Thompson gaffes contribute to down year

eagle13 · Post #1 » by **eagle13** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:25 am

That is Mike Vandermause's words & headline - Not mine.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/art ... NTCAROUSEL

Also TT interview in Journal - http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/37391209.html

TT refuses to answer tough question on Gonzales. Is indirect & avoids question on White cut for Lansanah. Good questions. Many lame answers.

Post #2 » by **MickeyDavis** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:40 am

I agree, many lame answers. This is a make or break year for him. We've missed the playoffs 3 out of his 4 years. If it's 4 out of 5 it's time for a new GM.

Post #3 » by **paulpressey25** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:23 am

He's got cap room, draft choices and what appears to be a really good QB and receiving core.

I'll give him this season and let's see how his new acquisitions and the 2007/08 draft classes pan out. But agreed if a year from now we are looking at a bad year with no player development, it would be time to consider a move.

bucks59 · Post #4 » by **bucks59** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:35 am

I am a huge TT supporter but if the Packers don't make the playoffs, he has to be fired. Its especially troubling given how week the division has been the last several years. He has done a great job, but I agree with MD, next year is critical.

Post #5 » by **humanrefutation** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:13 am

Lame answers, and he had to bring up Sabathia. Does TT know he doesn't play for the Brewers any more? Talk about pouring salt in the wound.

El Duderino · Post #6 » by **El Duderino** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:23 am

MickeyDavis wrote:I agree, many lame answers.

What's the point in Silverstein even doing that interview with Thompson and i'm being serious? Does Ted pretty have to do the year in review interview? Whether someone is a big Thompson backer, hater, or on the fence, was Silverstein really expecting to get anything informative or even interesting from a Thompson interview?

When it comes to these interviews with either head coaches or GM's of pro sports teams, some of these guy like to talk and thus are interesting reads for the fans and others are more tight lipped and less interesting reads. Thompson interviews are about as informative and interesting as vacuuming the house.

I personally don't care much at all whether a GM like say Ron Wolf was often an interesting read with many great quotes over the years or a bowl of bland rice like Ted, all i care about is winning. That said, it's pretty pointless doing these long interviews with Thompson or complaining that he said nothing in them because he never says anything in any interview he's ever had. He could trade for Adrian Peterson and all he'd say was, yea we kinda like the guy and think he's a good player. It's who he is and not gonna change.

Post #7 » by **ReasonablySober** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:25 pm

Agreed. My first reaction was to the above comments was, "Uh, what did you expect?".

However, if you guys get the chance, listen to Ken Whisenhunt today (or anytime) in his interviews. I'm fairly certain he'll be on Jim Rome. You want to talk about the best interview in sports, he's it.

eagle13 · Post #8 » by **eagle13** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:40 pm

DrugBust wrote:Agreed. My first reaction was to the above comments was, "Uh, what did you expect?".

However, if you guys get the chance, listen to Ken Whisenhunt today (or anytime) in his interviews. I'm fairly certain he'll be on Jim Rome. You want to talk about the best interview in sports, he's it.

Your right. Can't expect much from TT.
Article from Gazette on TT's screw ups is more interesting.

Post #9 » by **ReasonablySober** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:08 pm

Merling did nothing this season and lost his starting job to Vonnie Holliday after the second week. Kenny Phillips couldn't unseat second year free safety Michael Johnson, a seventh rounder a year ago.

It's not as if those two are lighting the world on fire.

The Jon Ryan thing and Tracy White being released were his two biggest mistakes.

eagle13 · Post #10 » by **eagle13** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:24 am

DrugBust wrote:The Jon Ryan thing and Tracy White being released were his two biggest mistakes.

I agree they were big. I'd rank them TT's 4th & 5th biggest mistakes.
Together they adversely affected special team performance that fell alot.

But it was on the defense where his 3 costliest mis-judgements occurred...
Counting on Harrell to be a significant contributor was his biggest error in judgement.
His lack of anticipation / preparation for a fall in KGB's performance was his 2nd worst.
His failure to replace Cory Williams interior pass rush was his 3rd worst.
Together they adversely affected defensive line & the overall unit's performance fell.

Post #11 » by **ReasonablySober** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:06 am

He did prepare for KGB. He drafted Thompson, who was looking good before going down with a season ending injury. Jenkins was there to provide interior pass rush, until he went down with a season ending injury. As for Harrell, another guy that was done in by injuries.

dedned · Post #12 » by **dedned** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:31 am

If he truely prepared for KGB he would have been cut before the season started.

Post #13 » by **ReasonablySober** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:35 am

dedned wrote:If he truely prepared for KGB he would have been cut before the season started.

Cut a guy that had 9.5 sacks last season? That would have been tops on the Packers this season.

Whatever, guys.

El Duderino · Post #14 » by **El Duderino** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:11 am

DrugBust wrote:He did prepare for KGB. He drafted Thompson, who was looking good before going down with a season ending injury. Jenkins was there to provide interior pass rush, until he went down with a season ending injury. As for Harrell, another guy that was done in by injuries.

Thompson did look a little better after getting more snaps and i hope i'm wrong, but i don't ever see him being a very skilled pass rusher. Even if he surprises me by developing into a quality pass rusher, there was little reason to think he'd be ready to provide that as a rookie. Ted waited to long to address depth and the development of a younger end.

As for Jenkins being able to provide some interior pass rush, i agree he'd have helped some on sure fire passing downs. My two problems there though are that teams in todays NFL pass all the time on first down, on downs like say 2nd 4-5-6, or 3rd and short where Jenkins would still me mostly playing DE, thus we'd have still been stuck with zero interior pressure. Besides that, Ted was also leaving himself dangerously thin if anything happened to Jenkins, nothing behind him at end or at DT to provide any interior pressure in any situation.

Post #15 » by **Wade-A-Holic** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:24 am

DrugBust wrote:Cut a guy that had 9.5 sacks last season? That would have been tops on the Packers this season.

Whatever, guys.

Exactly. I didn't agree with all of Thompson's moves. Nobody EVER agrees with every move a GM makes, but we went into this season with virtually the same defense as last season and reasons to be optimistic (ie Bigby's play in the playoffs, Bob Sanders said he was going to blitz more to prevent our front 4 from wearing down) and we got hit with the injury bug and a defensive coordinator who was too vanilla and stupid to even run a stunt, let alone blitz when we needed to.

I agree that this year is critical for Thompson, but I think he's a strong GM who gets torn to shreds unfairly by Packer fans who were spoiled by our success in the 90''s.

Rockmaninoff · Post #16 » by **Rockmaninoff** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:36 pm

I like how Thompson says 'that he won't use injuries as an excuse', but than uses injuries as an excuse for AJ Hawk's plateau. Then when he says 'it's about relationships and finding good people', but then he cuts veteran leader Tracy White and calls it a roster move they felt they had to make at the time. Then when he talks about how they were an 'older team and more experienced team actually this year', when the Packers were the youngest roster in the NFL for the 3rd consecutive season. All of his ideals seem relative to the situation. Everything can be spun to suit the mood. I don't know what to think?

I like how he prefers his fan interactions to occur in airports. Makes for a quick getaway. Just kidding, folks.

Hopefully, he'll figure out this offseason some of the answers to the multiply questions he refused to comment on. Time is tight for ol' TTBoy.

eagle13 · Post #17 » by **eagle13** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:03 pm

DrugBust wrote:He did prepare for KGB. He drafted Thompson, who was looking good before going down with a season ending injury. Jenkins was there to provide interior pass rush, until he went down with a season ending injury. As for Harrell, another guy that was done in by injuries.

Yes Harrell was done in by injuries as he was the TWO CONSECUTIVE years before. And you count on a guy who has that kind of injury history? To me that is a major red flag. Apparently you would have done the same thing as TT and had the same terrible result. Big mistake imo.

Jenkins was an interior pass rusher WITH Williams the year before giving the Pack TWO interior pass rushers. So Jenkins cannot be called a replacement for williams. There was no replacement and only 1 interior pass rusher. Big mistake. What if Jenkins gets hurt? He did.

KGB was aging AND had a serious injury that required significant surgery. To me age + serious injury = major red flag! Hell some guys' play suddenly falls off just from age without injury. Thompson - a 4th rd pick being counted on as replacement for KGB as a rookie?

All I can say is the results speak for themselves. The DL play sucked and everyone can see it was due to a lack of personnel.

Dude, I and a few others saw this before the season began and expressed concern. I raised the flag even before last season' draft when Cory was traded. To be clear I was OK w/ Williams being moved but I said we needed a solid replacement. Also said maybe Harrell will still develop but we can't count on him. Well what happened? Its NOT about Williams - its about getting no replacement and counting on Harrell.

But you disagree and I don't expect you to change. Thats OK. Going forward...

And here we are again.

For the record...If I am TT this is what I see going into this off season...

1. I am fine with giving Harrell more opportunity but we cannot count on him. We must have adequate personnel to get the job done without him regardless if he's healthy or not.
2. We need an interior pass rusher BESIDES Jenkins.
3. We cannot count on Jenkins to be effectiive pass rusher early in the season. Its going to take some time to recover from injury and get the rust off. I expect he'll be OK against run.
4. We can not count on "growth from within" on the DL b/c there is very little talent to develop.
4a. I am fine with JThompson being counted on as #4 DE - NOT as #3 or as a pass rusher.
4b. We cannot count on Montgommery.
4c. We cannot count on Hunter.
5. We must obtain AT LEAST 2 DL by any combination of FIRST day picks OR FA OR trade(s).

Do you or anyone agree or disagree with any of those points 1-5?

Post #18 » by **ReasonablySober** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:07 pm

Agree to disagree. Nobody is changing minds on this forum. When four guys you're counting on playing big roles on the defensive line go down for the season it's tough to rebound.

eagle13 · Post #19 » by **eagle13** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:37 pm

DrugBust wrote:Agree to disagree. Nobody is changing minds on this forum. When four guys you're counting on playing big roles on the defensive line go down for the season it's tough to rebound.

Jenkins, KGB, & Harrell. Who was 4th?

eagle13 · Post #20 » by **eagle13** » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:40 pm

DrugBust wrote:Agree to disagree. Nobody is changing minds on this forum. When four guys you're counting on playing big roles on the defensive line go down for the season it's tough to rebound.

What about my 5 going forward points? You agree or not? Step up and put up your position in advance.