RashanGary
05-06-2007, 05:29 PM
Hey guys, this is similar to what I wrote in another thread but I edited it quite a bit and I'm reposting it. It is the best thing that I've written that explains my views on Ted Thompson and the job at task. Thanks in advance for spending the time re-reading some of the same material :D
I think Thompson just wants to make the best football team possible by taking into account risk, talent and fit to: sign free agents, resign players and draft players to build a winner. He wants to project how the ramifications of each decision will effect the team and he wants the projected reward to outweight the projected risk.
Example: he doesn't want to sign an average or slightly above average free agent if he thinks he's going to look back and think it was a poor decision or that it hurt more than it helped. He's not looking at just the "short-term" or just the "long-term", he's looking at the whole term of the players projected impact.
He's taking a big picture approach. It might look like he's building for "after Favre" but I think he still working on cleaning up a mess. It was a mess of cap hell mixed with aging talent and nothing resembling a young core. It takes time for good decisions to add up.
It's a tough transition but I believe there is a good direction. I don't think there is any type of a rigid plan but rather an open ended approach to building. An approach of oppertunism in the draft and free agency that will accumulate over time. Right now Thompson seems to think the best decision is to go younger. Younger means mistakes and mistakes mean short-term losses. Someday I believe he will have a bunch of quaility players worthy of their contracts and enough salary space to keep them. For now, sadly, we have the aging and deminishing remains of Wolfs core, some of the good that Sherman left and some of Teds moves. If things come together, it won't have anything to do with Brett Favre or any other sole factor, it will have to do with many good, sound decisions building on each other. We don't have the luxury of having years of good decisions built up, we have Shermans years to hang our cheeseheads on. Bob Harlan regretted his decision and he'd love to take it back but it's too late and here we are.
Moving forward, it seems most people have a rigid plan or a step by step building process. However, I think most tasks that require large amounts of judgment are best served by having more of a broad, general goal (building a superbowl winner) with a high amount of flexibilty and oppertunism to take advantage of whatever the enviornment provides (like stud DT's.) That is what Ted Tompson says he is doing, everything he has done so far supports this and that is why I support him the way I do.
I think Thompson just wants to make the best football team possible by taking into account risk, talent and fit to: sign free agents, resign players and draft players to build a winner. He wants to project how the ramifications of each decision will effect the team and he wants the projected reward to outweight the projected risk.
Example: he doesn't want to sign an average or slightly above average free agent if he thinks he's going to look back and think it was a poor decision or that it hurt more than it helped. He's not looking at just the "short-term" or just the "long-term", he's looking at the whole term of the players projected impact.
He's taking a big picture approach. It might look like he's building for "after Favre" but I think he still working on cleaning up a mess. It was a mess of cap hell mixed with aging talent and nothing resembling a young core. It takes time for good decisions to add up.
It's a tough transition but I believe there is a good direction. I don't think there is any type of a rigid plan but rather an open ended approach to building. An approach of oppertunism in the draft and free agency that will accumulate over time. Right now Thompson seems to think the best decision is to go younger. Younger means mistakes and mistakes mean short-term losses. Someday I believe he will have a bunch of quaility players worthy of their contracts and enough salary space to keep them. For now, sadly, we have the aging and deminishing remains of Wolfs core, some of the good that Sherman left and some of Teds moves. If things come together, it won't have anything to do with Brett Favre or any other sole factor, it will have to do with many good, sound decisions building on each other. We don't have the luxury of having years of good decisions built up, we have Shermans years to hang our cheeseheads on. Bob Harlan regretted his decision and he'd love to take it back but it's too late and here we are.
Moving forward, it seems most people have a rigid plan or a step by step building process. However, I think most tasks that require large amounts of judgment are best served by having more of a broad, general goal (building a superbowl winner) with a high amount of flexibilty and oppertunism to take advantage of whatever the enviornment provides (like stud DT's.) That is what Ted Tompson says he is doing, everything he has done so far supports this and that is why I support him the way I do.