TT's biggest mistakes?

[HKPackFan]

I remember that draft. My friend in Miami asked me who I wanted the Packers to pick in the first round. I said we need help now, Favre's window is closing in the next 2-3 years, ANYTHING BUT A QUARTERBACK!!!


And we drafted Rodgers.



And then the next day my friend was like...Well??? And I had a smile saying..."OK, I take it back, I didn't think someone like that would still be around."


I do agree Rodgers looked terrible the first preseason....somewhat terrible the 2nd preseason, and decent the 3rd. We were used to good QB backups so seeing Rodgers initially was awful.

Again, it all worked out at the end. TT made the right move, but there was extreme pressure to get help NOW.

[RRyder823]

Drafting Rodgers with the 24th pick was hardly a risk. He could have gone #1.

I like TT now, has done a great job. His ability to see talent in the draft is elite. But if Rodgers isn't gift wrapped to him, he's an above average GM at best, and we have no Super Bowl.

If we hadn't gotten Rodgers, we very likely would have gone after another high value QB at some point between then and now. It's not as if Thompson doesn't understand the importance of the position. It's impossible to say if that would have worked out or not, of course, but we shouldn't pretend that not drafting Rodgers means we'd have the same team minus Rodgers.

Brian Brohm, lol.
TT walked right into the Rodgers pick. Favre was 35 at the time. The team definitely had other needs that were more important, so I guess you could say that TT did take a risk by planning for the future.
Anyway you slice it, it was the most important thing that TT has done. I'm thrilled that TT went out and drafted 3 receivers this year. He has done the biggest thing Wolf failed at, giving Rodgers weapons to throw to.

In no way did he walk into the Rodgers pick.... Yes a QB that could've potentially went #1 that year fell to them at #24 but people say that TT got lucked into Rodgers or he was gift wrapped for him need to really look at the draft a little closer then just "Oh he was a top rated guy that fell". 23 other teams passed on Rodgers..... No other teams traded up to draft when it started looking like TT might have interest.... But yet some will still argue that TT had an elite QB gift wrapped to him.

Not saying your saying the same but it's stupid logic and that people will fail to bring up when similar players fall to every single team in the league every year in the draft. It just doesn't mean the 1st round... Hell even just last year Eddie Lacey was viewed by a lot of people to be a 1st round pick.... Does that mean that he was gift wrapped to TT and the Packers because he fell all the way to us at the bottom of the 2nd??? It's the same basic logic that leads some to believe we lucked into Rodgers but somehow apparently we did with Lacey. I just don't agree with that logic. Players fall in the draft all the time and just cause they fall doesn't mean they were "lucked" into it just mean that our GM was smart enough to take the chance and draft them.

And I do know that Wolf has been stated as saying he wished he would of givin Favre more weapons to throw to but in retrospect he did do a pretty good job at it over the years and in can be overblown a bit. Brooks, Freeman, Chumera, Keith Jackson, Rison (if only for half a season) Beebe, and Bubba are just the ones I'm coming up with off the top of my head and the only non pro bowl level player out of that group is Beebe Not to mention Dorsey Levens, Edgar Bennet and Ahman Green to go along with a pretty damn good O line. Injuries slowed down Brooks and Freeman pretty quick but Favre did have talent around him

[HKPackFan]

If we hadn't gotten Rodgers, we very likely would have gone after another high value QB at some point between then and now. It's not as if Thompson doesn't understand the importance of the position. It's impossible to say if that would have worked out or not, of course, but we shouldn't pretend that not drafting Rodgers means we'd have the same team minus Rodgers.

Brian Brohm, lol.
TT walked right into the Rodgers pick. Favre was 35 at the time. The team definitely had other needs that were more important, so I guess you could say that TT did take a risk by planning for the future.
Anyway you slice it, it was the most important thing that TT has done. I'm thrilled that TT went out and drafted 3 receivers this year. He has done the biggest thing Wolf failed at, giving Rodgers weapons to throw to.

