Good stuff here from Mike Lombardi regarding McCarthy's defensive coordinator search:

First, McCarthy decided he wanted to be a 3-4 team, and he started out looking for the right 3-4 man to run his defense.  Right or wrong, McCarthy has a plan and knows what he wants; for that fundamental belief, he deserves credit.  He has talked to many coaches, but the reality is that he never got to the point of offering the job to anyone.  He followed the carpenter’s rule: measure twice, cut once.  He took his time, and do not confuse taking time for not knowing what he wanted.  At first, I believe McCarthy’s dream scenario was to hire his good friend Greg Manusky, the defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers.  Nevertheless, NFL rules prevented him from getting the chance to make that move.  Manusky is under contract to the 49ers, and the 49ers would’ve had to give permission for the right to interview, which they clearly did not want to do. Once he was unable to get Manusky, which I’m sure McCarthy knew was a longshot, he went about interviewing all the other candidates and learning from their presentations if they could convince him they should be the Packers’ DC.  However, what Mike did well was not buying into the perception or the names of the people. He knew what he wanted, and he made sure he got the desired results.  I hear he reviewed all possible candidates and did a complete analysis of them.  Often times, a coach will settle for a name or a person — and three months later feel like he made a mistake.  I admire what McCarthy did, not backing off his beliefs and searching until he found the person who met his expectations.