Bretsky
02-28-2007, 09:49 PM
When Thompson took over, he inherited an aging quarterback in Favre, but one that could still play. Phil Bengtson first and then Dan Devine tried to win with aging quarterbacks whose arms had gone dead: Bart Starr and John Hadl. And Devine paid such an outrageous price for Hadl that when Starr took over as coach and general manager in 1975, he wasn't even able to compete on a level field for at least a year, maybe two, maybe more.
But back then, just as it is now, the draft was nearly every NFL franchise's lifeblood.
Much has been made of Starr's biggest blunders in the draft: Passing on Joe Montana over the objections of his Midwest scout in both the second and third rounds in 1979; drafting, but failing to sign, Bruce Clark in 1980; and ignoring the recommendation of his player personnel director in 1981 by selecting Rich Campbell over Ronnie Lott.
Post-Starr, when Forrest Gregg and then Tom Braatz were calling the shots on the draft, there were more bad choices, notably Alphonso Carreker, Brent Fullwood and Tony Mandarich.
But the Packers also drafted plenty of good players and even one great player, Hall of Fame wide receiver James Lofton, during that period.
Look at the lineups in Starr's final years as coach.
The Packers had three Pro Bowl receivers in 1982, including Lofton, who was better than any receiver either Starr or Favre ever played with. Paul Coffman was the most productive tight end in Packers' history.
The offensive line of Karl Swanke, Derrel Gofourth, Larry McCarren, Leotis Harris and Greg Koch was solid from tackle to tackle. It was undersized by today's standards, but it was a group that was as talented and as consistent as any of the Packers' offensive lines in Favre's 15 seasons.
It's also noteworthy that it was a line that had lost the two players who were supposed to be its anchors.
In the first round in 1976, the Packers drafted Mark Koncar to be their left tackle of the future. He was named to the all-rookie team and was hailed by teammate Gale Gillingham, a five-time Pro Bowl pick and a holdover from the Vince Lombardi era, as "the best rookie offensive lineman to come into the league" in a decade.
Koncar's career was soon derailed by a series of injuries, but the Packers found another athletic and workmanlike replacement in Swanke in the sixth round of the 1980 draft.
A year before he selected Koncar, Starr's first ever draft pick was guard Bill Bain. But Bain hated Green Bay, essentially forced a trade after his rookie year and eventually became a starter on playoff teams with the Los Angeles Rams.
Back then, Lynn Dickey was the Packers' quarterback. I wrote at the time that if the NFL was touch football, Dickey would be in the Hall of Fame, and I stand by that comment today. He didn't have Favre's arm strength, but he might have been a better pure passer. For sure, he threw the deep ball with better touch and accuracy. Moreover, Dickey was football smart and a respected leader.
He had everything but mobility. Two traumatic injuries early in his career turned him into a statue. And that put the Packers at a tremendous disadvantage when they played a team with a great pass rush or when they had to play from behind.
The running backs were Eddie Lee Ivery and Gerry Ellis. Ivery might have been special, maybe the greatest runner in Packers' history, if he hadn't blown out his knee in his first pro game and blown it out again two years later. Still, Ivery had four productive years and finished his career with a 4.4 average per carry. Ellis is in the Packer Hall of Fame.
On defense, the Packers drafted ends Mike Butler and Ezra Johnson in the first round in 1977. Butler was moody and could have played harder, but was a solid starter at left end until he jumped to the USFL following the 1982 season. Ezra Johnson registered 20½ sacks in his second year and led the Packers in that department five more times.
Nose tackle Terry Jones, an 11th round choice out of Alabama in 1978, was one of the best draft finds in Packers' history. Again, he was small by today's standards, but he came out of Bear Bryant's system and was another unsung, but tough and dependable player. When he tore his Achilles' tendon on the first play of the 1983 season, it was a bigger loss than anyone could have imagined.
At linebacker, John Anderson might have been as athletic as A.J. Hawk and he might have been as steady as any defender in team history. Mike Douglass and George Cumby were undersized, but had range and in Douglass' case, at least, playmaking ability. One national football publication polled scouts following the '83 season and ranked Anderson "the best pass defender" and Douglass "the best pursuit" player among all outside linebackers in the league.
Rich Wingo, a seventh-round draft pick and another Alabama product, was named to the all-rookie team in 1979 and called "the finest rookie middle linebacker I've ever seen" by former Hall of Fame coach John Madden. But Wingo suffered a serious back injury two years later and was never the same player again.
