Peter King lists TT as Executive of the Year

[Zool]

Yet we all reply to this insanity. I'm just as guilty of it. What is it about ridiculous posts that make you want to find the other person and shake the shit out of them?

[Guiness]

McGinn polled scouts to grade the NFCN and they loved Sitton, said Colledge was rock solid and didn't really like Wells. They also liked Clifton and Tausher. According to the scouts, the Pack has the best OL in the NFCN but it's a big tragedy to you.

The Packers had a 4,000 yard passer and 1200 yard rusher 2 years in a row. It's not perfect, but I think Packer fans greatly exaggerate the OL issues. Shocking that Wells is the top guy according to the Ted haters, but he's the worst according to the scouts. And funny how we've had 9 sacks in the last 7 games (on pace for 20 in a season) and are tearing it up in the run.

They started a little slow, but they're gelling right now. The only OL Sherman gave us in 4 years was Wells. Thompson has Sitton, Colledge, Spitz and maybe Lang as good players.

Some people's ability to ignore reality in favor of what they want to believe is shocking. The situation Sherman left (cap, aging players, contracts, young talent) was so horrendous that we're finally starting to dig out of that OL hole. Patler did a nice job explaining it the other day.


But why listen to scouts and the most respected poster here when we can forge our own fairytale and stand by it with the idiotic fervour and dedication of holy crusaders

You can't ignore that the OL was scary early season, no two ways about it. We're lucky Rodgers' head is still attached to his shoulders after the first quarter of the season. When Clifton went down, we had College at LT and Barbre at RT. It was looking really bad.

There's no doubt they turned it around though, and if the line isn't a strength, it's no longer the achilles heal it was Clifton got healthy (or, as healthy as that man will ever be) Tauscher came back, and Lang has emerged as a good backup/succession plan at one of the tackle positions.


But, we're in the playoffs, going to Arizona, all is forgiven!

[sharpe1027]

This is typically where Patler chimes in and says that NFL teams on average turn over half their rosters every 2.785 years. Of course I made that number up. But without knowing how fast rosters turn over on average, the original post is pretty meaningless.

The idea that the Packers can't afford to pay their players is completely ludicrous.

It is not your fault, the number is a moving target that is difficult to determine. Each time a guy is cut or every second someone is not cut....the number changes. Very difficult to track accurately.

[Fritz]

Let me quote Patler regarding Ron Wolf's approach to roster turnover on the offensive line:


Chann: "I suppose then when people are clamoring for TT to resign all sorts of players that perhaps he will let some of them walk and we will all wonder why, only for a 2nd year player to fill his shoes."


Patler: "That happened regularly under Wolf, and particularly at guard and in the O-line generally. He always seemed to have another one ready to go, and was willing to go with a different starting combination almost every year. Aaron Taylor was drafted and after missing a season was ready to start. Harry Galbreath left and Adam Timmerman stepped in. Taylor left and Rivera was ready. Timmerman left and he had Verba and Wahle around. Verba was ultimately expendable because Wahle came around as a guard and Clifton was at LT. When Dotson faded, Tauscher stepped in."

One can conclude from this that roster turnover is part of life in the NFL and not just a result of Thompson's particular methods of acquiring players. One can also conclude that Packer1234 does not know that the Packers went 11-5 this year and are in the playoffs, and may not know that if Thompson were fired from Green Bay suddenly and ridiculously, he'd very likely have several GM gigs awaiting him as soon as word got out.

[Gunakor]

He isn't taking care of his players...

Ask Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Aaron Rodgers, Nick Barnett, Brandon Chillar, Justin Harrell, Will Blackmon, Al Harris, Jarrett Bush, or anyone else in that locker room whether or not TT takes care of his players. I think you'll find that to a man they all say you're wrong. Thompson is one of the best in the league at taking care of his own. Arguably one of the best cap guys in the league too. This is our squad for years to come. Nobody's going anywhere.

[ThunderDan]

He isn't taking care of his players...

Ask Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Aaron Rodgers, Nick Barnett, Brandon Chillar, Justin Harrell, Will Blackmon, Al Harris, Jarrett Bush, or anyone else in that locker room whether or not TT takes care of his players. I think you'll find that to a man they all say you're wrong. Thompson is one of the best in the league at taking care of his own. Arguably one of the best cap guys in the league too. This is our squad for years to come. Nobody's going anywhere.

I could easily see us lose 1 player a year over the next 4-5 years. You can only afford so many superstars on your teams, at least when a cap is in place. PITT has rookie starters every year. We are lucky to have TT drafting to find those replacements, no matter how much you want your whole team from last year back it will never happen.

We have locked up Rodgers, Jennings which really is our future on O.

[ThunderDan]

And by 1 player a year I mean quality starters not the Swains of the world.

[Gunakor]

He isn't taking care of his players...

Ask Ryan Grant, Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, Aaron Rodgers, Nick Barnett, Brandon Chillar, Justin Harrell, Will Blackmon, Al Harris, Jarrett Bush, or anyone else in that locker room whether or not TT takes care of his players. I think you'll find that to a man they all say you're wrong. Thompson is one of the best in the league at taking care of his own. Arguably one of the best cap guys in the league too. This is our squad for years to come. Nobody's going anywhere.

I could easily see us lose 1 player a year over the next 4-5 years. You can only afford so many superstars on your teams, at least when a cap is in place. PITT has rookie starters every year. We are lucky to have TT drafting to find those replacements, no matter how much you want your whole team from last year back it will never happen.

We have locked up Rodgers, Jennings which really is our future on O.

