PALM BEACH, Fla. -- On Tuesday, the place to be was Bill Belichick's table. (It was standing room only around the New England Patriots coach, who swears there'll be no more SpyGate evidence.)

On Wednesday, only The Breakers' staffer replenishing the pan of bacon at the buffet table was more popular than Tom Coughlin. (The New York Giants did spring a giant upset of the previously undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, you know.)

Yes, you can tell a lot about a coach's Q rating at the annual AFC and NFC breakfasts at the NFL meetings. And apparently, despite the Green Bay Packers' 13-3 record last season, their berth in the NFC Championship Game and the forthcoming changing-of-the-guard at quarterback -- from recently retired future Hall of Famer Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers -- coach Mike McCarthy still hasn't advanced too far up the attention food-chain.

For his hour-long chitchat with reporters, McCarthy's gathering consisted of three Wisconsin reporters, two Steelers writers from McCarthy's native Pittsburgh who came by for a few minutes and assorted folks who dropped in to ask the occasional survey question. That was it.

"I don't have a problem with it," McCarthy said, chuckling. "I hadn't really noticed."

While McCarthy drank his coffee, he addressed a wide variety of topics. Among them:

If Favre might un-retire: "Time will tell. I don't think so. He's content with his decision. When I talked to him, he'd just gotten off a bulldozer moving trees. He definitely doesn't miss the offseason program. I think he'll feel it about September when opening day starts. That's when you have to worry about it. For 17 years in a row, his fall has always been around football."

Favre not filing his retirement papers yet: "I talked to Brett the other day. He even made a joke about it, 'Do you guys need that cap room?' I said, 'I think we're OK.' He goes, 'I have to file those papers.' And I said, 'Yeah, it's not really for time. I don't know what the severance pay is, but hell, after 17 years I think you'd have a pretty good nugget coming.' So, we kind of laughed about it.''

What Favre's been doing: "I know he went to Disney World last week. They've been doing things with the family. I talked to him last week a couple times. He's doing good. He's just doing some things around the property."

Favre's nameplate still being above his locker: "What are you going to do with it? You can't put anybody in it. ... Would you want that locker? You've got to be kidding me."

What about Favre he'll miss most: "I'd say more Sundays because he was a pain in the (expletive) Wednesday through Friday. Nah, I'm just kidding. I'll miss the football conversations. He's one of the guys, like most good players, you can talk Xs and Os with him 24/7."

Life after Favre: "This is definitely going to be different for the Green Bay Packers because of the obvious: the quarterback is not No. 4. I'm excited on a personal level for Aaron Rodgers, but I'm excited like every year. ... We feel like we 've been planning for this. Personally I thought we were a year away from life after Brett, but we're prepared for this."

Whether the offense is different with Rodgers: "I think our offense will be very similar to last year's approach. When you look at the quarterbacks, both of them can make any throw in the book. I think Aaron has a top-level arm in the NFL. There's not a throw that I would not be comfortable with him making." (McCarthy also said Rodgers will have as many run-pass options at the line of scrimmage as Favre did.)

An area of the passing offense he 'd like to explore more: The thing that was a constant conversation with Brett and I was more movement passes. There's reason to do more of that. ... Aaron's extremely athletic. I've said this before, I did not evaluate him properly in the movement phase of quarterback play when he came out of college. I did not see the athletic ability at Cal-Berkeley that I've been able to witness since we've worked together since my arrival here."

Cornerback Charles Woodson, who rarely has been in Green Bay the last two offseasons: "Charles is doing great. He's been in Green Bay a bunch. I walked through the training room a number of times and he's been in there, he's been working out. Physically I know he's doing very well. (Team physician Pat) McKenzie says he's totally recovered from his injuries and said he looks great."

Cornerback Al Harris' play against Plaxico Burress in the NFC title game: "The thing with Al in the NFC Championship Game, those are things you can fix. ... He's played at a very high level. That's his game. I think Al Harris has a lot of football left in him. He went to the Pro Bowl for a reason. I'm glad he's on our team."

The competition between newly signed Brandon Chillar and incumbent Brady Poppinga at strongside linebacker: "I'm very happy with the way Brady Poppinga has progressed. (In) Chillar, here was an opportunity to add another very good football player. Coaches are guilty of (this), and I've been guilty of it myself, you have a guy come down the pipe and you (think), 'Well, we can't take him, we don't want to upset the applecart with Brady.' That's not what it's all about.

It's acquiring as many good football players as possible, and that's what we did with Brandon Chillar. I have never coached on a team where you say, 'Holy Mackerel, take him back, I've got too many good football players.' I mean, if you have an opportunity to sign a Brandon Chillar to your football team, why in the heck wouldn't you sign him?"

The guard situation, where Jason Spitz (right) and Daryn Colledge (left) finished the year as starters: "We need to continue to find that continuity. We'll continue to be competitive as far as how we line those guys up. We need to do a better job inside in the running game." (Second-year guard Allen Barbre "will be competing" for a starting job, while Spitz was "probably the most consistent of the inside players.")

His friend, Tom Crean, leaving Marquette for Indiana: "I know it was a very hard decision for him. It was emotional for him. Tom's a good friend of mine, and we talked during the process. Obviously I wished him the best."

If last season was gratifying: "It was refreshing to see a number of our young guys mature as fast as they did. ... I look at it as a year of tremendous progress.

"Not reaching Super Bowl XLII: "I don't dwell on it, but (general manager) Ted Thompson (and I) talked a number of times (about how) we felt we were on a collision course with the Patriots. We played them the year before and they embarrassed us at home, so we would have liked to have had that opportunity."

How he doesn't sleep at the office: "I've changed over the years. I've slept at the office, I've done all those things. I think it's counterproductive. ... If you're there all night grinding on your scheme or whatever you're doing, in my opinion you have a serious time management issue. How many hours did we work? I don't know. I don't count them anymore. But we get there early and we don't go home until the work's done. If we 're staying there until 1 or 2 in the morning, our time management is poor or we're doing too much. It's as simple as that."

Not signing many free agents: "You're going to get tired of hearing it, (but improvement) is going to come from within. ... I had the conversation with Brett Favre last year. He was like, 'How are we going to get better?' I said, 'The only thing I can promise you is that we're going to be better than we were last year.' ... I feel very strongly about that because we have youth on our side, (and) we proved that last year. Now we need to do that again this year."

Getting over the loss to the Giants: "It bothered me. There's no question about that. It still bothers you when you see a highlight or something like that. It's definitely an experience we need to learn from as a football team because you're only given so many opportunities -- especially in this business. That was an excellent opportunity for our football team and we didn't take advantage of it."