by the way, this is why i truly believe that the Packers have the best GM in football.
Q. You've had some time to digest the season. What are your general thoughts?
A. Well, I was proud of the team. I thought we had a good team. I thought we had the kind of team, once we got into the playoffs, that we could play a few games. And I still believe we have that kind of team. We happened to get in a shootout and came up on the short end of it.
Q. Was it a successful season?
A. Well, none of us are really happy right now. I think if you looked on it from two or three years from now, you know, 11-5 is a pretty good year. It's tough to win games in the NFL. But I think we expected more.
Q. The season was negatively affected by the slow start to the season. It ruined any chance at the division title and/or home playoff games. That slow start was mostly due to the porous play on the offensive line and the inordinate amount of sacks they gave up. Why do you think that unit struggled for so long to start the season?
A. I don't know. I don't think we played as well as we can up front. Again, the sacks are not just that. It's the route running, it's maybe holding the ball, it's maybe not being able to run the ball. Maybe not controlling the game on the defensive side. The whole thing is tied together. But it's certainly an area where we're trying to get better at.
Q. But obviously the offensive line was affected by the situation at left tackle, with Chad Clifton getting hurt and Daryn Colledge and T.J. Lang having to play there. When you put together your 53-man roster, you were OK with Colledge backing up an aging Clifton, who hadn't started all 16 games since 2007 and was coming off four surgeries?
A. Well, that was one of the plans. The thing that I think is overlooked sometimes is you can't have a left tackle ready to play that's sitting on the bench in the NFL. There's not that many of them. There's not 32 of them. We happen to have one and we actually have a couple of young guys, including T.J. Lang, that we think can play out there. But when you get hurt at a position as valuable as left tackle, you're going to take some lumps. Now, we've done that in the past and we've been able to play our way through it and win some games. We struggled a little bit more this year.
Q. But Colledge seemed to be your Plan A. . . .
A. Yeah, he's done it before. And we have several players on our line that played left tackle one way or the other. But it is what it is. If we would have had a better left tackle somewhere that we could have had on our 53, we would have had 'em.
Q. You didn't think you could find some sort of veteran who could do better than Colledge?
A. Obviously not.
Q. Who are the young guys that you think can play left tackle?
A. We think T.J. can.
Q. You do?
A. Yeah. And we'll see. He's got some growing to do. Several of our guys have done it. And, like I said, that wasn't the end-all, be-all.
Q. You said it before, you thought maybe the line didn't play as well as it could have. Do you think those guys are coached up well enough?
A. (chuckling) Yeah. Yes I do.
Q. Because this isn't just a one-year problem. The struggles on the line have been going on for at least three years. These are the players you put in place. It seems like it's either the players or the coaching.
A. Well, yeah, we're not going to play the blame game. I'm not going to point fingers and hopefully none will get pointed back at me, although most do (laughing). Like I said, it's an area that I think we're better than what we've played and we're going to keep working at it.
Q. You and coach Mike McCarthy talk, you think there are going to be any coaching staff changes?
A. I don't know of any. There could be but we haven't sat down and said, "This is what's going to happen."
Q. Do you want Clifton and right tackle Mark Tauscher back next season?
A. Yeah, if it works out for everybody, sure.
Q. Are you actively trying to re-sign any of your unrestricted free agents?
A. We're having conversations with a lot of our guys.
Q. Did the addition of Tauscher and running back Ahman Green - and their contributions in the locker room - open your eyes a little bit more to the value of veteran players?
A. No. I had my eyes wide open a long time ago. I've been around the game for quite some time. They were two guys that we knew, we knew the character and the makeup of those players, we also knew what they could bring in terms of contributing on our team and it worked out pretty well.
Q. Will you make an effort to bring Green back?
A. I don't know. We'll work through that.
Q. What's the deal with right tackle Breno Giacomini? He's been on the roster for two years, has barely been active. Doesn't he almost have to start next season to validate you holding a roster spot for him?
A. (laughing) No, Breno's a good player and he's a good teammate and all that sort of stuff. You know, as you evolve in the NFL eventually you're going to have to go out there and sink or swim, and we're going to ask a lot of our guys, and he's going to be one of them.
