Thompson Gaffes Contribute To Down Year

[Packnut]

Article

The article was pretty accurate- that is for those of us who like FACTS. For the others who live with blinders on or love to make excuses, I can see why they would dis-agree. Also, for the record, Vandy has been one of TT's biggest supporters. It's just a case of someone having enough class to realize they were wrong in light of OVER-WHELMING evidence.

It's kind of ironic how the Thompson crowd here follows their leaders motto. Never take responsibility or admit being wrong even when the facts prove other-wise. Just keep blowing smoke up everyone's ass and hope for the best.

[RashanGary]

Well, let's see where it goes packnut. He's fixed just about every problem put in front of him. Let's see if the trend continues before we say anything more than "it didn't work out this year".

[Lurker64]

I think there's a significant difference between "things don't go your way because of some bad luck, and things that you generally wouldn't be able to predict" and "things don't go your way because if deep-seated, incurable, and systemic incompetence." It's too early to say, but I very much doubt that Thompson suffers from the latter.

I also find it virtually impossible to both complain that Thompson "reached for Harrell at 16 when the defensive tackle position was one of the deepest on the roster and we need so much help on offense" and "Thompson screwed the pooch by being negligent with the defensive line." Feel free to believe one of those things, but both are hard to reconcile. The only real difference between last year's DL and this year's DL was that Williams was gone, but Williams was pretty much a one-trick pony anyway (he was a good pass-rushing under-tackle who was mediocre in run-support.)

Sometimes smart people make good decisions and they still don't work out. Whether or not this is the case with Thompson, we'll see. It's awfully easy to kick the guy when he's down, but he's not going to be replaced any time soon so as long as he represents the Packers, let's at least hope he does a good job going forward.

[Partial]

3) Jenkins could have been the terror he was in the 2007 preseason, as he plays most of the year relatively healthy.

As I'm sure you have read, I don't like Ted's approach with Jenkins at all. The guy hasn't shown that he can play effectively when nicked up, and he has been an injury in waiting for most of his short career.

When was he a terror last year? Surely in preseason, and even early in the regular season, but all the reports that I've read have stated that the coaches were dissapointed in him, and wanted him to become "tougher" and learn to play better when nicked up.

He really didn't play great last year. Certainly he was a huge improvement over the turnstyle KGB, but he did only have 1 sack, and I can't find his hurries stats. I believe he was 3rd or 4th behind KGB and Kampman, and possibly even Williams. Can anyone find the exact numbers?

I really feel like Jenkins gets a lot more credit than due for 2007. There is no denying the talent is there. Dude was unbelievably and looked like the second coming in preseason. But so far the regular season production isnt matching his potential by any stretch of the imagination.

[RashanGary]

Right, what are the TT haters looking for here? He's fixed a roster that was broken from top to bottom and now a problem emerged on the defensive line and we want to draw huge conclusions without seeing where it goes. It's a good thing some of these people have unimportant, meaningless jobs because if some of these people were in charge of making important decisions I'm afraid this world would be a much more dangerous place.

Edit: I'm just guessing that TT haters don't make decisions that effect peoples lives in important ways because their apparent lacking mental capacity leads me to believe there is no way they could hold an important job.

[RashanGary]

Should we perform triple bypass surgery?

[Partial]

With the above said, I am a believer in TT. He has done a good job putting together a team to this point. I have a few gaffes with him, if you will.

1) I'm not 100% confident that he recognizes the value of a superstar quarterback. If I were the general manager(thank god I'm not, right? ), as soon as I realized a guy was not spectacular at that position, I would move on (either trade, cut, whatever, in an attempt to get value from that player while still searching for that special player).

2) Ted needs to improve his drafting. So far, he's been ok in my opinion. He really needed to hit a homerun on the Harrell of Hawk pick, and neither have. If he had, we wouldn't be picking 9th this year. With that said, this is the most important pick in TTs tenure because he won't have another two years to develop another top ten pick if he doesn't knock this one out of the park.

I think he has done better in acquiring players in FA(Chuck, Pickett, Chillar), and has done a great job in fortifying the special teams in years past with journeymen FA and undrafted FAs (Tracy White, Donald Lee, Jarrett Bush, Jason Hunter).

[Lurker64]

The thing is that it's way, way, way too early to determine that Thompson is either "an unappreciated genius, a true master of the art" or an "arrogant, unrepentant, colossal fuckup who has advanced only through nepotism and is concerned only with convincing everybody about how smart he is."

There's certainly evidence for both theories, but it's way too early to rationally go either way. So I think we can all get together and be unhappy about the way some things have gone, but happy about the way other things have gone, and wish Thompson all the success in the world in this offseason.

[Partial]

He's fixed a roster that was broken from top to bottom and now a problem emerged on the defensive line and we want to draw huge conclusions without seeing where it goes. It's a good thing some of these people have unimportant, meaningless jobs because if some of these people were in charge of making important decisions I'm afraid this world would be a much more dangerous place.

Overturning a roster does not necessarily mean fixing it. Change for the sake of change is rarely a good thing. And replacing one "just a guy" with another, possibly younger but not necessarily "just a guy" isn't accomplishing much either.

