In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).
Previous Teams:
AFC East: Dolphins, Bills, Jets, and Patriots
NFC East: Cowboys, Eagles,Giants, and Redskins
AFC North: Steelers
The Packers have as storied a history as any team in pro football. And it starts at the beginning, with Curly Lambeau. The first coach in Green Bay history guided the team to six titles, and while the Packers have an all-time winning percentage of 0.564, it would be just 0.533 if you removed the Lambeau Years. The tradition continued with the great Vince Lombardi, who posted a remarkable 89-29-4 mark as Packers head coach, while leading the team to 5 titles. And Mike Holmgren and Mike McCarthy continued that tradition: not only did they both win Super Bowls, but each coach improved the franchise’s overall winning percentage by 1%, no easy task given the high baseline of Packers head coach.
The full list below:
The quarterback history might be even richer. Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, and Bart Starr all started over 150 games and won over 60% of those contests. The winner here is Favre, due to longevity: even with Rodgers and Starr, all Packers quarterbacks not named Favre have a 0.504 winning percentage since 1950.
That’s because there were some lean years in Green Bay, notably with Lynn Dickey and Tobin Rote. Both players were better than their records, but languished on poor teams.
The Packers have a couple of running backs who are in the Hall of Fame, but it’s Ahman Green who led Green Bay in rushing yards the most number of times since 1950. Also, note the presence of Tobin Rote, who led the Packers in rushing in 18% of his games.
Which players led the Packers in receiving yards in the most games (regular plus postseason) since 1950? James Lofton is in the Hall of Fame, in large part because of what he did with the Packers. He was in Green Bay for 9 years, and led the team in receiving yards in 54% of his games. Two years after he left, the Packers drafted Sterling Sharpe, and he led the team in receiving yards in 60% of his games. The table below shows all players to lead Green Bay in receiving yards in at least 10 games since 1950:
That’s it for the Green Bay version of this series. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.