In no way did he walk into the Rodgers pick.... Yes a QB that could've potentially went #1 that year fell to them at #24 but people say that TT got lucked into Rodgers or he was gift wrapped for him need to really look at the draft a little closer then just "Oh he was a top rated guy that fell". 23 other teams passed on Rodgers..... No other teams traded up to draft when it started looking like TT might have interest.... But yet some will still argue that TT had an elite QB gift wrapped to him.

Not saying your saying the same but it's stupid logic and that people will fail to bring up when similar players fall to every single team in the league every year in the draft. It just doesn't mean the 1st round... Hell even just last year Eddie Lacey was viewed by a lot of people to be a 1st round pick.... Does that mean that he was gift wrapped to TT and the Packers because he fell all the way to us at the bottom of the 2nd??? It's the same basic logic that leads some to believe we lucked into Rodgers but somehow apparently we did with Lacey. I just don't agree with that logic. Players fall in the draft all the time and just cause they fall doesn't mean they were "lucked" into it just mean that our GM was smart enough to take the chance and draft them.

And I do know that Wolf has been stated as saying he wished he would of givin Favre more weapons to throw to but in retrospect he did do a pretty good job at it over the years and in can be overblown a bit. Brooks, Freeman, Chumera, Keith Jackson, Rison (if only for half a season) Beebe, and Bubba are just the ones I'm coming up with off the top of my head and the only non pro bowl level player out of that group is Beebe Not to mention Dorsey Levens, Edgar Bennet and Ahman Green to go along with a pretty damn good O line. Injuries slowed down Brooks and Freeman pretty quick but Favre did have talent around him

I agree you need to give credit for jumping on guys who are falling in the draft. Other people are ignoring them, but someone takes the risk and grabs them. TT deserves all the credit for it.

I also agree during the Favre glory years he had plenty of talent with him, but it was the backside of his career he didn't have enough help maybe not until almost the end..

There was a time I think it was maybe 2000 to 2003 where we were short on good receivers. I can't recall the exact years, but there was a period where we trotted out Billy Schroeder and Corey Bradford as our dynamic duo. Any time Billy Schroeder is the leading receiver in your WR corps, your WR corps suck.

I think that lead us to drafting Robert Ferguson and Javon Walker. Walker took 1-2 years to develop, I think we finally got 1 or 2 good seasons out of walker before that fell apart, and Ferguson never developed. I remember derrick mayes, but that was actually during the glory years, so that doesn't count.

There was a definite lack of talent in the WR dept during those middle years after the SuperBowl days.

[emunney]

Pretty crazy that 5 of last year's draft picks are in line to start this year. TT was due. Hopefully this year's draft has a similar yield. Unfortunately, I don't think the early returns have been nearly as strong. The pass catchers look good, though.

[HKPackFan]

Pretty crazy that 5 of last year's draft picks are in line to start this year. TT was due. Hopefully this year's draft has a similar yield. Unfortunately, I don't think the early returns have been nearly as strong. The pass catchers look good, though.

Wasn't it wolf who said 4 diamonds from a draft was a successful draft? Or something like that.

TT seems to have nailed it in 2013, even Charles Johnson seems to be turning it on in Cleveland. That's a lot of hits in one draft.


2012 all that's left is Hayward and Daniels, if those two can take their game to the next level and Nick Perry can stay healthy and improve, that kind of salvages that draft.

This article points out 2011 and 2012 were not good drafts for us (actually shows us worst ranked in terms of draft retention those 2 years):

http://espn.go.com/blog/green-bay-packe ... fall-short


Man 2011 was awful. Randall Cobb, Sherrod, davon House, Ryan taylor? That's all that's left? Taylor might not make the team, house is only a backup DB, Sherrod...Who knows.. Only Cobb is important and he could be gone as a Free Agent next year.

[stillgotgame]

Brian Brohm, lol.
TT walked right into the Rodgers pick. Favre was 35 at the time. The team definitely had other needs that were more important, so I guess you could say that TT did take a risk by planning for the future.
Anyway you slice it, it was the most important thing that TT has done. I'm thrilled that TT went out and drafted 3 receivers this year. He has done the biggest thing Wolf failed at, giving Rodgers weapons to throw to.

