Wolf and Thompson - JSO Article

[The Leaper]

I agree with hoosier...free agency has come a long way since the mid-90s. Wolf had opportunities then that no one has now. He took advantage of that, to his credit.

The basic truth that has never been disproven over time is that a championship team is built through the draft first and foremost. Yeah, it usually take a couple solid free agent acquisitions filling key holes as well...but the nucleus of any consistent title contender comes from strength obtained via the draft. If any team could disprove that notion, it was the mid-90 Packers...who did obtain a wealth of talent via free agency/trade. But guys like Levens, Butler, Chmura, Henderson, Bennett, Freeman, Newsome, Brooks, etc. were needed as much as the free agents were.

[ND72]

Lets face how lucky we were in the 90's to land Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson and grab Eugene Robinson. the fact is there is nearly nobody that would compare to any of those guy for us right now. Granted there were a few safeties I would have like for us to bring in, but that's fine. There just hasn't been the splash FA guys like there were back then.

I still remember watching WBAY when Santana Dotson landed at the airport and interviewed him. I was so excited, I told my dad that night he would be a huge reason we win a super bowl, and i was right. Jones, Dotson, Brown, and White...I mean that was an amazing DL. For a 3-4 defense, i think we have a pretty talented DL in Jenkins, Pickett, Jolly, Raji, and hopefully Neal & Wilson. I think we have a solid DL.

I would love for us bring in a good OLB, but I like our LBs.

Our DB's worry me, mostly because of our depth. I like our top 3 CB, but as we found out, if one goes down it is ugly. I think Burnett is gonna be a big pick for us.

Offensively, everything is there. We could have, or should have, the most potent offense in the entire NFL.

[bobblehead]

I would love for us bring in a good OLB, but I like our LBs.

Our DB's worry me, mostly because of our depth. I like our top 3 CB, but as we found out, if one goes down it is ugly. I think Burnett is gonna be a big pick for us.
.

If ONE goes down?? Don't you mean if Lee, Blackman, and Harris goes down?? I admit, if you get to your 6th DB playing the nickel it gets ugly.

[CaptainKickass]

Good points Joe. I also note that this year, like last, the Vikings escape without having to play in a cold Lambeau. If you look at the Vikings schedule, they have a very comfortable late Nov. and Dec schedule with home games and a road dome game. Coincidence? It's a good thing I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, or I might be suspicious about this one....

I'm not a conspiracy theory guy, but I am WAY more than suspicious about this one.

But I digress and at the risk of getting one of those "thread jacked" emoticons accompanied by a quote, or worse yet be asked to move this to another thread - I'll save my 2 cents for another time and place.

But really - think about that for a while.

[CaptainKickass]

If ONE goes down?? Don't you mean if Lee, Blackman, and Harris goes down?? I admit, if you get to your 6th DB playing the nickel it gets ugly.

Hey I'm not the spelling police, or part of the grammar patrol but every time I see Blackmon misspelled Blackman - I get a strange vision of Will Blackmon himself wearing a mask over his eyes, underwear over his tights, sporting a flowing cape, with a giant capital "B" logo on his chest... standing in the end-zone with the ball as if he just scored a TD on a kick return.

Ok - so - I am weird.

[packrulz]

I agree with the premise of the article, he needs to be more open minded to FA's, but it fails to mention the switch to the 3-4 defense, which I wasn't sure the Packers had the personnel to pull off, and in their first year they did pretty darn good. It also fails to mention TT has got the Packers in great shape with the salary cap, it was a mess when he got here.

[Fritz]

Good points, but I'm just not sure who the FA's were this year that Thompson was supposed to bring in.

I don't buy that Jason Taylor or Adalius Thomas are any better than Brad Jones at this point.

Trades are possible, but everybody here clamors to trade Colledge for an OLB. But if Colledge is as awful as many believe, what kind of OLB are you going to get for him?

Someone else mentioned the Jets trading a third for Cromartie. But who would you rather have on your roster: the third round pick of ours, Burnett, or Cromartie?

[ND72]

Good points, but I'm just not sure who the FA's were this year that Thompson was supposed to bring in.