Ted has done an alright job so far. Truth be told, he probably is starting to feel a little pressure. After all, Murphy didn't hire him, and the Packers had so much success during the Harlan, I'm sure he's feeling like he has some big shoes to fill, and isn't going to wait forever.

That's really disrespectful ^. Most of the people that are critical of TT are pretty smart, successful people. I'm sure Bretsky, RG, etc are very intelligent people, and have accomplished more than yourself.

[RashanGary]

Hell yeah. It's like every move that doesn't pan out is proof positive that TT is the mother of all F-ups and needs to be fired. I love the, "he doesn't hit on 50% of his draft picks" argument for his incompetence.

I don't mind an article that talks about how the DL was a big problem, but I don't remember anyone seeing this coming. Drafting only 5 NFL worthy players in 4 years is an example of incompetence. Having a down year on the DL is just that. Now having several down years in a row is not acceptable at all but this is similar to having one bad draft, not 4 in a row.

[RashanGary]

That's really disrespectful ^. Most of the people that are critical of TT are pretty smart, successful people. I'm sure Bretsky, RG, etc are very intelligent people, and have accomplished more than yourself.

No, they're emotionally partial. One in love with Brett Favre and the other in love with Mike Sherman

Packnut, he has no excuse that I'm aware of. You're in love with Brett Favre too so you have an excuse for your blind hate (of Rodgers).

[Partial]

I don't mind an article that talks about how the DL was a big problem, but I don't remember anyone seeing this coming. Drafting only 5 NFL worthy players in 4 years is an example of incompetence. Having a down year on the DL is just that. Now having several down years in a row is not acceptable at all but this is similar to having one bad draft, not 4 in a row.

If you have a down year at your job, do you still have a job the next year?

Where is the accountability? This is the NFL.. Not high school football. Good teams don't rebuild perpetually, which is what TT seems to be in favor of with the annual roster turnover of "just guys" replacing "just guys", and rookies replacing the third year guys.

People that earn millions of dollars and are vice presidents are held to a different standard than you or I. Pretty much any way you slice it, the team that Ted is paid to assemble failed miserably this year. After coming off such a great year the previous year, he should be feeling heat right now. That is not acceptable for his team to fail. I suspect they'll bounce back pretty well next year, but if they do not there isn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Ted Thompson is fired if they don't go at least 8-8, possibly even 9-7.

Imagine that you're paying hundreds of millions of dollars into a big project, and the project fails. You'd be a little peeved, to say the least.

There isn't any blind hate of Rodgers from me. There isn't any hate period. There are strong convictions that he isn't going to be a star, though.

Lurker, you going to address my response to you about Jenkins?

[Lurker64]

While the "everybody must be held accountable" mantra is attractive, it's a little simplistic. Suppose Charles Woodson intercepts a ball from the endzone and runs it out in an ill-advised situation and breaks both his legs, while the entire defensive line eats some questionable shrimp they bought from out of the back of some guy's truck and end up missing the season with rare parasites, and thus the defense is in shambles. That's certainly not something you can hang on Thompson. If Rodgers, Grant, Driver, and Jennings are all injured in an auto-accident, I don't think you fire the GM for that. So the question is "where do you draw the line for the whole accountability issue"?

I maintain that's the wrong question. The GM should be replaced either when you determine the current guy is hopeless beyond a reasonable doubt, or you determine that there's somebody else available who will take the job and will immediately do better than the current guy. The latter is a high hurdle since any new administrator will have to undergo a period of becoming comfortable in the organization and really becoming familiar with the roster and so won't be operating at 100% out of the gate. I sincerely doubt that either of these situations are forthcoming. If your GM is in the top half of the league, is it really worth your trouble to replace him?

[cpk1994]

1) I'm not 100% confident that he recognizes the value of a superstar quarterback. If I were the general manager(thank god I'm not, right? ), as soon as I realized a guy was not spectacular at that position, I would move on (either trade, cut, whatever, in an attempt to get value from that player while still searching for that special player).

This is the single dumbest thing I have ever heard., What is your problem with Rodgers? This moronic statement is why I say "Thank GOd you are not the Packers GM". The Packers would never have stability becuase if the QB is not spectacular after one year, you would get rid of them". They would have a new QBN every year.

This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that you hate Rodgers.

[Pugger]

Going back to the D line a big problem with it last season was the lousy play of Jolly and Pickett. How could TT foresee that? They just didn't play as well as they did last year nor could they collapse the pocket and push their guys back towards the QB. Losing Jenkins didn't help either so the only starter that played half way decently was Kampman. Harrell couldn't stay healthy (Harrell is probably a bust unless by some miracle he comes around next season - but we shouldn't hold our breath.) , KGB never came back from his injury plus Cole and Hunter missed games too. It got so bad that TT had to pick up a street FA (Pettway)! With all of this we couldn't put any pressure on opposing QBs. We gave them all day to pick us apart. Its a wonder we got as many INTs as we did! I think TT needs to get a defensive tackle AND a defensive end to shore up that line.