The best organizations, the ones with the resourceful head coaches and the offensive line coaches worth their weight in gold, just make it work. Pittsburgh won two Super Bowls starting backup tackle Max Starks. New England claimed its first with lumbering Grant Williams playing the entire second half at left tackle after Matt Light went down, its second with backup Tom Ashworth at right tackle and its third with backup Brandon Gorin at right tackle.

So let's do away with the excuses right from the start.

...

In March, he (McCarthy) essentially made it Allen Barbre's job to lose (at RT).

That stunned me.

On paper, Barbre looks pretty good, especially in a zone scheme.

Barbre took the Wonderlic twice. His first score, which most teams regard as most telling, was 11. (Lowest score after him for Packers OL in recent time was for Kevin Barry - who scored a 9; whereas Cliffy, Taush, etc. had higher scores and played against competition better than Div II level).

Barbre is just a very nave kid. He blew assignments his first two seasons even though the Packers smartly limited him to only one position. But there was too much happening quickly for him at guard, and so the decision was made to move him outside, although he had been a left tackle in college.

Despite another summer of losing his cool and getting in fistfights, Barbre had some bright moments. He is more of a tackle than a guard. He does good things in the run game.

But then the lights went on and Barbre has gone in the tank. His footwork is a mess. Rushers have knocked his hands down, which is absolutely alarming.

If McCarthy and Thompson were reckless enough to roll the dice on Barbre, they needed to have a competent back-up.

That was supposed to be Breno Giacomini... It's a deplorable situation.
...

Twenty to 25 teams have an experienced No. 3 tackle.

Goldberg (starting RT for Rams against GB), 29, epitomizes the type of player that Thompson has no interest in signing. Despite his many limitations, Goldberg does have 30 starts at various positions and at times has done a serviceable job. (Thompson could have signed Goldberg this off-season, but didn't). [T]he Packers, with designs on the playoffs and beyond, would rather go with a stiff like Giacomini.

In the last quarter century the Packers have had three masterful line coaches. Jerry Wampfler might have been "a negative cat" to be around, as Greg Koch once said, but the man really could coach. Then there was Tom Lovat, the steady hand under Mike Holmgren, and Larry Beightol, who coached exceptional units under Mike Sherman.

...

Sherman and his tight ends coach at the time, Joe Philbin, each was on staff at Tulane in the mid-1980s when Campen played there. Despite his limited rsum, they hired him in 2004 to work mostly in quality control. McCarthy made him the assistant line coach under Philbin in 2006 before bumping him to No. 1 in '07.

In terms of college and pro coaching experience, Wampfler had 22 years when he arrived in 1984, Lovat had 25 when he returned to Green Bay in 1992 and Beightol had 31 when Ray Rhodes hired him in 1999.

In comparison, Campen had three years of experience when promoted to run his own show. His assistant, Jerry Fontenot, played center for 16 years but had no coaching experience when hired by McCarthy in '06.

In the dog-eat-dog environment of the NFL, it makes no sense to make the offensive line an entry-level position. It's not enough (for Campen) to work hard; they all work hard.

Give me someone who has run drills and seen every blitz there is and made sideline adjustments on the fly year after year.

The Packers are high on Campen. On more than one occasion Thompson has denied permission for other teams to interview him.

Perhaps the best man was old pro Bill Muir, out in Tampa Bay and then hired by Kansas City. Beightol, 66, has tried to get back into coaching. Fired in San Diego, Jack Henry probably would have joined McCarthy. They coached together in New Orleans for five years; Beightol was with McCarthy in '99.

George Warhop and Mike Maser were available. Warhop, another former McCarthy colleague, landed in Cleveland.

Allen Barbre*

"TengoJuego" wrote:

Has Barbre even been THAT bad since the Bears game? He hasn't exactly been standing out as bad these past 2 games.

maybe a play here and there but that's football.

"Rios39" wrote:

"Rios39" wrote: