Worst Packer Personnel Move Ever

[Fritz]

Those of you with a few years under your belt might think it was the Packers drafting Tony Mandarich and passing on a trio of Hall of Fame players who were chosen immediately afterward: Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas, and Deion Sanders.

Doh!

Nonetheless, that bonehead move pales in comparison to this one:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/195472911.html

I was fourteen when that trade went down, and even I knew it was a horrible, horrible trade. What hurts also is seeing that the Packers were thinking about Archie Manning. Most of you young'ns know only of Peyton and Eli, but their dad was a damn good quarterback hisself. He played for Mississippi in college, and I remember watching him once on t.v. and thinking he was really good.

What is interesting as well about the article is how casually Devine tossed around the names of other QB's they were considering trading for. No GM today that I know of would do such a thing. Imagine Ted trading for a guy, then actually providing a reporter with a list of the other guys at that position he was also thinking about trying to get instead.

And imagine Ted - or most any GM - saying that they didn't have to worry about replacing the draft picks they'd given up because the team has a bunch of guys in IR that would provide that depth. So no worries about giving up your first, second, and third round choices in the next draft, and your first and second rounders in the draft after that!

What did they get in return? A 34 year old QB, who ended up throwing nine td's and twenty-nine interceptions for the Pack. Yikes. That team was set back for a decade or so in part because of that trade.

Now that was the worst personnel move in Packer history.

[MadScientist]

Agreed. I was too young to know about the trade when it went down, but I do remember the sucky teams that followed. If Dan Devine was buried in Wisconsin his headstone would be an outhouse.

[3irty1]

I'll go with drafting Randall Woodfield in the 17th round of the 1974 NFL draft. He was a serial killer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Woodfield

[pbmax]

I'll go with drafting Randall Woodfield in the 17th round of the 1974 NFL draft. He was a serial killer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randall_Woodfield

Its hard to compete with a personnel move that would lead the national Nightly News.

[Guiness]

Yup, that one is he worst. Worse than any FA signing, which only costs money. Worse than any draft pick, which, after all, ends up being just one pick. Who thought is was good idea to give up 5 picks for a 34 YEAR OLD? I'd be interested to see details of other trades from that era, was it common to give up multiple picks for a player? Wiki tells me the draft was 17 rounds pack then, so maybe picks weren't as valued. Although Mandarich sticks in everyone's mind as the worst pick, I was never so sure. It wasn't just the Packers he fooled, it was everyone. A pick that hurt the team at least as much was Rich Campbell.

For curiosity I tried to figure out who the Rams got with the picks from the Hadl trade (I know, rubbing salt in the wounds). I couldn't tell which was pick was the one they received in trade, but the Rams first round picks in '75 were Mike Fanning, Dennis Harrah and Doug France. Fanning had a ten year career, France was a 3x all-pro and Harrah was a 7x all-pro who started for 12 seasons! Any of those guys would've been pretty welcome on the Packers of the 70's I imagine. I looked at '76 as well, but it was hard to see what happened there as well - somehow the Packers got back into round 1.

Something in the article doesn't quite mesh. It states that the Packers gave up their 1st, 2nd and 3rd round choices in '75, then Devin is quoted as saying they only lost their 1st and 3rd choices, and have 2 2nd rounders left. I think he gave away so many picks, he forgot which ones, because looking at the draft the Packers only picked once in the 2nd!

[KYPack]

Yup, that one is he worst. Worse than any FA signing, which only costs money. Worse than any draft pick, which, after all, ends up being just one pick. Who thought is was good idea to give up 5 picks for a 34 YEAR OLD? I'd be interested to see details of other trades from that era, was it common to give up multiple picks for a player? Wiki tells me the draft was 17 rounds pack then, so maybe picks weren't as valued. Although Mandarich sticks in everyone's mind as the worst pick, I was never so sure. It wasn't just the Packers he fooled, it was everyone. A pick that hurt the team at least as much was Rich Campbell.

For curiosity I tried to figure out who the Rams got with the picks from the Hadl trade (I know, rubbing salt in the wounds). I couldn't tell which was pick was the one they received in trade, but the Rams first round picks in '75 were Mike Fanning, Dennis Harrah and Doug France. Fanning had a ten year career, France was a 3x all-pro and Harrah was a 7x all-pro who started for 12 seasons! Any of those guys would've been pretty welcome on the Packers of the 70's I imagine. I looked at '76 as well, but it was hard to see what happened there as well - somehow the Packers got back into round 1.

Something in the article doesn't quite mesh. It states that the Packers gave up their 1st, 2nd and 3rd round choices in '75, then Devin is quoted as saying they only lost their 1st and 3rd choices, and have 2 2nd rounders left. I think he gave away so many picks, he forgot which ones, because looking at the draft the Packers only picked once in the 2nd!

They got back in the first round with another screw-up. They got a first round pick from Oakland for Ted Hendricks. The Pack took Mark Koncar with that pick. A HOF OLB for a nudnick Tackle. That's the 70's Pack.

They really did have 3 2nd round picks. One went to the Rams & Devine fiddled one of 'em away trading it to Miami for Jim Del Gaizo ! (Remember that bum?).

The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it.

[woodbuck27]

From your LINK Fritz:

" Ironically, it was a poor showing against the Packers in Milwaukee Oct. 13 that led to Hadl's availability. He was the Rams' starter for that game, but he was replaced by James Harris after completing only 6 of 16 passes for 59 yards and throwing two interceptions.

The Packers went on to win the game, 17-6, and Harris was promoted to starting quarterback."