I don't buy that Jason Taylor or Adalius Thomas are any better than Brad Jones at this point.

Trades are possible, but everybody here clamors to trade Colledge for an OLB. But if Colledge is as awful as many believe, what kind of OLB are you going to get for him?

Someone else mentioned the Jets trading a third for Cromartie. But who would you rather have on your roster: the third round pick of ours, Burnett, or Cromartie?

I agree 100% with this. There just wasn't that guy this year to bring in that would push us over the top. Yes, I would have liked Cromartie, but I'll take Burnett (hopefully). I am shocked we didn't draft any OLB or CB, but if I remember right, Teddy brought in some OLB's as UFA who a lot of people have said could be really good pick ups.

[ThunderDan]

The real change in cap space management now is:

All the teams know how to do it!

When do players of Reggie White, Kevin Greene, and Hardy Nickerson talent all come available in the same year now a days?

Deion Sanders was a free agent signing in both 94 by the 49ers and 95 by the Cowboys. And both teams by signing Sanders started down their own personal salary cap hell. By 1999 SF was $24 million over the cap.

The Cowboys resurgance was created by the H Walker trade to Minnesota where they got their core guys with all their draft picks that year. Dallas kept signing FA to keep supplementing the core and it eventually killed them. Look how long it took Dallas to get out of their late 90s early 00s cap situation and how their record reflected that.

[retailguy]

Good points, but I'm just not sure who the FA's were this year that Thompson was supposed to bring in.

I don't buy that Jason Taylor or Adalius Thomas are any better than Brad Jones at this point.

Trades are possible, but everybody here clamors to trade Colledge for an OLB. But if Colledge is as awful as many believe, what kind of OLB are you going to get for him?

Someone else mentioned the Jets trading a third for Cromartie. But who would you rather have on your roster: the third round pick of ours, Burnett, or Cromartie?

Fritz, I kind of agree with what you're saying about Taylor & Thomas, but what I have never understood is why we don't bring one of them to camp for competition at least. They could push Jones to improve faster, or if he stumbles to provide a stop gap until he's ready.

It doesn't make sense to load up on undrafted free agents who might develop into something 3 years from now. Don't get me wrong, we need those guys too, but do we need as many as he typically brings to camp?

Couldn't we take 3 or 4 positions that we're weak at, and bring in servicable guys too? Example - OL, OLB, and CB are frequently mentioned here as being weak links. He made the OL a big priority in the draft, but did nothing (or very little) at OLB. Isn't Taylor or Thomas better than a street free agent or perhaps the guys on our practice squad? Why do all the FA's have to start?

Can't they push for that role, once in a while?

[ThunderDan]

Good points, but I'm just not sure who the FA's were this year that Thompson was supposed to bring in.

I don't buy that Jason Taylor or Adalius Thomas are any better than Brad Jones at this point.

Trades are possible, but everybody here clamors to trade Colledge for an OLB. But if Colledge is as awful as many believe, what kind of OLB are you going to get for him?

Someone else mentioned the Jets trading a third for Cromartie. But who would you rather have on your roster: the third round pick of ours, Burnett, or Cromartie?

Fritz, I kind of agree with what you're saying about Taylor & Thomas, but what I have never understood is why we don't bring one of them to camp for competition at least. They could push Jones to improve faster, or if he stumbles to provide a stop gap until he's ready.

It doesn't make sense to load up on undrafted free agents who might develop into something 3 years from now. Don't get me wrong, we need those guys too, but do we need as many as he typically brings to camp?

Couldn't we take 3 or 4 positions that we're weak at, and bring in servicable guys too? Example - OL, OLB, and CB are frequently mentioned here as being weak links. He made the OL a big priority in the draft, but did nothing (or very little) at OLB. Isn't Taylor or Thomas better than a street free agent or perhaps the guys on our practice squad? Why do all the FA's have to start?

Can't they push for that role, once in a while?

Because Taylor got a 2 year $13 million contract, that is really a 1 year $3.75 million deal. And there is no way in hell Taylor goes to GB for twice as much.

