What now?

Now that Jim Bates is gone, what are the Packers going to do? I was really hoping the Packers and Bates could work something out. The defenese was responding to Bates and you could see it on the field. With Bates gone now, some of the canidates to take over are Dom Capers, Rick Venturi, Ted Cottrell, Winston Moss, and Donnie Henderson, Dave McGinnis, Rod Marinelli, Dick Jauron, Steve Spagnuolo, Jerry Gray, Joe Vitt, Vic Fangio, Emmitt Thomas and Bob Sanders. Some you may reconize and some you may not. Out of this group I would have to say Donnie Henderson would be my pick. He seemed to do well teamed with Kansas City new Head Coach, Herm Edwards in N.Y. Bob Sanders would probably be my second choice because I think he would keep the defenese philosophy very close to the way Jim Bates ran it. Out of that list I would put a big fat reject stamp on would be Dick Jauron and Emmitt Thomas. Whoever Teddy Thompson (McCarthy) hires better be good. Thompson's moves are changing the make up of the team more than I think anybody expected. There hasn't been much change in Green Bay since Holmgren was hired and now we are seeing a transition. It could be good but that remains to be seen and Thompson will and should be the one we praise if it goes well. On the other hand, he should also be the goat if his plan doesn't succeed. I hope there will be a lot of praising going on, starting next season.