I'm speechless after reading the above except that was the beginning of a real sickness for the Green Bay Packers and .....

Did John Hadl age well?

[Guiness]

They got back in the first round with another screw-up. They got a first round pick from Oakland for Ted Hendricks. The Pack took Mark Koncar with that pick. A HOF OLB for a nudnick Tackle. That's the 70's Pack.

They really did have 3 2nd round picks. One went to the Rams & Devine fiddled one of 'em away trading it to Miami for Jim Del Gaizo ! (Remember that bum?).

The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it.

No, I don't remember him old timer! How do you have that information about their picks? Just from memory???

I wonder if the other NFL GMs of the time made the same sort of jokes about Devine as they did of his modern day counterpart, Matt Millen?

[Guiness]

From your LINK Fritz:

" Ironically, it was a poor showing against the Packers in Milwaukee Oct. 13 that led to Hadl's availability. He was the Rams' starter for that game, but he was replaced by James Harris after completing only 6 of 16 passes for 59 yards and throwing two interceptions.

The Packers went on to win the game, 17-6, and Harris was promoted to starting quarterback."

I'm speechless after reading the above except that was the beginning of a real sickness for the Green Bay Packers and .....

Did John Hadl age well?

Pretty funny that. Kick a guy's ass one week, then send the team 5 picks for him the next? Did no one on the board at that time go 'whoa, wait a minute here'?

[KYPack]

No, I don't remember him old timer! How do you have that information about their picks? Just from memory???

I wonder if the other NFL GMs of the time made the same sort of jokes about Devine as they did of his modern day counterpart, Matt Millen?

I remember some of the stuff, but most of it I look up on this site: (It's not a forum, Mad, just a solid Pack history site)

http://www.packershistory.net/

Yeah, the other GM's and front office types didn't think Devine was a fool, they damned well knew it.

Bart was a half assed GM, too & between the two of 'em they sold the 70's and early 80's down the river.

(Noticed after I posted, you meant the Packer Exec council)

Yeah, they thought he was a dickhead and a strange guy, right from the start. Devine had the exec council boys over to his house for a meet and greet (& drink a bunch of beer). Devine showed the boys his rec room, offered 'em a beer & proceeded to ignore them all night. He wouldn't talk to anybody, just played pool with his kids. It was a very un-Wisconsin thing to do and everybody got a bad impression of Devine right from the jump.

After that, things went steadily downhill.

[Guiness]

I remember some of the stuff, but most of it I look up on this site: (It's not a forum, Mad, just a solid Pack history site)

http://www.packershistory.net/

Wow, great site.

So picks #9, 28 and 61 in '75 went to the Rams, so it was Fanning, Monte Jackson (a pro-bowler) and a center named Geoff Reece. In '76 the Rams used pick #39 to get another Pro-Bowler in Pat Thomas. The Pack's pick at #117 was used by Houston to get a guy you might've heard about, Steve Largent! That pick went to Houston for Lynn Dickey, who they got after Hadl celebrated his 65th birthday and retired.

The site also reminded me why I dislike the Cowboys after looking at the 90's and seeing the three consecutive playoff losses to the Cowboys.

[Joemailman]

Bart Starr was one of my 4 boyhood sports heroes. But as a GM, his drafts were horrible (with Lofton being a notable exception) . So while the picks traded for Hadl were a terrible trade, I wonder if it would have mattered much given how Bart drafted. What I don't know is how much of the failure was him, and how much was scouting. After all, the Packers drafted poorly for about 20 years.

[hoosier]

The Pack's pick at #117 was used by Houston to get a guy you might've heard about, Steve Largent! That pick went to Houston for Lynn Dickey, who they got after Hadl celebrated his 65th birthday and retired.

Interestingly, getting Dickey was probably the best personnel move the Packers made in the 1970s. In hindsight, of course, Largent (and then Lofton) would have been amazing. But then the Hadl trade also figures in Houston's worst personnel move of the 70s: they draft Largent in the fourth round (what a find!) and then proceed to trade him to Seattle for a 7th (Oilers were going to cut him if they couldn't trade him). The Packer personnel department in the 70s was so bad it even cursed the teams who traded with them.

[KYPack]

Bart Starr was one of my 4 boyhood sports heroes. But as a GM, his drafts were horrible (with Lofton being a notable exception) . So while the picks traded for Hadl were a terrible trade, I wonder if it would have mattered much given how Bart drafted. What I don't know is how much of the failure was him, and how much was scouting. After all, the Packers drafted poorly for about 20 years.

Yeah, it's tough to figure out what caused all the bad drafts for sure.

Bob Harlan reached the conclusion that the HC was the GM model was to blame. There were many instances where the HC/GM ignored his couts advice and went ahead and picked who they wanted. The big example is the '79 draft. Red Cochrane was the head scout for the Pack. He was adamant that Bart draft Joe Montana, who was still available. Starr agreed then stubbornly picked a no name DL. Red exploded and threw his clipboard across the Packer draft room and stalked out.

Starr admitted in his autobiography that he had made the move to merely excert his authority. He also admitted it was one of his dumbest moves of his career.

I agree.

So it's tough to tellwho was to blame for all the bad drafts.

[Guiness]

Interestingly, getting Dickey was probably the best personnel move the Packers made in the 1970s.

It was a good personnel move, it got the Pack a starting QB for a few years after Hunter, Tague and Hadl (even a blind squirrel...). I was just another example to show why draft picks can't be squandered. Of course, the odds of the Packers using that pick on Largent, and him becoming a HOF player in Green Bay are pretty slim even if they had the pick.