Cory Williams Missing

[Gunakor]

Mostly, I find fault in that Thompson didn't take a single defensive tackle at any point in the 2008 NFL draft. Not that he didn't take one with one of his second round picks, but that with nine picks he never took a shot at a big man who could develop. Taking Pat Sims instead of Brohm or Lee (hopefully instead of Brohm, what a wasted pick) would be reasonable. Frank Okam instead of Breno or Sitton wouldn't have been ridiculous. We had a couple of shots at Ahtyba Rubin.

It wasn't a great draft for defensive tackles, but wasn't there somebody in the seventh round that could have sat on the PS for a year that would have been more worthy of a seventh round pick than Brett Swain or "Trading away the pick for a 2009 pick"?

But he took a DT with his first pick the year before, and as I said, people roundly criticized him for it. We had too many already.

By that logic, replacing Williams with a new rookie would have put us in the same position we were in after drafting Harrell. We'd have too many DT's.

I'm not saying you were one of those fans, but I'm sure you know there are plenty of them out there. I'll bet the house that many of those fans are the same ones who now criticize TT for leaving the cupboard bare by trading away one worthless guy. Methinks they just want another reason to criticize.

[Pugger]

Go back and reread my sentence that I put in bold in my post on the first page of this thread.  Lousy play by our starting DTs were more of an issue with our horrid D line play than trading a backup who was grossly overpaid by Cleveland.    

[cheesner]

No, he wasn't. We tagged Williams the franchise player. He was gonna get 6.36 million from us. We just moved 7 mil into 2009, so we had the bucks. I agree that TT made the right move, but we didn't save 38 mil, CW never saw that offer from us, that's what his agent negotiated from the Browns.

The Browns cleverly figured they were gonna move a spot RDT in a 4-3 to LDE in a 3-4 and have a solid player. Williams was a big, fat, fish out of water the whole season for Cleveland.

That's why Savage and Crennel are available for any team that wants 'em.

Would we have done better with Williams here, playing in his old spot? Yeah, maybe. That was definitely a trade that screwed both teams so far.

Maybe Brohm has an epiphany and we do some good in the deal after all.

I tend to agree that this is a trade that, short term, didn't work out for either team. Brohm certainly didn't help us this year, and CW was, well, missing. Down the road, CW might adjust to his new surroundings, and Brohm might develop...but that's down the road.

Even if you subscribe to the idea that he would get lazy once he was paid, giving him the franchise deal effectively puts him back in a contract year. He might not have been happy, but I'm betting he would've played like hell.

Perhaps you are right, and he would have played very well for the big contract. We will never know. Maybe TT felt that his value would never be any higher and you may as well get what you can. In retrospect, I still believe it was the correct decision. Had he come back, we were still looking at Pickett and Jolly as the starters. He was a good role player, but he wasn't going to be relied upon this season. As it turned out, both of our starters regressed and our up-and-comer was injured. Not sure anyone could have seen that coming.

[PaCkFan_n_MD]

Lol, when I read the thread title I thought that he actually had gone missing, milk-carton style.

lol, thats what I thought.

[wist43]

Any way you slice it, TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT, and it hurt the team all year.

Is Williams worth $38 mil??? No... the argument in my mind is preemptive signing at a lower number. For young guys that play out their first contract, have shown upside and production... the argument is always preemptive signing.

By not making him a discounted offer earlier he was all but assured of seeing Williams walk... b/c afterall, he wasn't worth what Cleveland paid for him, but he's still a very nice player, and would have been a huge boost to the line this year.

I don't understand how people think TT orchestrated himself a huge hole at DT. Follow the timeline. When TT drafted Justin Harrell, he was roundly criticized for it because we did not need another DL. We had too many already. The next offseason TT unloads just one DL, bringing us back to where we were before drafting Justin Harrell. And now the cupboard is bare?

I don't get it. TT didn't empty that cupboard during the offseason. He got rid of one player on a DL who many of us had criticized him for having too many of. With CW we have too many DL, yet without him we have too few, at least by the logic I've heard from many Packer fans. What would they have done, traded away just half of CW? Would things have been more perfect with 5 and a half DT's rather than 6 (too many) or 5 (too few)?

TT orchestrated himself a hole at DT/DL by drafting Harrell, and over estimating his ability; by over estimating what KGB had left in the tank; and, by thinking that Montgomery was a viable backup.

While over estimating those guys, he underestimated CW's impact... and we saw the results of those miscalculations on the field this year. If TT isn't responsible for that, who is???

[HarveyWallbangers]

Thompson is responsible for everything ultimately, so I think it's fair to put the DL issues on him. It doesn't make him a bad GM necessarily. A lot of his job is pure guesswork (e.g. Jenkins getting hurt, Harrell continuing to show nothing, KGB falling off). There are a lot of good GMs that haven't won a Super Bowl. I think he's a good GM, but I don't know that he has the stuff that it takes to be a Super Bowl GM. Last year, he was a hero. This year, he is a goat. He'll need to shore up the front 7 this offseason to be a hero again. Here's hoping that will happen. I'm relatively happy with the personnel at other positions on the team.

[mraynrand]

Last year, he was a hero. This year, he is a goat.

Not in my book. GMs can't control injuries and the Packers lost their two most explosive players in their front seven and Hawk was beat all to shit. Yes, the GM is ultimately responsible and gets judged only on the bottom line, but TT didn't lose 7 close games all by his lonesome. But, I agree that he ad a better year last year. Relying on KGB, Harrell and torpedoing White - and to a lesser extent being satisfied going into the season with Clifton and Tauscher anchoring a pretty average interior line were miscalculations.