Igor Olshansky

[retailguy]

But he has a reputation for being "indiffernt" during practice and not the hardest worker.

Interestingly enough, so does Canty, the guy a lot of people critical of Thompson are railing on us missing out on.

I think folks are just frustrated that they have no idea what the "plan" is. Didn't use to be that way under Wolf, who was remarkably candid about his plans/direction.

My theory is that Ted doesn't understand the part of his job where there is no "owner". The team is publicly owned. He has a duty to "lay out the plan", even though the sharholders hold no voting rights.

If he did that, I think you'd see the criticism fall over night. People care about this team. Ted should do a better job recognizing and managing that.

[packrat]

"Lay out the plan" I'm sure all the other GM's would love to see him do that. Anyone watching how TT does business knows what the plan is--get as many good guys as you can in the draft and sign whatever free agents or do whatever trades you can do without busting the cap or threatening team cohesion. We know he is looking for players. The only thing we don't know is which players and what he is willing to pay them. And, NO ONE should know that until the deal is done.

[retailguy]

"Lay out the plan" I'm sure all the other GM's would love to see him do that. Anyone watching how TT does business knows what the plan is--get as many good guys as you can in the draft and sign whatever free agents or do whatever trades you can do without busting the cap or threatening team cohesion. We know he is looking for players. The only thing we don't know is which players and what he is willing to pay them. And, NO ONE should know that until the deal is done.

Yep, I get your point. Didn't seem to affect Wolf though.....

[Gunakor]

But he has a reputation for being "indiffernt" during practice and not the hardest worker.

Interestingly enough, so does Canty, the guy a lot of people critical of Thompson are railing on us missing out on.

I think folks are just frustrated that they have no idea what the "plan" is. Didn't use to be that way under Wolf, who was remarkably candid about his plans/direction.

My theory is that Ted doesn't understand the part of his job where there is no "owner". The team is publicly owned. He has a duty to "lay out the plan", even though the sharholders hold no voting rights.

If he did that, I think you'd see the criticism fall over night. People care about this team. Ted should do a better job recognizing and managing that.

The shareholders do not have ownership rights either, at least in the sense of an actual NFL owner anyway. They are just fans who own Packer stock. They are no more entitled to an explanation than fans who do not own Packers stock IMO. They do not need the plan laid out for them, nor should it be. Anything TT tells the shareholders will be heard by other teams, who will then have an advantage over us if they are targeting the same players we are. I'd prefer Ted remain silent about what goes on behind closed doors at Lambeau.

[Patler]

"Lay out the plan" I'm sure all the other GM's would love to see him do that. Anyone watching how TT does business knows what the plan is--get as many good guys as you can in the draft and sign whatever free agents or do whatever trades you can do without busting the cap or threatening team cohesion. We know he is looking for players. The only thing we don't know is which players and what he is willing to pay them. And, NO ONE should know that until the deal is done.

Yep, I get your point. Didn't seem to affect Wolf though.....

The "Wolf Era" was a totally different time. He could afford to be more candid. For most of it, the Packers were one of only a few teams able to play in the free agent market. Most teams were cutting players left and right just to get under the salary cap. Some would sign big free agents, but would cut 3 or 4 solid players to do it. The June 1 waivers used to contain scads of very good players who had just become too expensive. Now days, most teams are able to keep the best of their own, and the competition for those that hit the market is fairly broad.

Hard to belief, but the Wolf era has been over for almost 10 years. The NFL that he operated in 10-20 years ago is really quite different from the NFL today.

[KYPack]

I wouldn't call Olshansky a "Russian" to his face. He was born in the Ukraine.

On the West Coast, we have a number of legal immigrants from the former satellite countries like the Ukraine, Belarus, etc. which was once ruled by the former Soviet Union and/or influenced by Russia. They bristle at being labeled "Russians."

Despite his Ducks coaches advice, Olshansky turned pro early. While he was a very good Division I college DE, we was still raw when he turned pro. I think his declaring early hurt his development as a pro.

I know OPF.

I listed his hometown in the profile...Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

Don't worry, if I'm ever within Igor's earshot, I'll only call him "a Russian" behind his back.

Around here, we have a number of illegal immigrants from the former satellite countries like the Ukraine, Belarus, etc. which was once ruled by the former Soviet Union.

They are stick-up men and run stolen car rings. Nobody messes with 'em. Nobody calls 'em Russians, either.

[retailguy]

The "Wolf Era" was a totally different time. He could afford to be more candid. For most of it, the Packers were one of only a few teams able to play in the free agent market. Most teams were cutting players left and right just to get under the salary cap. Some would sign big free agents, but would cut 3 or 4 solid players to do it. The June 1 waivers used to contain scads of very good players who had just become too expensive. Now days, most teams are able to keep the best of their own, and the competition for those that hit the market is fairly broad.

Hard to belief, but the Wolf era has been over for almost 10 years. The NFL that he operated in 10-20 years ago is really quite different from the NFL today.

Patler, we can always come up with excuses and reasons. Some of them more legitimate than others. My point was, and is twofold.

Ted is a polar opposite to Wolf. People came to expect candid comments, whether they were entitled to them or not wasn't and isn't the issue. Sherman largely carried on that policy as well. Good or bad is different discussion. Second, the ownership issue is a unique anomaly in the NFL. Rightly or wrongly, it needs to be handled differently, almost with kid gloves. PR skills are necessary. Ted has NONE.

End of the line, for me at least, is that Ted's management style gets him some criticism. Some deserved, some not deserved. Ted says the criticism doesn't bother him and I hope not, because I don't see it stopping until a Super Bowl win, and maybe not even then.

[HarveyWallbangers]

Apparently, the Packers are looking Olshansky, Marques Douglas, and Mike Wright--all 3-4 DEs. At least, it appears they are aware that they need DEs.

[Lurker64]

Patler, we can always come up with excuses and reasons. Some of them more legitimate than others. My point was, and is twofold.

Ted is a polar opposite to Wolf. People came to expect candid comments, whether they were entitled to them or not wasn't and isn't the issue. Sherman largely carried on that policy as well. Good or bad is different discussion. Second, the ownership issue is a unique anomaly in the NFL. Rightly or wrongly, it needs to be handled differently, almost with kid gloves. PR skills are necessary. Ted has NONE.

End of the line, for me at least, is that Ted's management style gets him some criticism. Some deserved, some not deserved. Ted says the criticism doesn't bother him and I hope not, because I don't see it stopping until a Super Bowl win, and maybe not even then.

The key difference between Thompson and Wolf is that Thompson is uncomfortable with standing up in front of people and lying, while Wolf was legendary at it. Wolf was a master of misdirection, misinformation, and the outright lie. If he liked a player, he'd say he hated them or if he hated a player, he'd say he loved him, just to drive down the value of the guy you want and up the value of the guy you want someone else to end up with. There really hasn't been a snake oil salesman of the caliber of Wolf in the league for any team since Wolf retired.

The current modus operandi of the best organizations is just to clam up and say nothing. When's the last time you had Parcells, or Bellichick, or Pioli, or Poiian, or Colbert come out and give any useful information to the fans or media? The sports media is so omnipresent these days that it's really terribly hard to get away with the sorts of bald-faced lies that Wolf made his career out of. Sure, Wolf was candid, but about 50% of the things that came out of his mouth were blatant falsehoods.

The fact of the matter is that the good ones these days don't lie outright, they just clam up and like it or not, it's worked for those guys.

[Patler]

Patler, we can always come up with excuses and reasons. Some of them more legitimate than others. My point was, and is twofold.

