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Since the 2008 version of the GreenBay Packers just rolled off TT’s assembly line - Thot I’d just get everyone’s feeling about TT’s moves and drafts so far in his tenure.
My take - been compiling over the years -

BEST MOVES
06 Sign FA Pickett
06 Sign FA Woodson
07 Trade 6th for Grant
06 Draft Jennings 2nd rd
07 Draft Crosby 6th rd
06 Sign FA Lee off waivers
07 Sign Bigby as street FA
04 Not resign Rivera

GGOD OR BAD? MOST DEBATED MOVES
About equal being considered bad or good
08 Farve not starter
07 Moss no trade for 4th
05 Wahle not resigned
08 Corey Williams trade (incomplete)
07 drafting Harrell 1st (incomplete)

WORST MOVES
05 FAs Klemm & O’Dwyer, rookies Whittiker & Costin as 2005 Gs.
06 Relying on Rookies College, Spitz, Moll as 2006 Gs.

LESSONS
Do you feel TT has learned anything and adapted or do you feel he is who he is?
IMO the Walker situation shows me something, While TT had a valid basis for his position in not renegotiating, he was overly rigid IMO and also failed to defuse it. But once JW became a cancer it was good that TT traded him. The good that came from this (besides JW sucking) was that TT learned from it and was willing to adapt and modified his strategy. From then on TT has been flexible to give good players more $ even if under contract ala 2 yr ago with Harris. I respect TT for being willing to learn & change.

DRAFT
Too early to grade overall drafts so I don’t. While it is too early to rate most players - I do on basis of quality of contribution to date & NOT potential. There are 2 incompletes.
Starters and reserves are rated on same scale.

2005 - 9 picks /
1 career injury = 2nd-Murphy
4 cut = 3rd-Underwood, 5th-Hawkins,7th- Whittiker = all cut 2nd season / 6th-Costin this
(Pack tried trading Costin & Gazatte reported he will be cut when healthy)
4 still on team
1st - Rodgers – starter = incomplete
2nd - Collins – starter since rookie = B+
6th - Poppinga - starter since 2nd yr = B-
7th – Montgomery - reserve DE = C (ST = B+) Overall = C+

2006 – 12 picks
5 cut= 5th-Rodgers, 5th-Martin, 7th-Tollefson cut as rookies / 7th-Culver & 3rd-Hodge this
7 on team
1st – Hawk - starter since rookie = A-
2nd – Colledge - sorta starter since rookie = C
2nd – Jennings - starter since rookie = A
3rd – Spitz - starter since rookie = B-
5th – Blackmon – reserve CB=C / PR & KR=B-
5th – Moll – emergency starter since rookie = C
6th – Jolly – starter since last yr = B+

2007 – 11 picks
3 cut = 5th-Clowney & 7th-Harris cut as rookies / Wynn this yr. (on PS)
8 on team
1st – Harrell – out of shape & injured twice = incomplete
2nd – Jackson – reserve=C+
3rd – Jones – reserve=A-
3rd - Rouse – reserve=B
4th – Barbre – reserve=C
6th – Hall – starter since rookie = C+
6th – Bishop – reserve = B-
6th – Crosby – starter since rookie = A+

DRAFT SUMMARY
3 years – 32 picks – 13 gone – 2 incomplete (Rodgers & Harrell)
A+ = 1 Crosby(6th)
A = 1 Jennings(2nd)
A- = 2 Hawk(1st), Jones (3rd)
B+ = 2 Collins(2nd), Jolly(6th)
B = 1 Rouse(3rd),
B- = 4 Spitz(3rd), Poppinga(6th), Bishop(6th), Blackmon(5th) (as KR & PR)
C+ = 3 Jackson(2nd), Montgomery(6th), Hall(6th)
C = 3 Barbre(4th), Colledge(2nd), Moll(5th)
F = 13 cut

2008 – 9 picks
1 cut = Swain (on PS)
8 on team
Likely to contribute this year –
2nd-Nelson as KR
4th- Sitton at G

Unlikely to contribute much this year –
2nd-Lee, 2nd-Brohm, 3rd-Finley, 4th-Thompson, 5th-Beno, 7th-Flynn

OVERALL SUMMARY
It’s hard to grade what TT did not do that other GMs might have – like wisely thrifty spending some cash on signing a FA but didn’t. Hutchinson or Faneca would have helped OL for example but who knows? The fact is we are now in excellent cap shape (no small feat) and can be a FA player if he ever does decide to make a move ala 2006.

So far TT has done much more right than wrong. But his ultimate overall grade will be affected by how his 3 first rd picks - Rodgers & Harrell & Hawk pan out. We should know that by end of next (not this) season.

grade to Date = A-/B+
overall grade = incomplete

What do you guys think?

Well, he was executive of the year and took one of the least talented teams and brought them to 13-3. I'd say that makes him one of the very best in the NFL and I'm glad we have him.

This is I evaluate it, instead of analyzing all of the individual moves under a microscope:

4-12, aging, capped out turned into 13-3, young, cap healthy, in two seasons.

Has he made some errors? Yep. Have the good moves outweighed the errors? Yep. Was he voted Exec of the Year by his peers? Yep.

I believe in building through the draft, keeping young players, not over paying aging vets and making tough decisions on players in general....I am down with the Ron Wolf way of building a team and I think TT has been the closest to that. I am also extremely anti-Sherman..........he was a failure in his way of creating a winner, TT is the opposite of Sherman.

He may have won exec of yr for ONE yr - while noteworthy - what will be real is consistent success.

