Anti-Dynasty #47: 1973-80 Green Bay Packers

Peak Anti-Dynasty Points: 33
Record: 42-72-4 (.373)
Average DVOA: -14.2%
Bottom-Five DVOA: -20.5%
Three last-place finishes in the NFC Central
Head Coaches: Dan Devine, Bart Starr
Key Players: RB John Brockington, RB Barty Smith, WR James Lofton, TE Rich McGeorge, G Gale Gillingham, C Larry McCarren, CB Willie Buchanon, CB Ken Ellis, S Johnny Gray, S Steve Luke, K Chester Marcol
Z-Score: -4.86

The dynasty project has the Packers all over it, with five separate teams from five different decades. Heck, they’ve even got two teams in the top 10! No other franchise in NFL history had had as much success, and as much distributed success, as the Packers. Almost everyone, no matter their age, can remember a classic Packers team while they were growing up. Green Bay simply has had an unparalleled record of success.

And that makes the generation between Vince Lombardi's Packers and Mike Holmgren's Packers so interesting; it's this massive gap in the history of Titletown USA. The Packers had experienced periods of failure before—astute readers will note that they had two teams on our initial list—but this is their only slump in the modern era, with only four winning seasons in 24 years. The 1980s Packers just thrived in mediocrity, going 8-8 four times and generally being forgettable. The 1970s Packers were certainly not that.

Dan Devine was the first Green Bay coach to follow Vince Lombardi and his disciples, and he had some immediate success in the early 1970s. Green Bay reached the 1972 postseason, which may have ended up doing more harm than good. See, Devine's Packers lost to Washington in a very particular way. With no passing game to speak of, Washington just loaded the box and shut down 1,000-yard rusher John Brockington entirely—he had just 9 yards. That loss really ate away at Devine, and when the quarterback platoon of Scott Hunter and Jerry Tagge did nothing of note in 1973, Devine made his move, trading two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a third-round pick to the Rams for quarterback John Hadl.

OK, a couple things…

First, Hadl wasn't the Packers' first choice. They wanted Archie Manning, who had just been benched in New Orleans. An injury to Bobby Scott forced Manning back into the lineup for the Saints, and the Packers panicked a little before settling on Hadl. Manning made the Pro Bowl multiple times in the late 1970s; seeing him go to Green Bay would have been fascinating.

Secondly, Hadl was beyond washed up. While Hadl is historically underrated, he was 34 years old in 1974 and was dealing with a dead arm. Hadl was later quoted as saying he "didn't think anyone would be that desperate" to trade for him, especially not for such value. Hadl had even thrown two interceptions against the Packers eight days before the trade. I suppose his 59 passing yards looked fantastic compared to Tagge's 17 in that game, but still. This was the run-first 1970s; if there was ever a time to devalue the passing game, this was it.

Hadl played just a year and a half for the Packers and had basically nothing left; he threw 21 interceptions in 1975. Not that Devine cared—he left after the 1974 season to take the Notre Dame job, meaning he never had to deal with the results of the trade. His replacement was Bart Starr, a beloved legend and a throwback to the Lombardi days, but someone by his own admission entirely unprepared to be a professional coach. By the end of the 1970s, the Rams had turned the Hadl trade into a mini-dynasty of their own, while the Packers were the laughingstock of the league, somewhere teams could threaten to trade players in order to enforce good behavior. Moral of the story: don't sell the future over the promise of a quick fix. Or, if you do, at least have an escape plan back to the college ranks.