Packers coach Mike McCarthy said earlier this offseason that he feels like he’s “at halftime” in his tenure with the team eight years after being named head coach.
A 16-year run as a head coach with the same NFL team isn’t something you see all that often and McCarthy’s got a long way to go, but it seems the Packers would like to make sure he stays on track. Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that team president Mark Murphy has been working toward an extension with McCarthy.
McCarthy has posted an 82-45-1 record with the Packers, won four division titles and taken the team to the playoffs six times overall. When you look at those marks, it’s easy to understand why the Packers want to make sure that McCarthy doesn’t go anywhere.
McCarthy last signed an extension in Green Bay in 2011 and that deal runs out after the 2015 season. He makes about $6.5 million per year, which puts him in company with other coaches like John Harbaugh and Tom Coughlin who have won at least one Super Bowl and behind the likes of Bill Belichick and the newly-extended Pete Carroll. McGinn writes that “it’s unclear” where the compensation would fall in an extension and that Murphy’s overtures were met with “grumbling” by some on the team’s board of directors.
One potential source of friction is that General Manager Ted Thompson’s contract expires after the 2016 season. There’s no word on extension talks on that front and Thompson declined to discuss his future on Saturday. If Thompson, who is 61, were to move on, a long-term extension for McCarthy could be a stumbling block with a new G.M. from outside the organization.
They’ll need to figure that out as they figure out how to proceed with McCarthy, but it is difficult to see the Packers shaking things up unless things go very poorly in the near future.