It’s a talented field to choose from

Wayne from New Orleans, LA

Why am I still feeling so sad about this game?

Because none of us have plans for the weekend.

Steve from Colorado Springs, CO

Congrats to Coach Hackett for landing the Denver job. To be clear I am a diehard Yooper Packer fan. Living here in Colorado makes me appreciate you guys and the II all the more. I have benefitted so much from the “Just Win This Week” focus. The local media’s reaction to each Bronco game is this: Lose one game, and it is fire everybody on Monday. Win a game, and you better get your Super Bowl tickets. The this-week focus is so healthy and wise, we all need to be thankful for Mike and Wes!

Congratulations to Hackett. He was a consummate professional here with the media and a smiling face whenever you saw him in the building. It’s great to see how things have come full circle for him after what happened in Jacksonville. Echoing what I said about De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas, Hackett landing the head job in Denver is good for the Green Bay Packers. It not only allows individuals inside the building to grow and prosper but also makes Green Bay an attractive destination for potential free agents and coaching prospects. Stability is great, but there’s also something to be said for turning over the ground after a harvest to enrich the soil. A confident, talented coach like Matt LaFleur doesn’t fear change. He embraces it because of what it means for the young coaches around him. I’m excited to see what happens.

Steven from Oak Creek, WI

Now that our OC left to join the Broncos, will the Packers promote an assistant coach to that position or will the team be considering any options out there that are available to them?

LaFleur will cast a wide net. There are a lot of qualified candidates, inside the building and externally. Pass game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy has been a popular name in the coaching carousel. Run game coordinator/offensive line coach Adam Stenavich has been a home-run hire, too. Also, running backs coach Ben Sirmans is the longest-tenured offensive coach on staff. Justin Outten has been with LaFleur for a while. So, there are a ton of directions this thing could go. It’s a talented field to choose from.

Both Getsy and Steno are mentioned as potential OCs elsewhere…can Green Bay block either one by offering the OC position in GB? Can they decline promotion in GB in order to be promoted elsewhere? Could we potentially lose both?

There were some good questions this week related to this that I honestly don’t know the answer to. Teams no longer can block a position coach from interviewing for a coordinator position. That is true. What I’m not sure of is whether a coach is restricted from leaving for an OC job if the OC job is available on his current team. Or if adding associate head coach to a title would change things? Or if a coach has the opportunity to call plays elsewhere?

Not to beat a dead horse too much about the offensive collapse against the 49ers, but one insight I had that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere: After AJ Dillon was injured, when Patrick Taylor was in, he never got the ball, only play-action, which the defense didn’t bite on. Play-action works when the run is a threat, but the Niners seemed confident the Packers weren’t going to give Taylor the ball, and they were right every time.

Like I said earlier this week, losing Dillon was a big deal. To me, it kind of felt like when Clay Matthews got banged up late in the 2014 NFC title game in Seattle. One of the stories I wrote for next week is how Dillon feels more motivated than ever to get to a Super Bowl. He isn’t alone.