Can't quite nail down the premise. You're (correctly) knocking the Gory Years coaches but seem to be matching that to the current management setup. Don't remember either way, but wasn't the problem not organizational structure but bad coaches coaching bad players? Given the heartburn in another thread, want to be clear - I'm curious, not aggressive.
I just pulled this up.
Packers 70s & 80s. It will tell a little of what was happening in the front office, and how it was unsettling. They had football decisions made by non-football people, and people too close to the Packer family to use sound judgment in how they should proceed. Until the BOD brought in Bob Harlan from outside, and an extremely knowledgeable football man, and gave him total control of the football operations, they were toast. Harlan brought in Wolf, who was also knowledgeable, and they went after the best coach they could find out there, that would have a vision for the future, even if it meant tearing down everything they had, and rebuilding it in an image that would work. They needed people like this, to "think outside the box," when it came to Packer history.
When they started putting it together, and rebuilt everything inside the operation with people capable of doing jobs instead of "old buddies from the past" inside the Packer family, they moved forward. Then they embraced the past, by honoring those who had done so much for the Packers in the past. They knew you honored the history, not necessarily the leadership abilities of a guy on the sidelines.
What we've seen happening, with McCarthy, is a bond between his friends from the past, not necessarily because of their football acumen. That's obvious when you see a guy like Zook even having a coaching job. A strong GM would have stepped in, and insured that the people picked for jobs were the best available, not old cronies.
I see a little of that coming down the road right now. If Murphy does hire Fitzgerald, we're talking about the buddy system being in full swing again. We'd also be talking about Fitz bringing in a lot of guys he knows, and those who Murphy would find extremely acceptable. None of it would necessarily mean, and probably wouldn't mean, an overhaul that would rebuild the Packers like happened when Harlan was hired.
Now, going back to the 70s and 80s, most of us realized that the Executive BOD for the Packers were making the decisions. Coaches were hired as GM and coach most of the time, so the BOD could control the football operations instead of making it independent, through someone with football savvy. They were always in control. Dominic Olejniczak was President into the early 80s, and had been for 24 or 25 years. The only time he relinquished any power was to Lombardi, and that was only because it's what Lombardi demanded, and did so, all the way through when he "appointed" Phil Bengtsen his replacement. After that, Dominic took charge again, and controlled it all. The reason Dominic gave Lombardi so much control was because he was the guy that brought Lombardi in, to save the franchise. When Dominic retired, Judge Parins took over. Parins like, Dom, were Packer fans, not really football knowledgeable. The team followed the same path of losing on the field, but both men did a lot to help add on to the stadium, and keep the franchise afloat. If only they had turned football operations over to knowledgeable people, but didn't.
When Harlan was hired, he became the man running all football operations, and he had the skill and knowledge of dealing with it, and knew how to go about building a football knowledgeable group that would operate under a true chain of command. That's gone now, replaced by the same disjointed leadership we saw with Dom and the Judge.
We need a Bob Harlan type President, who has no trouble hiring a GM, letting him do his job, and supporting his effort in getting the best football minds available into Green Bay, even if it means kicking some of the sacred cows we have lurking around the team out. Not once did we hear about Harlan interfering with the Packers, after he hired Wolf to be the GM. We didn't see him circumventing Wolf to go to Holmgren either. We'll see it now, all the time, if Murphy keeps the chain of command like it is now. He needs to either trust Gutey to make good choices, and let him do it, or replace him with someone he trusts. He also needs to take Ball out of the equation. He's the bean counter, not a guy who should be evaluating talent. They can mesh money and talent together after they determine needs, and separate from the football operation itself.