Q. So you think he can play in this league?
A. Sure.
Q. It just seems strange with some of the personnel issues that you've had on this team that you've let Giacomini sit on the roster and not really contribute at all. Even when you had injuries and ineffectiveness at right tackle this season he wasn't even active for games. You must believe in him.
A. Yeah, I think we think he's got the makeup to be a player.
Q. So you expect him to compete for a starting job next year?
A. Well, I expect him to compete.
Q. Charles Woodson questioned the team's mentality for the playoff game against Arizona. Did you agree with him? Did you think the team was overconfident?
A. I'd have to talk to Charles and ask him what he meant by that. But I think we were ready to play.
Q. What happened to the defense in that game?
A. I don't know. We got into a shootout in Pittsburgh, same kind of thing. I don't know. Like I said, we got caught in a shootout and we couldn't get off the field. Fortunately our offense was clicking and we were doing the same thing to their defense. That happens sometimes. But we haven't gone through all the evaluations or what happened here or what happened there. So we'll get to it.
Q. It wasn't like the Cardinals were a new opponent. You knew the personnel and the scheme; do you think there was a problem with the game plan?
A. We haven't gone through that yet. That's part of the process that will continue through the spring.
Q. So you don't know yet if it was the players or the scheme?
A. I think it was all of us.
Q. Why were other teams able to pressure Brett Favre and Kurt Warner and the Packers weren't? Between the lack of pressure and coverage issues in the secondary, it was almost like 2008 all over again but with a different scheme.
A. Well, I don't know, it's game to game. There's reasons in every game why you do or don't get pressure. I thought as a team we were pretty good on defense this year. We did some really good things in terms of stopping the run, and a lot of games we did get pressure, sacks and batted down balls, and played good defense. It just didn't work out against Arizona.
Q. Can you explain the decision to put cornerback Pat Lee on injured reserve before the season?
A. He was injured.
Q. But he could have played at some point, right?
A. It would have been late.
Q. Do you think Lee is a player?
A. We're hoping so. We're counting on him.
Q. So you think the game is important to him?
A. Sure.
Q. Do you think you adequately staffed the secondary? Between the cutting of Anthony Smith, putting Lee on injured reserve?
A. Yeah, I think we had a pretty good group, especially going into training camp. And then we had some injuries. We wound up finding guys in the middle of the season and they were playing at the end of the season. I thought we did OK. Again, there's only so many players that are capable of doing that on the NFL level.
Q. You claimed Smith when he was cut by the St. Louis Rams; did that signify you made a mistake in releasing him?
A. I don't know about mistake, at the time we felt like he could add something to our team.
Q. Do you regret cutting him? Would that have worked out better for the Packers?
A. I don't necessarily think so. That was a time when we an opportunity to get Derrick Martin and we felt like he added a lot to our team, which he did.
Q. But you claimed Smith after you released him. If you didn't think he could play in August, why could he play in November?
A. Well, things change a lot between Week 1 and Week 10.
Q. Do you want linebacker Aaron Kampman back?
A. Sure.
Q. Will you make an effort to bring him back?
A. Sure.
Q. You think he's a good 3-4 outside linebacker?
A. Yeah, he's a good player. You can never have too many good players.
Q. Will you definitely make him an offer?
A. I'm sure we will. But we don't talk business.
Q. Will you ask linebacker A.J. Hawk to take a pay cut?
A. (chuckling) I'm not going to talk about that. But I would never talk about anything like that about one of our players. I'm a little insulted you'd ask.
Q. Will you bring in competition for Mason Crosby?
A. We bring in competition anytime we can find competition.
Q. But with the 80-man roster restriction, that's been an area where you've skimped a little, right?
A. Sure. We'll see. If we have somebody that can compete we will. We like Mason though.
Q. What's the one area you think the Packers need to be better to be at a Super Bowl level?
A. There's probably a lot of areas.
Q. There's got to be one thing that's foremost in your mind.
A. I'm sure there is.
Q. You're not going to tell me, are you?
A. No.
Q. What's the biggest regret you have during your tenure?
A. Oh. (Didn't answer).
