and SB Nation show some trends that should come as little surprise to anyone who has followed the Green Bay Packers this year. The Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons at Lambeau Field on Sunday Jake Ryan Jersey , winning 34-20 in a game that wasn’t nearly that close.That contest was the team’s first since firing head coach Mike McCarthy and installing Joe Philbin as the interim head coach. That move was the single biggest catalyst for long-term optimism all season, according to our FanPulse confidence index; the win over Atlanta, however, saw the numbers increase only modestly.Whereas last week saw a 23 percent bump in respondents who said they were confident in the direction of the Packers as a whole — increasing from 17 percent to 40 percent after the firing — this week’s increase is much more modest. It’s just a five percent bump this week, as the number now sits at 45% overall.Here’s the graph of the results throughout the season:Meanwhile, the Packers were an option in a question that went out to readers of all of SB Nation’s NFL blogs this week, who were asked which team is the most disappointing franchise in the league this season. While Green Bay did get about a quarter of the votes, they still lagged well behind the leader: the Jacksonville Jaguars.The Jags got a whopping 49% of the vote to the Packers’ 24%, likely driven in large part by the fact that Jacksonville made it to the AFC Championship Game a year ago. The Packers missed the playoffs in 2017 Lance Kendricks Color Rush Jersey , thanks in large part to Aaron Rodgers’ broken collarbone sidelining him for more than half of the season.Still, it would be understandable for Packers fans to vote for their own team here this year. This was still a team that entered the 2018 season with optimism, based at least in part around a new general manager and defensive coordinator. To scuffle to a 5-7-1 record at this point in the year absolutely should be considered a major disappointment.Here are the full numbers from SB Nation’s surveys: Through the ups and downs in the bulk of Mike McCarthy’s tenure as the Green Bay Packers’ head coach, there were a handful of assistant coaches who always stuck around. Winston Moss was one. James Campen another.The third was Joe Whitt, Jr., who was first hired by McCarthy back in 2008 as a defensive quality control coach. Two years later, McCarthy promoted Whitt to cornerbacks coach, and in 2018 he got a new title as defense - pass game coordinator.Now, after one year under that title and with McCarthy gone https://www.thepackersfanshop.com/Davon-House-Jersey , Whitt is also out. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Packers fired him on Friday. This move comes on the same day that new head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that Mike Pettine will return as the team’s defensive coordinator for the 2019 season.Whitt has drawn praise over the years from coaches and players alike for his ability to teach and connect with players. Former Packers corner Charles Woodson, for example, took to Twitter to express his support for Whitt in his sudden search for a new job:Considering the fact that Whitt helped Jaire Alexander to a largely successful rookie season, the move comes as some surprise. However, speculation is roiling that the Packers are trying to scrub the coaching staff of many of McCarthy’s long-time assistants to get more of a fresh start. Beat writer Tom Silverstein, for example, speculated that it may not have been LaFleur’s decision to fire Whitt, implying that it may have been a directive from above. With LaFleur reporting directly to team president Mark Murphy Bryan Bulaga Jersey , it seems plausible that Murphy may be insisting that coaches with career-long ties to McCarthy need to move on.With Whitt now gone, Campen and Joe Philbin are the two remaining Packers assistants who spent lengthy portions of their careers with McCarthy. Both arrived in Green Bay when Mike Sherman was the head coach, but were retained when McCarthy took over in 2006. Campen in particular appears to be a likely candidate to remain, given his excellent work as the Packers’ offensive line coach over the past decade-plus, but Whitt’s departure may suggest that the franchise wants some new blood in the organization. Stay tuned for more updates on the status of the rest of the coaching staff.