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“I think you’re always looking for playmakers. I don’t think you can ever just say, ‘We have enough playmakers,’” McCarthy said during his end-of-the-season news conference. “Anytime you have a chance to add a playmaker — or just a good football player — to your football team, you have to look into that. And that will always be the case here.
“We’ll always try to upgrade our playmaking ability.”
After focusing on repairing the offensive line in the draft (second-rounder Daryn Colledge, third-rounder Jason Spitz and fifth-rounder Tony Moll each started at least 10 games) and augmenting the defense with both free agency (cornerback Charles Woodson, nose tackle Ryan Pickett and safety Marquand Manuel) and their first-round pick (A.J. Hawk), adding an electrifying offensive player or two would certainly help the Packers (8-8) take another step next year.
Statistically, while the Packers’ offense ranked ninth in the 32-team NFL in yards per game (341.1), it ranked tied for 22nd in points per game (18.8) and 31st in red-zone efficiency (16 TDs in 49 opportunities for a 32.7 percent success rate; only Oakland was worse).
“You can point to red-zone production as a need, but there’s other factors involved in that, too,” McCarthy said.
Perhaps, but it could be argued that the Packers had more playmakers on defense, which scored four touchdowns, than on offense. Defensive end Aaron Kampman had 151/2sacks, Woodson picked off eight passes, and the rapidly improving linebacking corps of Hawk, Nick Barnett and Brady Poppinga chipped in 141/2 “impact plays” — 601/2 sacks, five interceptions and three forced fumbles.
Meanwhile, quarterback Brett Favre, in his 15th season as the team’s starter, essentially had one go-to guy: Two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Donald Driver, who set career highs in catches (92) and receiving yards (1,295) and with eight touchdowns, accounted for almost 30 percent of the team’s 27 offensive touchdowns.
Green Bay could be in the market for a new featured back if free-agent-to-be Ahman Green (1,059 yards and five rushing TDs on 266 attempts) signs elsewhere, or the club decides not to re-sign him because he’ll turn 30 in February. While backups Vernand Morency or Noah Herron are capable fill-ins, it’s hard to imagine either player carrying the ball 20 to 25 times a game next season.
Asked how confident he is that Green will defy the NFL trend of thirty-something running backs declining rapidly, McCarthy said, “I think he gave us all confidence just with the way he did come back. Just with the way he came back from (a ruptured quadriceps tendon), just the way he continued to get stronger as the season went on. I think you have a lot of evidence there. I would like to have him back, but once it falls into a business decision, those are factors between him, his agent and our organization. We’ll see what happens.”
The wide receiver position beyond Driver is unsettled as rookie Greg Jennings tailed off late in the year, Robert Ferguson missed all but four games with a foot injury and Koren Robinson is serving a one-year suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.
And the tight end position, considered a strength entering the season, is a colossal question mark after Bubba Franks’ disappointing season, injury-prone David Martin’s impending free agency and the unknowns of backups Donald Lee, Tory Humphrey and Zac Alcorn.
Armed with the 16th pick in the April draft and about $30 million in salary-cap space, the Packers will have the means to add such a player, but Thompson said he might have some playmakers-in-waiting already on the roster.
“Definitely, if we see an opportunity to get better, we’ll get better,” Thompson said. “I think we have some (playmakers). But I think that term is overused sometimes. I know what you’re talking about: Guys who week in and week out score touchdowns. I think everybody would say they’d like to have more. But some of those people might already be on our team and just haven’t blossomed yet. We’ll see.”
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Tony Gonzalez: wrote on Jan 12, 2007 12:40 PM: