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Kiper - Packers quiet plan
From ESPN Insider
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Want a total misconception about the current success of the Green Bay Packers? Start with Aaron Rodgers.
One narrative you've heard is about how Rodgers fell down the draft board, and the team, despite its then-health at the quarterback position, drafted him and had to let him hold the clipboard until he was ready. He was talented and ready to start somewhere else, but, blocked by Brett Favre, Rodgers waited. The team would face the annual conundrum of what to do -- maintain the current success, or dive into the future? It waited. So now the current Packers are Super Bowl champions, and, because of the great patience Green Bay showed, they were rewarded.
And this is nice, if only it were 100 percent true.
What it does is overlook the fact that the Packers didn't just draft Rodgers and stow him away like some good wine that would become great if opened later. They worked with him incessantly and had a quarterback expert re-engineer his release, which was a weakness out of Cal. Rodgers was a good prospect and had a chance to be a good player, but the Packers had to diligently refine him and build him into a great quarterback. He didn't just hold a clipboard and wait his turn. They didn't wait patiently; they worked a quarterback who -- regardless of what he claims about the joys of offseason work -- is much better for all the time he has put in and the thousands of throws nobody will ever see.
It's important to point this out because it's far more indicative of the state of this current roster than people realize. The Packers survived a mountain of injuries last year not just because they had enough depth to fill holes but because they had enough effective depth, guys they had chosen over others because they created a culture of competition just to crack the roster.
I said it weeks ago: I think this team has a real shot to go undefeated if that's really its goal. Visits to San Diego and Detroit might be the biggest hurdles, or even the trip to face what could be a desperate Giants team. But Green Bay will be favored in each and, when firing on all cylinders, is clearly the league's best team.
But the potential dynasty is less important to me than how it got to this point, and I wanted to point out some observations about why the Packers are in these types of discussions.
Start with sheer volume. Over the past seven drafts, the Packers have drafted a whopping 68 players. Sure, not all of them will stick, but when you are piling up so many picks, and bringing in a lot of undrafted free agents, you're giving yourself a chance to pick from a vast pool of talent. He doesn't like to hear it, but they have one of the best directors of college scouting you can find in John Dorsey, and he's been there for this whole building process. And Dorsey and staff don't just see overlooked talent, they see flaws that can be corrected.
When the Packers have called on talent to step up and fill in for injured players and not experienced a huge drop-off, it's also a product of bringing in so many guys and seeing who could emerge from that group just to get a roster spot. This team can see a great talent such as Rodgers or Clay Matthews, but it doesn't use a star system. From a mountain of picks to the many undrafted free agents the Packers have signed, they create competition. Make it and you've earned it.
Then there's development. You look at Green Bay's recent drafts and you're not seeing a bunch of players who showed obvious talent as a rookie only to break through. In fact, a number of key players on the current roster did very little to signal they'd be good players. Jermichael Finley caught a whopping six passes as a rookie after the Packers were high on him as a third-round value out of Texas in 2008. Jordy Nelson should crack 1,000 yards receiving this season, but he has been merely a good complementary player for his first three seasons and looked expendable to many. The Packers didn't agree. B.J. Raji was being called a bust toward the end of his rookie season, but the Packers didn't really expect a ton out of him even though he was drafted 17 spots ahead of Matthews. Raji was making a position switch, and their willingness to not write him off and to stick with the developmental process has yielded results. Josh Sitton was drafted as a tackle in the fourth round in 2008 and now is among the league's best guards.
These aren't unique cases of development -- you can point to developmental stories on any team -- but they are numerous in Green Bay. The team gets a player in and works him from top to bottom. Maybe this sounds controversial, but I don't think you get a case like Aaron Maybin with the current Packers. I'm not saying it's all on the Bills that he didn't dignify his draft status in Buffalo. But with the current Packers, I don't think he'd arrive to camp way underweight and seemingly out of any sense of a program.
What the Packers have done is fostered a culture of talent but also one of resourcefulness and development. They have a chance to be something of a dynasty not because they are hitting draft home runs but because they're hitting a lot of singles and manufacturing a ton of runs out of those singles. After all, it was years before Rodgers even got to the plate.