In no way did he walk into the Rodgers pick.... Yes a QB that could've potentially went #1 that year fell to them at #24 but people say that TT got lucked into Rodgers or he was gift wrapped for him need to really look at the draft a little closer then just "Oh he was a top rated guy that fell". 23 other teams passed on Rodgers..... No other teams traded up to draft when it started looking like TT might have interest.... But yet some will still argue that TT had an elite QB gift wrapped to him.

Not saying your saying the same but it's stupid logic and that people will fail to bring up when similar players fall to every single team in the league every year in the draft. It just doesn't mean the 1st round... Hell even just last year Eddie Lacey was viewed by a lot of people to be a 1st round pick.... Does that mean that he was gift wrapped to TT and the Packers because he fell all the way to us at the bottom of the 2nd??? It's the same basic logic that leads some to believe we lucked into Rodgers but somehow apparently we did with Lacey. I just don't agree with that logic. Players fall in the draft all the time and just cause they fall doesn't mean they were "lucked" into it just mean that our GM was smart enough to take the chance and draft them.

And I do know that Wolf has been stated as saying he wished he would of givin Favre more weapons to throw to but in retrospect he did do a pretty good job at it over the years and in can be overblown a bit. Brooks, Freeman, Chumera, Keith Jackson, Rison (if only for half a season) Beebe, and Bubba are just the ones I'm coming up with off the top of my head and the only non pro bowl level player out of that group is Beebe Not to mention Dorsey Levens, Edgar Bennet and Ahman Green to go along with a pretty damn good O line. Injuries slowed down Brooks and Freeman pretty quick but Favre did have talent around him

I agree you need to give credit for jumping on guys who are falling in the draft. Other people are ignoring them, but someone takes the risk and grabs them. TT deserves all the credit for it.

I also agree during the Favre glory years he had plenty of talent with him, but it was the backside of his career he didn't have enough help maybe not until almost the end..

There was a time I think it was maybe 2000 to 2003 where we were short on good receivers. I can't recall the exact years, but there was a period where we trotted out Billy Schroeder and Corey Bradford as our dynamic duo. Any time Billy Schroeder is the leading receiver in your WR corps, your WR corps suck.

I think that lead us to drafting Robert Ferguson and Javon Walker. Walker took 1-2 years to develop, I think we finally got 1 or 2 good seasons out of walker before that fell apart, and Ferguson never developed. I remember derrick mayes, but that was actually during the glory years, so that doesn't count.

There was a definite lack of talent in the WR dept during those middle years after the SuperBowl days.

The receivers Favre had were so bad it was unreal. Antonio Chatman was the #2 receiver one year Even more dramatic was the drop off to the #3 receiver.
TT basically revived Favre's career by drafting Greg Jennings and James Jones. At age 37 in 2007, Favre had his most completions ever to a #3 receiver, Jones with 47. This was because TT understood the importance of giving a great quarterback at least good receivers to throw to, and was absolutely amazing at drafting them.

[RRyder823]

In no way did he walk into the Rodgers pick.... Yes a QB that could've potentially went #1 that year fell to them at #24 but people say that TT got lucked into Rodgers or he was gift wrapped for him need to really look at the draft a little closer then just "Oh he was a top rated guy that fell". 23 other teams passed on Rodgers..... No other teams traded up to draft when it started looking like TT might have interest.... But yet some will still argue that TT had an elite QB gift wrapped to him.

Not saying your saying the same but it's stupid logic and that people will fail to bring up when similar players fall to every single team in the league every year in the draft. It just doesn't mean the 1st round... Hell even just last year Eddie Lacey was viewed by a lot of people to be a 1st round pick.... Does that mean that he was gift wrapped to TT and the Packers because he fell all the way to us at the bottom of the 2nd??? It's the same basic logic that leads some to believe we lucked into Rodgers but somehow apparently we did with Lacey. I just don't agree with that logic. Players fall in the draft all the time and just cause they fall doesn't mean they were "lucked" into it just mean that our GM was smart enough to take the chance and draft them.