Ted is a polar opposite to Wolf. People came to expect candid comments, whether they were entitled to them or not wasn't and isn't the issue. Sherman largely carried on that policy as well. Good or bad is different discussion. Second, the ownership issue is a unique anomaly in the NFL. Rightly or wrongly, it needs to be handled differently, almost with kid gloves. PR skills are necessary. Ted has NONE.

End of the line, for me at least, is that Ted's management style gets him some criticism. Some deserved, some not deserved. Ted says the criticism doesn't bother him and I hope not, because I don't see it stopping until a Super Bowl win, and maybe not even then.

Not making excuses, simply stating the facts. I get tired of fans wanting to live in the Lombardi era, the Wolf era, etc. The simple fact is that what worked then, what you could do then , what you were ALLOWED to do then doesn't always translate to the current situation.

The "ownership" issue of the Packers is a cute factoid, of absolutely little significance. What is one of those "owners" going to do if Thompson pisses him off? What if a GM pisses off a real owner? Rather than requiring handling with kid gloves, the Packers' ownership situation really gives the Packer management the freedom of an owner, even though they are employees.

I agree with one thing, Thompson is weak in the PR area. I have long thought the Packers should employ a "press secretary" or someone to run the public presentations. Wolf seemed to really enjoy that part. Thompson appears to hate it. Sherman tried to accept it, but I thought also handled it poorly at times. I see no reason why the GM has to be the publicity face of the team.

on another note, Murphy has not been as visible as Harlan was. I wonder if he will develop into a more visible leader. Both Thompson and Murphy work more behind closed doors, it seems.

[Lurker64]

I agree with one thing, Thompson is weak in the PR area. I have long thought the Packers should employ a "press secretary" or someone to run the public presentations.

Capital idea, as a fan of the Green Bay Packers, I would rather the General Manager (whoever he is) can devote all of his attention to improving the football team, and as little of it as as he likes to talking to the people.

Possibly the traditional role of the General Manager as "one who makes press conferences" would make this difficult.

[Patler]

The key difference between Thompson and Wolf is that Thompson is uncomfortable with standing up in front of people and lying, while Wolf was legendary at it. Wolf was a master of misdirection, misinformation, and the outright lie. If he liked a player, he'd say he hated them or if he hated a player, he'd say he loved him, just to drive down the value of the guy you want and up the value of the guy you want someone else to end up with. There really hasn't been a snake oil salesman of the caliber of Wolf in the league for any team since Wolf retired.

The current modus operandi of the best organizations is just to clam up and say nothing. When's the last time you had Parcells, or Bellichick, or Pioli, or Poiian, or Colbert come out and give any useful information to the fans or media? The sports media is so omnipresent these days that it's really terribly hard to get away with the sorts of bald-faced lies that Wolf made his career out of. Sure, Wolf was candid, but about 50% of the things that came out of his mouth were blatant falsehoods.

The fact of the matter is that the good ones these days don't lie outright, they just clam up and like it or not, it's worked for those guys.

Ahhh...a reminder of times gone by!
You are absolutely right about Wolf and the truthfulness of what he said.

[Fritz]

Patler, we can always come up with excuses and reasons. Some of them more legitimate than others. My point was, and is twofold.

Ted is a polar opposite to Wolf. People came to expect candid comments, whether they were entitled to them or not wasn't and isn't the issue. Sherman largely carried on that policy as well. Good or bad is different discussion. Second, the ownership issue is a unique anomaly in the NFL. Rightly or wrongly, it needs to be handled differently, almost with kid gloves. PR skills are necessary. Ted has NONE.

End of the line, for me at least, is that Ted's management style gets him some criticism. Some deserved, some not deserved. Ted says the criticism doesn't bother him and I hope not, because I don't see it stopping until a Super Bowl win, and maybe not even then.

Not making excuses, simply stating the facts. I get tired of fans wanting to live in the Lombardi era, the Wolf era, etc. The simple fact is that what worked then, what you could do then , what you were ALLOWED to do then doesn't always translate to the current situation.