Look at the contract numbers for Aaron Rodgers. We'll have one of the very best QB's in the entire league playing for a measly 6 million dollars in 2010. 7.5 in 2011. We actually gain nearly 5 million dollars from this year to next on Aaron's contract alone. That's our first 2 or 3 draft picks paid for right there. That's a contract extension for Nick Collins and Tramon Williams and the extra money given to Brandon Chillar. That could be a lot of things. I don't think we'll be losing too many players due to lack of funds anytime soon.

[RashanGary]

I don't think we'll be losing too many players due to lack of funds anytime soon.

This is exactly it. We might be making either or decisions like the Steelers did a few years ago, keeping ward, letting Burris go.


I don't see us running into very many Rivera, Wahle, Flanagan issues where we have nothing behind the starter and no money to keep the starter, at least not anytime soon.


We're at a point where patience and good decisions are starting to accumulate. Budgets and caps impose a limit as to just how high it can go, but with the decisions Ted has made, he raised the ceiling. I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

[Smidgeon]

I don't think we'll be losing too many players due to lack of funds anytime soon.

This is exactly it. We might be making either or decisions like the Steelers did a few years ago, keeping ward, letting Burris go.


I don't see us running into very many Rivera, Wahle, Flanagan issues where we have nothing behind the starter and no money to keep the starter, at least not anytime soon.


We're at a point where patience and good decisions are starting to accumulate. Budgets and caps impose a limit as to just how high it can go, but with the decisions Ted has made, he raised the ceiling. I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

Umm...come again? How did I get thrown into the salary cap discussion?

[swede]

I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

Umm...come again? How did I get thrown into the salary cap discussion?

See...you ARE surprised.

[Smidgeon]

I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

Umm...come again? How did I get thrown into the salary cap discussion?

See...you ARE surprised.

You're right. He got me on that one.

[Scott Campbell]

I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

Umm...come again? How did I get thrown into the salary cap discussion?

See...you ARE surprised.

It's about time he got dragged into the scrum.

[Patler]

DL... still pretty much what was here before TT showed up. Hawk hasn;t really lived up to a #5 pick.

The D-line is what it was before TT showed up? Do you mean in personnel or in performance. The only hold-overs in the D-line are Jenkins and Kampman. Thompson managed to resign Kampman to a reasonable FA contract before the 2006 season, after having signed him as a RFA in 2005. He signed Jenkins before the 2007 season. While he wasn't responsible for getting either player originally, at least he managed to keep them in GB when each could have been pretty hot candidates in the market. The rest of the D-line, Pickett, Jolly, Raji, Montgomery, Wynn, Toribio, were all brought to GB by TT. As for performance, I think the line has played very well this year. Whether that is better than it was pre-TT doesn't mean much, as long as it performs well now. Personally, I think the D-line play this year has been better than I have seen in GB for some time.

Hawk isn't the impact player hoped for at #5, but TT can be criticized for that only if he by-passed a player to take Hawk. The mere fact that Hawk isn't what he was hoped to be isn't TT's fault. We should look at who TT should have taken instead, and that doesn't include the players who came from no where to excel. I can't blame TT for not taking a player that no one had at the top of their boards.

I mean, no GM is perfect. I don't hate TT - his biggest contreversy was Favre. However, it doesn't mean I like his mentality. Outside of woodson, he has never really proven he wants to win Now... it's always "to win later". Right now, with the cap about to go away, we have al ot of young players coming up for new contracts... and we can't afford to sign them all at once.

How is that building ag ood future? 3 years from now, over half the roster is going to be gone, including starters, becuase we can't afford to pay that many players at once. He jumped all over paying AR after a handful of games, but not Collins after two probowl selections? Not Jennings after being great for 3 seasons?

You will have to explain to me why it is that with the cap going away the Packers will not be able to sign players they could have last year or this. I do not understand your reasoning. Any money not spent on a new player contract presumably is still in the Packers hands. The salary cap is not money, its just an artificial number that contracts are structured to meet. It does not create cash for the team. If the full cap number is not "spent" real dollars are not taken away from the team. If you had $200 in 2009 and I said you could spend no more than $100 in 2009, but you really spent only $80 because you didn't buy a new cap, are you any less able to buy that cap in 2010?

As for Jennings, the Packers already signed him to a lucrative contract extension last June.

Thing is, and this was an issue in the locker room earlier this year, is the feeling is with players that TT doesn't reward them. Woodson even spoke about it, saying a new contract for collins would go a long way in that lockerroom. Have you seen one yet?

I don't mind what TT does draft wise, I don't like what he does outside of the draft. He isn't taking care of his players, and now we will ahve a lot of expiring contracts around the same time, lose a bunch of people, only to fill in with what... more new draft picks? That sets us up to be a winning team once every few years, instead of a constant playoff/superbowl contendor. Look at what the other good teams do that are always there. They are constantly looking for parts, and lock up those that earn it.

Not so in GB under TT.

Actually, TT has managed to quietly resign and improve contracts for lots of players over the last 5 years. He resigned or extended at least Franks in '05; Kampman in '06; Jenkins and Barnett in '07; Grant, Rodgers and Poppinga in '08; Jennings, Bush and Chiller in '09. He sweetened the contracts of at least Tauscher, Harris (twice) and Driver (I think twice, too). He brought in Pickett and Woodson as FAs of note. Sure, there are some expiring contracts to address, but that will always be the case. I expect Collins will get taken care of too. However, it takes two to agree. If Collins' agent was asking for a top 5 contract, I can fully understand the Packers waiting to see if 2008 was a one year performance, and how Collins would adjust to the new scheme. In essence, make sure he would be worth the money. Collins got a real nice bump in pay this year anyway ($2.5 million added) due to performance clauses in his original contract.

[Smidgeon]

I think it's going to surprise some people like smidgeon just how much talent we cna afford to keep.

Umm...come again? How did I get thrown into the salary cap discussion?

See...you ARE surprised.

It's about time he got dragged into the scrum.

I'll come a'swingin'!