Also, Wingo and Ezra Johnson, for starters, were ill-fit for the 3-4 defensive scheme that the Packers switched to in 1980.
After drafting Tim Lewis in the first round in 1983 and inserting him as a starter opposite Mark Lee, the Packers might have had one of the best two or three cornerback combinations in the league. A neck injury prematurely ended Lewis' career four years later.
There was nothing particularly special about the Packers' safeties in '83, Johnnie Gray and Mark Murphy. Gray was in his last year and Murphy in his first as a starter. But they, too, were both good enough over their careers to be enshrined in the Packer Hall of Fame.
The Packers made the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season, finishing with the third best record in the NFC. A year later, in Starr's final season, they ranked a distant last on defense due largely to the loss of Butler and Jones, but they also finished second in the league on offense and managed an 8-8 record.
In truth, they also probably peaked - that group of players anyway - and that's partly why Gregg cleaned house two years later after two more 8-8 finishes.
But by 1989, the Packers had rebuilt again to the point where they were good enough to finish 10-6, their best record in 17 years. Anderson, Lee, Murphy, guard Ron Hallstrom and defensive end Robert Brown were all solid holdovers from Starr's years. But the Packers also had acquired a flock of more good, young players, including wide receiver Sterling Sharpe; tight end Ed West; offensive linemen Ken Ruettgers and Rich Moran; quarterback Don Majkowski; and linebackers Tim Harris, Brian Noble and Johnny Holland. Fullwood also was productive for the only year of his career.
Actually, that was the third time in the post-Lombardi era where the Packers had seemed to turn a corner. Buoyed by John Brockington, Willie Buchanon and Chester Marcol, three draft picks over a two-year span who had earned rookie of the year honors, the Packers finished 10-4 in 1972. But Buchanon, one of the best rookie corners in league history, suffered a serious leg injury that prevented him from achieving greatness; Marcol succumbed to injuries and personal problems; and Brockington had a shelf-life of three years, short even by running back standards.
And the Packers didn't have a quarterback. That was their downfall almost every year.
They never had one who was any better than average over that entire time.
Had they been blessed with a great quarterback, they still might not have won it all in 1972, '82 or '89 or any other year during that stretch. That's an impossible call. But soon after Ron Wolf gambled and hit the jackpot with Favre, everything changed.
With a young Favre and another future Hall of Famer in Reggie White, a lineup of simply good, solid players almost everywhere else suddenly was good enough.
With Favre - and also White - it wasn't that big a setback when the careers of key players - think Sharpe, Robert Brooks, Aaron Taylor, among others - were cut short by injuries. It was quickly forgotten when a promising rookie linebacker, Mark D'Onofrio, was forced to retire after two games due to injury.
It was anything but devastating when first-round draft picks didn't pan out. Think Terrell Buckley and John Michels, for starters.
The Packers lost through free agency three of their best young players - Tony Bennett, Jackie Harris and Bryce Paup - over a two-year period in the early 1990s and still got better. They lost their starting left tackle, Ruettgers, and their best receiver, Brooks, and still won a Super Bowl in 1996.
Teams are always going to make mistakes on draft picks, and lose players prematurely to injuries and personal issues. And usually somewhere between 19 and 21 of every team's 22 starters are going to be relatively comparable in ability.
That was true of the Packers in the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s.
And that's essentially where the Packers are at today. In just two years, Thompson has assembled a team that doesn't look a whole lot worse on paper at most positions than the Packers of 1995.
Were Brooks and Anthony Morgan a cut above Donald Driver and Greg Jennings? Mark Chmura was certainly better than last year's version of Bubba Franks, but by how much? Was the offensive line of Ruettgers, Taylor, Frank Winters, Harry Galbreath and Earl Dotson any more blessed than the one of today? Was a young Edgar Bennett a bigger threat than an aging Ahman Green?
As a group were John Jurkovic, Gilbert Brown, Sean Jones, Gabe Wilkins, Darius Holland and Bob Kuberski any more talented or deeper than Aaron Kampman, Ryan Pickett, Cullen Jenkins, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Corey Williams and Co.? Could Fred Strickland, Wayne Simmons and George Koonce even stack up against Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk and Brady Poppinga? Would you take Craig Newsome, Doug Evans and George Teague over Charles Woodson, Al Harris and Nick Collins?
What separated the 1995 Packers from today's Packers, from Starr's Packers, from Gregg's and Infante's Packers was mainly Favre, but also White and LeRoy Butler.
And that's Thompson's challenge: Finding those one, two or three players who will separate his Packers from the others.
