Thompson Gaffes Contribute To Down Year

[Partial]

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090110/PKR07/90110030/1058/PKR01

Some interesting points.

Grasping at straws a bit, though. I can't believe Tracy White would have resulted in an additional W.

[mission]

Ive never really paid attention to the comments on that site but WOW, the level of ridiculousness is off the charts over there. I read two pages worth of comments curiously and now I feel less intelligent.

As far as the article, it's kind of stating the obvious. Corey Williams wouldn't have made *the* difference though and there are just so many contributors to SUCK this year that, well, TT is bound to play a decent role in that.

[Bretsky]

Re: Thompson Gaffes Contribute To Down Year

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090110/PKR07/90110030/1058/PKR01

Some interesting points.

Grasping at straws a bit, though. I can't believe Tracy White would have resulted in an additional W.

That was a Bob McGinn like article

[KYPack]

Yeah man.

Vandermause really pulled out all stops on that one, eh?

Can't help but think that TT giving the big interview to Silverstein got him slagged by Vandermause.

Supposition on my part, but I think it's somewhat valid.

[Patler]

"Gaffes" implies a blatant mistake or blunder. Something wrong at the time that a person should realize was wrong. A mistake that a right-thinking person would not make.

Williams trade - clearly not wrong at the time it was made, when Harrell was healthy, KGB was healthy, etc. and all other players from 2007 were there and healthy. Everyone felt the Packers had D-line surplus in 2007.

KGB - lead the team in "pressures per snap" in 2007, second in sacks with 9.5, second in knockdowns, second in hurries. And it was a "gaffe" not to cut him coming out of training camp, without a further chance to recover?

Moves don't become "gaffes" just because other things didn't work as planned. Mistakes in retrospect, maybe; but "gaffes" seems like a harsh term to me for the things he identified.

[Lurker64]

Yeah, sometimes you make a reasonable decision and it just doesn't work out for you based on circumstances beyond your control. Ultimately, the responsibility comes down to Thompson, since he's in charge, but any suggestions of gross negligence are entirely unfair.

[swede]

My respect for Vandermause has gone down considerably.

Was it "Bring-Your-Kid-to-Work-and-Let-Him-Write-an-Article" Week?

[Bretsky]

Well, he did bank on Harrell growing and that did not work

He did bank on KGB recovering from knee surgery and regaining his old form and that did not happen.

And he did neglect to bring in more DL help.......with the exception of a fourth round draft pick on a project not really ready to play.

TT has did a lot of great things in developing this roster; but I'm not going to be an apologist for him on the DL. He needs to fix that.

[digitaldean]

I'd have to fault D-Line issues, at least in part, back to TT.

The injury to Jenkins you couldn't project. But the Justin Harrell experiment is leaving egg on TT's face.

He does have to work on reinforcing both lines. D-Line first. There are going to be some great players available in the draft and FA. He needs to use BOTH wisely to get us back to the postseason.

As for Vandermause, I don't agree with his points. Then again, I thought he was off base as well as the consistent harping about Rodgers.

[RashanGary]

Part of it was circumstance. I think this is the exact type of situation that free agency is for. Now, there has to be a player out there who is willing to come to GB. Before that, there has to be a player out there that really fits our need and we can't sell the whole team down the river for one player, but I would think TT is going to look long and hard at DL free agents.

I think there is a greater than 50% chance that we sign a somewhat significant free agent to the DL this year. I also think we're going to lock up Jolly, Kampman, and Pickett to extensions.

[RashanGary]

Harrell was a premier type talent coming out of college. There was an injury risk, but TT will take a risk. Everyone let Adrian Peterson go because of Injury and look how that panned out for the Vikings. He was the best player in the draft. He just needed someone willing to take that risk.

Harrell is probably a bust. It sure is looking that way, but I don't fault TT for taking a risk. Ngata was a big fat injury risk a few years back that nobody wanted (and I loved by the way) but look how that panned out. GM's have to take risk. It's part of the job and sometimes they don't take any risk and it blows up in their face.

KGB blew up in his face
C Williams hurt, but it's best for the team
Jenkins injury blew up in his face
Harrell's injury blew up in his face

It all added up to some major suckage and a much declined defense from a year ago. Now he's going to have to make an effort to fix it. Don't ruin the team to fix one area, but make a legit effort.

[Lurker64]

There were a few things that could have gone right for Thompson on the DL front.

1) Harrell could have come back from injury and played like we hoped he would.
2) KGB could have recovered from his surgery and played at least as well as he did last year.
3) Jenkins could have been the terror he was in the 2007 preseason, as he plays most of the year relatively healthy.
4) One of the veteran DL (Cole, Montgomery, Hunter) could step up and become a player.
5) Jeremy Thompson could have been a pleasant surprise, and adjusted his considerable natural skills to playing defensive end in a different, less reactive, scheme.

If a couple of these things happen, we're probably fine on the DL and Thompson is significantly more in the clear. However the man can't see the future and he can't devote all of his resources to one position. So he took a calculated risk, and figured that a couple of those things would happen, and he ended up batting 0/5 and it blew up in his face. I admit that a GM who can see the future would be good to have, but other than that, I'm not sure what else really could have been done.

Anybody know offhand which DL were free agents last year that we might have signed? I looked recently, and the 2007 draft didn't really accord us many opportunities to draft a DT instead of one of the guys we got and get good value out of it. Maybe we could have taken Pat Sims instead of Brohm or Pat Lee, but it's too early to see if that would have been a good idea.

[Partial]

I actually went through and have verified you did like Ngata back in the day. Not as much as Davis who you ranked 3rd, but you did like Ngata.

Good job on that one. He's a good player.

One of the benefits if we switched to a 3-4 is the players that fall through the cracks. The undersized, less stout DTs typically make prime candidates to be given a chance to be a 3-4 end, and can be picked up later in the draft.

[RashanGary]

Well said, Lurker. I was really pissed at how the DL played this year. Really pissed. Looking back, I'm still disappointed, but with all Thompson has done for this team, you have to think he's going to do a damn good job straightening this out too and right now it's not all about blame. It's about "where do we go next" and nothing more in my honest fans opinion.

[texaspackerbacker]

As I have said before, if Harrell had injuries related to the torn bicep or whatever it was in college, then maybe Thompson would have been blameworthy. But since his injuries were unrelated, they were sheer luck--something that could have happened to anybody.