The "ownership" issue of the Packers is a cute factoid, of absolutely little significance. What is one of those "owners" going to do if Thompson pisses him off? What if a GM pisses off a real owner? Rather than requiring handling with kid gloves, the Packers' ownership situation really gives the Packer management the freedom of an owner, even though they are employees.

I agree with one thing, Thompson is weak in the PR area. I have long thought the Packers should employ a "press secretary" or someone to run the public presentations. Wolf seemed to really enjoy that part. Thompson appears to hate it. Sherman tried to accept it, but I thought also handled it poorly at times. I see no reason why the GM has to be the publicity face of the team.

on another note, Murphy has not been as visible as Harlan was. I wonder if he will develop into a more visible leader. Both Thompson and Murphy work more behind closed doors, it seems.

I'd have to agree. The NFL is nothing like the NFL of Lombardi's time - even the players' sizes are totally different. The NFL of today is also not the NFL of Wolf's time. In fact, one of the reasons he said he was getting out of it was that he didn't like the "new rules" that didn't allow him to wheel and deal as he liked.

You bring up a good point about June 1. It wasn't long ago that that was like candy day - scads of good players got cut. But once teams figured out you couldn't just buy guys willy-nilly (well, some owners still don't know that), June 1 became just another day. And that's a fairly recent change.

So new rules require new strategies. I do think if the Pack would hire one super hot, sexy babe, and one hot hunk o' guy as PR people, most posters on this site would cease criticism immediately and spend all their time in the garbage can thread....Heck, I would.

[retailguy]

The key difference between Thompson and Wolf is that Thompson is uncomfortable with standing up in front of people and lying, while Wolf was legendary at it. Wolf was a master of misdirection, misinformation, and the outright lie. If he liked a player, he'd say he hated them or if he hated a player, he'd say he loved him, just to drive down the value of the guy you want and up the value of the guy you want someone else to end up with. There really hasn't been a snake oil salesman of the caliber of Wolf in the league for any team since Wolf retired.

The current modus operandi of the best organizations is just to clam up and say nothing. When's the last time you had Parcells, or Bellichick, or Pioli, or Poiian, or Colbert come out and give any useful information to the fans or media? The sports media is so omnipresent these days that it's really terribly hard to get away with the sorts of bald-faced lies that Wolf made his career out of. Sure, Wolf was candid, but about 50% of the things that came out of his mouth were blatant falsehoods.

The fact of the matter is that the good ones these days don't lie outright, they just clam up and like it or not, it's worked for those guys.

Ahhh...a reminder of times gone by!
You are absolutely right about Wolf and the truthfulness of what he said.

See, I think Wolf was more truthful than not. People believed him. People don't believe Thompson.

I find it ironic that we're talking about 'competitive advantage' in a thread that is discussing the possibility of signing a DE that is a "backup" want, because the Packers got outbid (rather weren't even deemed enough of an option to make a trip to inquire about an offer), by the guy most in these rooms wanted.

What kind of 'competitive advantage' is that? Ted could've printed his "wish list" in the New York Times and it wouldn't have mattered. So, in this situation, what difference would it make if Ted had told us he wanted Canty? Maybe if he had made it known, (and did really want the guy) Canty would've at least visited before he accepted another offer.

Gotta love how this 'competitive advantage' is working for us.

[Fritz]

Let's say Ted had gone publicly ga-ga over Canty. He wants the guy, has to have him. So how might Canty's agent respond to that...hmmm....I wonder.

Retail, look at the owners who do broadcast their plans - the Jerry Joneses and the Dan Snyders. No doubt about who they want, right? And they get who they want, mostly.

I'll betcha Haynesworth doesn't turn out to be worth near what he's paid. Not near. T.O. wasn't worth what he was paid, not after the first season, anyway.

I just don't think some big plan announcement is going to do anyone any good. TT's plan, generally, is clear. But why would he go into specifics about the players he wants to draft or sign?