And I do know that Wolf has been stated as saying he wished he would of givin Favre more weapons to throw to but in retrospect he did do a pretty good job at it over the years and in can be overblown a bit. Brooks, Freeman, Chumera, Keith Jackson, Rison (if only for half a season) Beebe, and Bubba are just the ones I'm coming up with off the top of my head and the only non pro bowl level player out of that group is Beebe Not to mention Dorsey Levens, Edgar Bennet and Ahman Green to go along with a pretty damn good O line. Injuries slowed down Brooks and Freeman pretty quick but Favre did have talent around him

I agree you need to give credit for jumping on guys who are falling in the draft. Other people are ignoring them, but someone takes the risk and grabs them. TT deserves all the credit for it.

I also agree during the Favre glory years he had plenty of talent with him, but it was the backside of his career he didn't have enough help maybe not until almost the end..

There was a time I think it was maybe 2000 to 2003 where we were short on good receivers. I can't recall the exact years, but there was a period where we trotted out Billy Schroeder and Corey Bradford as our dynamic duo. Any time Billy Schroeder is the leading receiver in your WR corps, your WR corps suck.

I think that lead us to drafting Robert Ferguson and Javon Walker. Walker took 1-2 years to develop, I think we finally got 1 or 2 good seasons out of walker before that fell apart, and Ferguson never developed. I remember derrick mayes, but that was actually during the glory years, so that doesn't count.

There was a definite lack of talent in the WR dept during those middle years after the SuperBowl days.

The receivers Favre had were so bad it was unreal. Antonio Chatman was the #2 receiver one year Even more dramatic was the drop off to the #3 receiver.
TT basically revived Favre's career by drafting Greg Jennings and James Jones. At age 37 in 2007, Favre had his most completions ever to a #3 receiver, Jones with 47. This was because TT understood the importance of giving a great quarterback at least good receivers to throw to, and was absolutely amazing at drafting them.

While I agree that the talent at WR digressed in the twighlight of his time here to say and try and argue that they were "so bad that it was unreal" is going a little far and cherry picking certain years. Yes there were down years at WR, something that hasn't hit yet under TT, but there where years that he had some truly great WR's also. I can make the argument pretty easily that Freeman and Brooks were better, if only for a short time, then any WR that Rodgers has had to throw too. Not including Sharpe due to the fact Wolf didn't aquire him.

Wolf always supplied talent to other positions also on offence and I think that may have contributed to the lack of talent at WR certain years. Bennet was the 1st 1000 yard back I saw play in GB as a kid and then he was followed by the 1st Pro Bowl RB in Levens that I was able watch and then later on by the flat out best running back ive seen play in GB so far in my lifetime in Ahman Green. At TE Wolf was able to give Favre 3 different Probowl TE's in Chewy, Jackson and Franks along with some pretty good O Linemen to block for them all. Not going to name them all but we generally had a pretty darn good O line in the 90's- early 2000's.

I'm not saying that there weren't years that we were a weak at WR and that Wolf couldn't of done a better job at grabbing Wideouts or that TT hasn't done a great job of keeping that position stocked since getting here just that even with the years that we were hurting for WR's we still had more then a little talent to go around on Offence

[HKPackFan]

I know TT has missed on some draft picks, just like every GM across the league. Fortunately he has more hits then misses.


But one thing I've marveled at, and I think it's under appreciated, is his ability to find undrafted free agents that NO ONE else found.

There has been 1 UDFA on the 53 roster every year since TT started as our GM, and in the last 3 years at least THREE!

So for every miss like a Jerod McMillon or perhaps Carl Bradford, he finds a Sean Richardson or Jayrone Elliott.

In fact, he's hit some guys big time like Ryan Grant, Tramon Williams, Sam Shields. Those are big hits. I'm not sure how to classify Grant as he was a UDFA with Giants and we traded a 6th round pick for him.

We've had guys like Andy Mulamba, Zombo, Dujuan Harris.

So when we criticize TT for a blown pick, how much weight do we give him for finding a guy no one else wanted????

We might mention he wasted a pick on this or that...but....is there any credit for finding these diamonds in the rough?? I saw an article that said Seattle and GB have the highest number of UDFA with playing time over the last few years. We are Top 2 in finding these cast offs that no one drafted. I think when we evaluate TT on his draft MISSES, we also need to balance it with his college free agency hits.