, Luck was coming off a season-long injury absence, but Rodgers has been banged up too over the last two years.
I guess the question becomes: Is Josh McDaniels only interviewing with the Packers because he's a polarizing candidate, or because he'd only leave New England for Green Bay?
— Zach Kruse (@zachkruse2) January 3, 2019
I have every reason to believe that the Pats and McDaniels have a handshake deal in place that he’ll take over when Bill Belichick retires. Owner Bob Kraft can’t admit that it exists, because it would violate the NFL’s Rooney Rule. There is, legitimately, no other reason he would have backed out of the Colts job last season.
So who does that leave on this list as a possible match for the Packers? You can scratch off Brian Flores, the Patriots’ defensive coordinator. Green Bay is hiring an offensive coach. Philbin spent his time as the Packers’ interim coach barley going 2-2 and losing to the Detroit Lions at home.
Matt LeFleur had his first real chance to call plays this season with the Tennessee Titans to mixed results. He could be a guy that could ace an interview and land a job with the resume to justify it just like his boss Mike Vrabel did last year.
Matt LaFleur worked under Sean McVay in 2017 and Kyle Shanahan in 2016. This is LaFleur's first season calling plays in the NFL. https://t.co/7HEk4rloMV
— Jason B. Hirschhorn (@by_JBH) December 31, 2018
Munchak is a fine assistant, but not head coaching material and any owner that is seriously considering hiring Jim Caldwell as their next head coach should be forced by the league to sell their team.
The guy I like the most here? Dan Campbell. He’s the assistant head coach of the New Orleans Saints under Sean Payton and has head coaching experience as the interim Miami Dolphins coach in 2015. At +500 that’s a solid little payoff too if it happens, but they might have to beat the Browns to the punch to grab him.