Thomas was paid $2 million in 2009 but with his signing bonus it was a $6.4 million hit. He still wants to get paid.

I don't think TT or GB will pay around $4.0 million to get a guy just to add depth. At that price they have to start or be a considerable roll-player.

[hoosier]

Over the last two years Adalius Thomas has acquired a reputation for laziness. If he can't get motivated to play for Belichick and Pats then why on earth would the Packers think things would work out any better in Green Bay? I don't think Thomas has been or should be a serious consideration. Taylor, on the other hand, might have been able to add something if he could have been convinced to sign with GB. But could he be swayed to come to GB to play on the strong side, which as far as I know he has never played before? And could he do it effectively? If not, do you really want to remove CM from his most natural position and force him to learn a new one--and probably for just one year? Taylor sounds nice at first but in the end I think there are too many variables in that equation and without knowing what his frame of mind is it is impossible to criticize TT for not going after him. Good point about Cromartie, too: if acquiring him would have meant trading this year's #3 and losing out on Burnett, that trade is not looking so good when seen through the rear view mirror!

[MichiganPackerFan]

The article fails to mention the contributions of:

Craig Newsome, 1st round pick of the 1995 draft as well as starting corner, circus-catch-interception-maker, and fumble-forcer of Superbowl XXXI.

William Henderson, 3rd round pick of the 1995 draft as well as starting fullback of Superbowl XXXI who would go on to become a probowler.

Antonio Freeman, 3rd round pick of the 1995 NFL draft as well as starting WR and go-ahead-record-length-touchdown-catcher of Superbowl XXXI. He'd also made numberous plays in the playoffs as a rookie and would go on to be a probowler and receive phat lewt contract after which he never tried again--still a great draft pick though.

Travis Jervey, 5th round selection in the 1995 draft who would later go to the Probowl with the Packers for his exceptional contributions on kick coverage.

Adam Timmerman, 7th round pick in the 1995 draft and starting right guard of Super Bowl XXXI who would later become a two time probowler.

These guys had as much to do with the magical free agent signings of the '95 offseason and if there's anything we can learn from this its that it doesn't matter where the players come from.

I just reviewed the 1995 draft. Wow, that was a really good one!

(does anyone know how to put this in a chart?)

Year(s) Round Pick Position, Name, School
1995 1 22 (to Carolina Panthers in draft-day trade)
1. 1995 1 32 CB Craig Newsome, Arizona State
(from Carolina Panthers in draft-day trade)
1995 2 53 (to Miami in Keith Jackson/Mark Ingram trades)
2. 1995 3a 65 DT Darius Holland, Colorado
(from Carolina Panthers in draft-day trade)
3. 1995 3b 66 FB William Henderson, North Carolina
(from Jacksonville Jaguars in Mark Brunell trade)
4. 1995 3c 73 LB Brian Williams, Southern California
(from Seattle Seahawks for RFA Corey Harris)
1995 3 84 (to Cleveland Browns in draft-day trade)
5. 1995 3d 90 WR Antonio Freeman, Virginia Tech
(from Cleveland Browns in draft-day trade)
6. 1995 4 117 T Jeff Miller, Mississippi
1995 5 152 (to Los Angeles Raiders in Charles Jordan trade)
7. 1995 5a 160 QB Jay Barker, Alabama
(from Cleveland Browns in draft-day trade)
8. 1995 5b 170 RB Travis Jervey, The Citadel
(from Jacksonville Jaguars in Mark Brunell trade)
9. 1995 6 173 WR Charlie Simmons, Georgia Tech
(from Carolina Panthers in draft-day trade)
1995 6 188 (to Carolina Panthers in draft-day trade)
10. 1995 7 230 G Adam Timmerman, South Dakota State

[sharpe1027]

Why is it that many of these arguments seem to suggest that Veteran talent must come through FA rather than internally? Do players only become Veterans if they change teams?

[Pugger]

And just because a player with a recognizable name becomes a FA is this guy automatically better than any of our players already on the roster? Obviously TT and company think of the players currently on our roster in higher regard than some of the folks on all of these online message boards I read.