To that end - in next two years TT will probably have to replace - KGB, Harris, tausher, Clifton & woodson as well as any unexpected injured player that odds are will happen over 2 seasons. That and how well Rodgers, Harrell and next year's first perform - will tell how good we continue to be and how good TT is.

What do first round picks have to do with anything? Wolf was O for a decade and he put together the winningest team over a 15 year period. So long as Thompson manages to unearth gems elsewhere it doesn't matter.

Besides, as of right now Hawk looks to be a player. He's not Brian Urlacher, but check out that heralded 2006 draft. Mario Williams is the only guy I'd clearly rather have out of everyone in that top ten. Rodgers has obvious talent and I think he's going to prove to be the best QB from that 2005 first
round.

Even if Harrell never plays a down, he's still found two good ones in the first thus far.

TT is just Fine. He has great people around him, and all the doubters will see....
Take a look at NBA Blazers... similar, young team new leaders, excellent coaching, up & coming. Be patient. GO PACK, GO BLAZERS...

xTitan wrote:I believe in building through the draft, keeping young players, not over paying aging vets and making tough decisions on players in general....I am down with the Ron Wolf way of building a team and I think TT has been the closest to that. I am also extremely anti-Sherman..........he was a failure in his way of creating a winner, TT is the opposite of Sherman.

I don't really see Thompson and Wolf being that similar. Wolf acquired a good number of quality players via the draft over his years as GM, but big trades and a number of high priced and quality free agent signings were vital in those 95/96/97 teams. The biggest key to their top defenses were the front four and Wolf bought 3/4 of it in White, Santana, and Jones.



As for Ted, when i evaluate a GM in any pro sports, i don't really care that much about philosophy in how they go about building a team, there is more than one way to build a winner.

At times i have issues with Thompson, but in the end, the team won 13 games last year, looks to be talented again, is young, and in good shape going forward. Unless the team surprisingly takes a big nosedive this year, it would be hard for me to complain about his overall performance as GM.

The key is long term sustained success not one year of success. I don't expect 13 wins again this year but not winning a weak division would be a big step backwards. But I do expect to win the division this year. We still have a lot of talent, most of it pretty young.

Well, the way to look at GM's in the NFL is how they set the team up for both the present AND the future. There are several teams that conduct the "all the eggs in one basket" approach, such as the New York Jets right now, blowing all of their available cap room on players to win right now. If it doesn't work, they have a pretty significant rebuilding process.

When I look at our two-deep across the board, I see youth and I see talent, which to me means success for an extended period. Currently, we only have 5 starters over 30 years old (Driver, Clifton, Tauscher, Woodson, Harris), and all of the rest are 28 or younger. We have cap room available to both sign our own guys to longer deal and maybe make a FA splash next year. I know people complain about TT in FA, but if it's an impact guy, he will make the signing (Woodson, Pickett).

I'm just simply not worried about TT.

Last year we were the youngest team in the league and won 13 games. Everyone but the QB and punter are back. The young guys all have a year more experience. We have Grant for the full season instead of half a season. Sure there will be some injuries, as there are every year. There is no reason we shouldn't win the division this year.

MickeyDavis wrote:Last year we were the youngest team in the league and won 13 games. Everyone but the QB and punter are back. The young guys all have a year more experience. We have Grant for the full season instead of half a season. Sure there will be some injuries, as there are every year. There is no reason we shouldn't win the division this year.

If injuries, schedule, improvements made to other teams, the weather, blown calls, dropped balls, leap year, the presidential election and miley cyrus are taken out of the equation, then yes, I agree with you. There is no reason we shouldn't win the division this year.

Good to get back to the board.

The evaluation of TT will be based on one thing and that will be winning a Super Bowl.

Mike Sherman had "success" for an extended period of time and I consider him one of the worst GM ever. But take a look at his record. He never had a losing season as GM. He was 12-4, 12-4, 10-6, and 10-6.

So I don't think record will determine how successful TT is. He needs to win a Super Bowl to be considered successful.

Matt Millen? Is that you?

From his bio:

For Lions President and CEO Matt Millen, success in the National Football League is simple: "The team that wins the Super Bowl is successful and the other 31 teams are not."

Injuries and blown calls are a part of every season. It appears as if some are hedging a bit, trying to lower expectations. As I said above I don't expect 13-3 again but anything less than a division title is a step backward no matter how it's spun.

I hope Matt Millen stays in our division for many many years

randy84 wrote:Good to get back to the board.

The evaluation of TT will be based on one thing and that will be winning a Super Bowl.

Mike Sherman had "success" for an extended period of time and I consider him one of the worst GM ever. But take a look at his record. He never had a losing season as GM. He was 12-4, 12-4, 10-6, and 10-6.

So I don't think record will determine how successful TT is. He needs to win a Super Bowl to be considered successful.

Hogwash.

MickeyDavis wrote:Injuries and blown calls are a part of every season. It appears as if some are hedging a bit, trying to lower expectations. As I said above I don't expect 13-3 again but anything less than a division title is a step backward no matter how it's spun.

I think the Vikings could be very, very good this season and the Packers will have to win some games they shouldn't in order to win the division. I expect the playoffs because the East teams should beat up on themselves, but the division to me is a toss-up.

I have the Packers and Vikings both at 10-6. I think it's pretty much a pick em with those two teams. Getting Allen and Berrian were both pretty big for the Vikings, IMO, even though Berrian is not a legit #1.

It will be interesting to see if the 2007 Vikings (8-8) + Allen + Berrian > 2007 Packers (13-3) - Favre + Rodgers

I'm glad to season starts tonight, I'm ready for some football.