The easy work is done or will continue to be an ongoing process. The hard part remains and that's what will determine his legacy and whether the Packers will have a realistic shot at winning a Super Bowl any time soon.
But back then, just as it is now, the draft was nearly every NFL franchise's lifeblood.
Much has been made of Starr's biggest blunders in the draft: Passing on Joe Montana over the objections of his Midwest scout in both the second and third rounds in 1979; drafting, but failing to sign, Bruce Clark in 1980; and ignoring the recommendation of his player personnel director in 1981 by selecting Rich Campbell over Ronnie Lott.
Post-Starr, when Forrest Gregg and then Tom Braatz were calling the shots on the draft, there were more bad choices, notably Alphonso Carreker, Brent Fullwood and Tony Mandarich.
But the Packers also drafted plenty of good players and even one great player, Hall of Fame wide receiver James Lofton, during that period.
Look at the lineups in Starr's final years as coach.
The Packers had three Pro Bowl receivers in 1982, including Lofton, who was better than any receiver either Starr or Favre ever played with. Paul Coffman was the most productive tight end in Packers' history.
The offensive line of Karl Swanke, Derrel Gofourth, Larry McCarren, Leotis Harris and Greg Koch was solid from tackle to tackle. It was undersized by today's standards, but it was a group that was as talented and as consistent as any of the Packers' offensive lines in Favre's 15 seasons.
It's also noteworthy that it was a line that had lost the two players who were supposed to be its anchors.
In the first round in 1976, the Packers drafted Mark Koncar to be their left tackle of the future. He was named to the all-rookie team and was hailed by teammate Gale Gillingham, a five-time Pro Bowl pick and a holdover from the Vince Lombardi era, as "the best rookie offensive lineman to come into the league" in a decade.
Koncar's career was soon derailed by a series of injuries, but the Packers found another athletic and workmanlike replacement in Swanke in the sixth round of the 1980 draft.
A year before he selected Koncar, Starr's first ever draft pick was guard Bill Bain. But Bain hated Green Bay, essentially forced a trade after his rookie year and eventually became a starter on playoff teams with the Los Angeles Rams.
Back then, Lynn Dickey was the Packers' quarterback. I wrote at the time that if the NFL was touch football, Dickey would be in the Hall of Fame, and I stand by that comment today. He didn't have Favre's arm strength, but he might have been a better pure passer. For sure, he threw the deep ball with better touch and accuracy. Moreover, Dickey was football smart and a respected leader.
He had everything but mobility. Two traumatic injuries early in his career turned him into a statue. And that put the Packers at a tremendous disadvantage when they played a team with a great pass rush or when they had to play from behind.
The running backs were Eddie Lee Ivery and Gerry Ellis. Ivery might have been special, maybe the greatest runner in Packers' history, if he hadn't blown out his knee in his first pro game and blown it out again two years later. Still, Ivery had four productive years and finished his career with a 4.4 average per carry. Ellis is in the Packer Hall of Fame.
On defense, the Packers drafted ends Mike Butler and Ezra Johnson in the first round in 1977. Butler was moody and could have played harder, but was a solid starter at left end until he jumped to the USFL following the 1982 season. Ezra Johnson registered 20½ sacks in his second year and led the Packers in that department five more times.
Nose tackle Terry Jones, an 11th round choice out of Alabama in 1978, was one of the best draft finds in Packers' history. Again, he was small by today's standards, but he came out of Bear Bryant's system and was another unsung, but tough and dependable player. When he tore his Achilles' tendon on the first play of the 1983 season, it was a bigger loss than anyone could have imagined.
At linebacker, John Anderson might have been as athletic as A.J. Hawk and he might have been as steady as any defender in team history. Mike Douglass and George Cumby were undersized, but had range and in Douglass' case, at least, playmaking ability. One national football publication polled scouts following the '83 season and ranked Anderson "the best pass defender" and Douglass "the best pursuit" player among all outside linebackers in the league.
Rich Wingo, a seventh-round draft pick and another Alabama product, was named to the all-rookie team in 1979 and called "the finest rookie middle linebacker I've ever seen" by former Hall of Fame coach John Madden. But Wingo suffered a serious back injury two years later and was never the same player again.
Also, Wingo and Ezra Johnson, for starters, were ill-fit for the 3-4 defensive scheme that the Packers switched to in 1980.
After drafting Tim Lewis in the first round in 1983 and inserting him as a starter opposite Mark Lee, the Packers might have had one of the best two or three cornerback combinations in the league. A neck injury prematurely ended Lewis' career four years later.
