GREEN BAY, Wis. — Mark Murphy said it on the day he introduced Matt LaFleur as the Green Bay Packers‘ new head coach — that players indicated to him that complacency had become a problem.
All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari offered a glimpse at what the team president may have meant by that.
Bakhtiari, in an interview this week on ESPN Wisconsin radio, acknowledged it was an issue for the Packers.
“The one thing that always rubbed me the wrong way, and I guess it can kind of parallel with complacency, is accountability,” Bakhtiari said in the radio interview. “The one thing that would really grind my gears was guys being late for the plane [leaving for road games] and no one holding those guys accountable or even fining them for being late.
“[Someone should have said], ‘Hey, we’re leaving at 1:30. You’re not there, the door is closed.’ That’s how it needs to be.”
It’s not known if Bakhtiari was part of the player-leadership council that met with Murphy after he fired coach Mike McCarthy and before he conducted the bulk of the interviews to hire McCarthy’s replacement. The only player Murphy identified was quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“I think they wanted somebody that would hold players accountable,” Murphy said during the news conference to introduce LaFleur earlier this month. “And the other thing that [the players] talked a little bit about [was] how they felt a complacency had set in among some players and coaches.
“So in my mind, that was something that, as we went through the process, was kind of in the back of my mind: Is there something we can do that can kind of shake people up so we don’t have the complacency?”
Murphy fired McCarthy with four games left in his 13th season as head coach. The Packers were 4-7-1 at the time and went 2-2 under interim coach Joe Philbin. They missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
“There needs to be that fear of guys across the board that, ‘Hey, your job is consistently judged and based, and you have to perform.’ That’s ‘what have you done for me lately’ … that’s the NFL,” Bakhtiari said.
“I think any time, if complacency is being talked about, that’s one [sign] someone’s been in a place for too long. I’ve always told myself that the day I’m complacent is the day I don’t have a job. So I’m pretty sure if I don’t have a job anymore, I’ve been complacent.”