Brian Gutekunst, Making No Sense

[Anti-Polar Bear]

At some point you're going to have to accept that Belichickism requires Bill Belichick. Some of the FAs he's brought to the Patsies would never work anywhere else because the coaching isn't there, including Green Bay. Cheat is responsible for at least 8 Superbowl wins. Parcells was nothing without Cheat. Cheat is an exceptional coaching and GM talent, at this point I would say unquestionably the greatest in NFL history.

The Polar Bear was on a spectrum with total Draft/Development on one side and FA/Trade (George Allen) on the other. Despite your protestations, TT , though being tilted to DD side, still brought in FAs. The secret sauce for Belichickism was BB the coach being able to integrate talent and make it work in a team concept. That even included Terrell Buckley. BB the GM found a way to draw out the best last years of many a fading talent because BB the coach flawlessly deployed them.

This is my opinion: One important reason the Packers used DD so much was it was a way to indoctrinate young kids to the Green Bay life. It was a franchise survival tool to bring kids in who could live and play in a small town. So not only did they go heavy DD, but they generally selected guys mature enough to handle a city with virtually nothing to do that young kids with pockets of cash like. And veterans they brought in had to buy into that too. I'm not sure how much of a factor this is, but I'm certain it plays a part.

Sure, Belichick is exceptional at some things coaching-wise, moreso at, say, game management than say, McCarthy. But many folks once doubted that the West Coast Offense would never work without Walsh, too. Holmgren and Shanahan, among others, debunked that theory. The NFL is a copycat league in which trade secrets are not so secrets. Copying Belichick's coaching style should not be too difficult.

And doing things like Belichick the GM is not difficult, either, especially with an ever increasing cap. As I've refrained previously, if Deshawn Wynn is your starting RB, and you have a chance to get Beast Mode, get Beast Mode. It's called an upgrade. If Shields season ended in week 1, you can't just hibernate and hope an undrafted player like Gunter "develops" quickly. If your receiving crop is productive but slothish, and you can acquire a speed fiend like Brandin Cooks for 1st and 3rds, why the hell not?

With an elite QB like Aaron Rodgers on your roster, optimizing the talent on your team with respect to the cap should be the way to do things. Draft and develop is for teams with no shot worth a damn, like the Browns. Draft and develop is just wasting Rodgers' prime, as the saying goes.

Thompson signed a notable free agent once every 2 or 3 blue moons. He rarely ever made any in-season trades. Mostly, he spent the majority of his time as GM drafting and hibernating. In other words, the antithesis of Belichick.

I don't buy the theory that players still don't want to play in Green Bay. Favre and White made playing in cold, dark and dull Green Bay cool again. For those with a longin for the city lights during the season, Milwaukee is only an hour south via car. Chicago, only 3. Plus, plan ticket costs to other urban paradises further away are chump changes to all these highly paid players. It's all about the Benjamins, and the Packers have plenty of them - thanks to revenue sharing.