The key with Green Bay for me is that when a player is not contributing, the team makes it clear that it's not a time to sulk. It's a time to work
One narrative you've heard is about how Rodgers fell down the draft board, and the team, despite its then-health at the quarterback position, drafted him and had to let him hold the clipboard until he was ready. He was talented and ready to start somewhere else, but, blocked by Brett Favre, Rodgers waited. The team would face the annual conundrum of what to do -- maintain the current success, or dive into the future? It waited. So now the current Packers are Super Bowl champions, and, because of the great patience Green Bay showed, they were rewarded.
And this is nice, if only it were 100 percent true.
What it does is overlook the fact that the Packers didn't just draft Rodgers and stow him away like some good wine that would become great if opened later. They worked with him incessantly and had a quarterback expert re-engineer his release, which was a weakness out of Cal. Rodgers was a good prospect and had a chance to be a good player, but the Packers had to diligently refine him and build him into a great quarterback. He didn't just hold a clipboard and wait his turn. They didn't wait patiently; they worked a quarterback who -- regardless of what he claims about the joys of offseason work -- is much better for all the time he has put in and the thousands of throws nobody will ever see.
It's important to point this out because it's far more indicative of the state of this current roster than people realize. The Packers survived a mountain of injuries last year not just because they had enough depth to fill holes but because they had enough effective depth, guys they had chosen over others because they created a culture of competition just to crack the roster.
I said it weeks ago: I think this team has a real shot to go undefeated if that's really its goal. Visits to San Diego and Detroit might be the biggest hurdles, or even the trip to face what could be a desperate Giants team. But Green Bay will be favored in each and, when firing on all cylinders, is clearly the league's best team.
But the potential dynasty is less important to me than how it got to this point, and I wanted to point out some observations about why the Packers are in these types of discussions.
Start with sheer volume. Over the past seven drafts, the Packers have drafted a whopping 68 players. Sure, not all of them will stick, but when you are piling up so many picks, and bringing in a lot of undrafted free agents, you're giving yourself a chance to pick from a vast pool of talent. He doesn't like to hear it, but they have one of the best directors of college scouting you can find in John Dorsey, and he's been there for this whole building process. And Dorsey and staff don't just see overlooked talent, they see flaws that can be corrected.
When the Packers have called on talent to step up and fill in for injured players and not experienced a huge drop-off, it's also a product of bringing in so many guys and seeing who could emerge from that group just to get a roster spot. This team can see a great talent such as Rodgers or Clay Matthews, but it doesn't use a star system. From a mountain of picks to the many undrafted free agents the Packers have signed, they create competition. Make it and you've earned it.
Then there's development. You look at Green Bay's recent drafts and you're not seeing a bunch of players who showed obvious talent as a rookie only to break through. In fact, a number of key players on the current roster did very little to signal they'd be good players. Jermichael Finley caught a whopping six passes as a rookie after the Packers were high on him as a third-round value out of Texas in 2008. Jordy Nelson should crack 1,000 yards receiving this season, but he has been merely a good complementary player for his first three seasons and looked expendable to many. The Packers didn't agree. B.J. Raji was being called a bust toward the end of his rookie season, but the Packers didn't really expect a ton out of him even though he was drafted 17 spots ahead of Matthews. Raji was making a position switch, and their willingness to not write him off and to stick with the developmental process has yielded results. Josh Sitton was drafted as a tackle in the fourth round in 2008 and now is among the league's best guards.
These aren't unique cases of development -- you can point to developmental stories on any team -- but they are numerous in Green Bay. The team gets a player in and works him from top to bottom. Maybe this sounds controversial, but I don't think you get a case like Aaron Maybin with the current Packers. I'm not saying it's all on the Bills that he didn't dignify his draft status in Buffalo. But with the current Packers, I don't think he'd arrive to camp way underweight and seemingly out of any sense of a program.
What the Packers have done is fostered a culture of talent but also one of resourcefulness and development. They have a chance to be something of a dynasty not because they are hitting draft home runs but because they're hitting a lot of singles and manufacturing a ton of runs out of those singles. After all, it was years before Rodgers even got to the plate.
The key with Green Bay for me is that when a player is not contributing, the team makes it clear that it's not a time to sulk. It's a time to work
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