The playbook has been scrubbed clean.
The coordinators are both new, and the coaching staff has been turned upside down.
And for the first time in Mike McCarthy’s 13 seasons as the Green Bay Packers’ head coach, he’s reporting to a new boss.
Things are definitely different in sleepy Green Bay, a city where little changes most years. And perhaps the greatest difference is exactly how hot McCarthy’s coaching seat is.
McCarthy is already the second-longest-tenured coach in team history, trailing only Earl “Curly” Lambeau — the man who has the stadium named after him. But following a 7-9 season, McCarthy’s future might be in greater doubt than it has been at any time in his tenure.
“Well, I mean, when I look at my job from a personal viewpoint, I feel that I have to make sure you look in the mirror and you try to improve each and every day,” McCarthy told reporters Wednesday. “I value the experience that I have in the first 12 years and how you apply it, but I’m also very realistic and clearly understand and make sure everybody around me understands that this is our opportunity, 2018, and that’s really all that matters.
“We’ve been guaranteed 16 regular-season games, and we need to make sure we’re doing everything through this training camp process to get ready for really those first four games.”
During McCarthy’s first 12 years, he reported to then-general manager Ted Thompson, the man who hired him. This offseason, though, Thompson was replaced, and McCarthy now reports directly to team president and CEO Mark Murphy.
McCarthy was given a one-year contract extension during the 2017 season that runs through the 2019 campaign. While that extension prevented the appearance that McCarthy was a lame duck in 2018, he’s operating with far less job security than in recent years.
Although the Packers haven’t committed to McCarthy long term, Murphy is standing by his head coach — for now, anyway.
“I have tremendous confidence in Mike,” Murphy said last week. “His track record speaks for itself. He’s one of, to me, one of the better coaches in the league and has served us well.”
Back in 2005, the Packers gave head coach Mike Sherman a two-year contract extension before the season began and then fired him when the season ended. So extensions and votes of confidence are sometimes hollow.
What will eventually determine McCarthy’s fate is how the 2018 Packers perform.
“It’s the 2018 Green Bay Packers,” McCarthy said. “This is our opportunity.”
The Packers have accomplished several big things under McCarthy during his first 12 seasons.
Green Bay has gone to the postseason nine times under McCarthy, including eight straight appearances between 2009 and 2016. McCarthy led Green Bay to a Super Bowl title in the 2010 season and is 121-70-1 overall (.633).
On the flip side, Packer Nation isn’t pleased that the team has been to just one Super Bowl in the McCarthy era despite having Hall of Fame quarterbacks Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers at the helm. Green Bay is also just 1-3 in NFC Championship Games under McCarthy.
And since 2013, the Packers have gone 5-12-1 in games Rodgers missed entirely or was knocked out of.
In 2013, Green Bay went 2-5-1 after Rodgers broke his left clavicle, and then the team lost its first playoff game. Last year, the Packers went 3-7 after Rodgers broke his right clavicle, and they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
“I think we’re all better for the negative things that have occurred,” McCarthy said. “When you talk about knowledge, the ability to learn from your past experiences and really the past experience of others that are shared with you – and I’m not just talking about the good ones – you learn a lot in this business about the mistakes and the ability to overcome adversity and all those.
“Because, hey, this is going to be a rough ride to get to where we want to go. And when we get there, it’s going to take probably our best to get it done.”
As 2018 begins, the spotlight on McCarthy feels as bright as at any time since a pressure-packed 2009 season.
The Packers traded Favre before the 2008 campaign and went 6-10 that year with Rodgers at the helm. Green Bay then began the 2009 season 4-4, leaving the team 10-14 overall in the post-Favre era.
Before Green Bay’s Week 9 game with Dallas, fans paraded outside Lambeau Field wearing “Fire McCarthy” and “Fire Thompson” buttons.
“I can tell you that ’09 was a tense season for everybody, especially coming off of ’08 the way we played,” Rodgers said. “That was a pretty tense year. We all kind of felt like we were playing for our jobs.”
Several Packers — including McCarthy — saved their jobs by going 7-1 in the second half of that 2009 season. One year later, Green Bay won Super Bowl XLV.
The heat is on McCarthy once again. And how McCarthy’s team performs in 2018 will almost certainly determine if he’ll return in 2019.
“Every coach, every player, everybody has things you have to be in tune with as far as the challenges that are coming personally and professionally,” McCarthy said Wednesday. “That’s all part of the opportunity.”
