I know it's an "even if" statement, but I've been thinking about how many first-round picks TT has invested in this porous defense. There's Clay Matthews, Kenny Clark, Nick Perry, Datone Jones, Damarious Randall, and Ha-H Clinton Dix. That's six first round picks.
He seems to have spent the majority of his recent first round resources on defense. On offense, and I'm doing all this off the top of my head, there's Bulaga, Rodgers, and . . . ? Lots of second and third rounders, but the seemingly most valuable resource, the first rounder, has been spent primarily on defense. Thompson certainly has not shorted that side of the ball in terms of spending resources. As for results...
This leads me to think that maybe one way to make a transition to the next GM would be to allow Ted to choose only players on the offensive side of the ball, and let someone else - anyone else? - draft the defensive side.
I know injuries are an issue for this defense, but even before the onslaught, this wasn't a defense that appeared to be a unit of strength on this team. And now it's like watching that 2011 defense.