There was nothing particularly special about the Packers' safeties in '83, Johnnie Gray and Mark Murphy. Gray was in his last year and Murphy in his first as a starter. But they, too, were both good enough over their careers to be enshrined in the Packer Hall of Fame.
The Packers made the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season, finishing with the third best record in the NFC. A year later, in Starr's final season, they ranked a distant last on defense due largely to the loss of Butler and Jones, but they also finished second in the league on offense and managed an 8-8 record.
In truth, they also probably peaked - that group of players anyway - and that's partly why Gregg cleaned house two years later after two more 8-8 finishes.
But by 1989, the Packers had rebuilt again to the point where they were good enough to finish 10-6, their best record in 17 years. Anderson, Lee, Murphy, guard Ron Hallstrom and defensive end Robert Brown were all solid holdovers from Starr's years. But the Packers also had acquired a flock of more good, young players, including wide receiver Sterling Sharpe; tight end Ed West; offensive linemen Ken Ruettgers and Rich Moran; quarterback Don Majkowski; and linebackers Tim Harris, Brian Noble and Johnny Holland. Fullwood also was productive for the only year of his career.
Actually, that was the third time in the post-Lombardi era where the Packers had seemed to turn a corner. Buoyed by John Brockington, Willie Buchanon and Chester Marcol, three draft picks over a two-year span who had earned rookie of the year honors, the Packers finished 10-4 in 1972. But Buchanon, one of the best rookie corners in league history, suffered a serious leg injury that prevented him from achieving greatness; Marcol succumbed to injuries and personal problems; and Brockington had a shelf-life of three years, short even by running back standards.
And the Packers didn't have a quarterback. That was their downfall almost every year.
They never had one who was any better than average over that entire time.
Had they been blessed with a great quarterback, they still might not have won it all in 1972, '82 or '89 or any other year during that stretch. That's an impossible call. But soon after Ron Wolf gambled and hit the jackpot with Favre, everything changed.
With a young Favre and another future Hall of Famer in Reggie White, a lineup of simply good, solid players almost everywhere else suddenly was good enough.
With Favre - and also White - it wasn't that big a setback when the careers of key players - think Sharpe, Robert Brooks, Aaron Taylor, among others - were cut short by injuries. It was quickly forgotten when a promising rookie linebacker, Mark D'Onofrio, was forced to retire after two games due to injury.
It was anything but devastating when first-round draft picks didn't pan out. Think Terrell Buckley and John Michels, for starters.
The Packers lost through free agency three of their best young players - Tony Bennett, Jackie Harris and Bryce Paup - over a two-year period in the early 1990s and still got better. They lost their starting left tackle, Ruettgers, and their best receiver, Brooks, and still won a Super Bowl in 1996.
Teams are always going to make mistakes on draft picks, and lose players prematurely to injuries and personal issues. And usually somewhere between 19 and 21 of every team's 22 starters are going to be relatively comparable in ability.
That was true of the Packers in the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s.
And that's essentially where the Packers are at today. In just two years, Thompson has assembled a team that doesn't look a whole lot worse on paper at most positions than the Packers of 1995.
Were Brooks and Anthony Morgan a cut above Donald Driver and Greg Jennings? Mark Chmura was certainly better than last year's version of Bubba Franks, but by how much? Was the offensive line of Ruettgers, Taylor, Frank Winters, Harry Galbreath and Earl Dotson any more blessed than the one of today? Was a young Edgar Bennett a bigger threat than an aging Ahman Green?
As a group were John Jurkovic, Gilbert Brown, Sean Jones, Gabe Wilkins, Darius Holland and Bob Kuberski any more talented or deeper than Aaron Kampman, Ryan Pickett, Cullen Jenkins, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, Corey Williams and Co.? Could Fred Strickland, Wayne Simmons and George Koonce even stack up against Nick Barnett, A.J. Hawk and Brady Poppinga? Would you take Craig Newsome, Doug Evans and George Teague over Charles Woodson, Al Harris and Nick Collins?
What separated the 1995 Packers from today's Packers, from Starr's Packers, from Gregg's and Infante's Packers was mainly Favre, but also White and LeRoy Butler.
And that's Thompson's challenge: Finding those one, two or three players who will separate his Packers from the others.
The easy work is done or will continue to be an ongoing process. The hard part remains and that's what will determine his legacy and whether the Packers will have a realistic shot at winning a Super Bowl any time soon.