Tweet
My first reaction to our 1'st round draft pick in 2007 mirrored my reaction to our 1'st round draft pick in 2005: WTF????
My line of thought at the end of the 2007 draft : Does this idiot realize that Brett Favre DID NOT retire and is in fact still our starting QB??
I really just could not understand what in the hell Thompson was thinking. Considering 2005 was the worst collapse from one year to the next in franchise history, I would have thought that Offense would have taken the priority during the off-season this year.
But then I read this quote from Thompson made during an interview with Bob McGinn in July of 2006, wich really helps me understand Teds way of thinking in Regards to offense...........
When asked how he was going to put a sufficient amount of points on the board, Thompson replied :
"One of the good things about a, quote-unquote, West Coast offense is you can put people in and they can perform even though you don't know what their names are".
Now everything has become so much clearer.
Upon taking over in GB, one of Ted Thompson's first decisions in 2005,was to cut ties with starting guards Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera. Thompson then showed us all why he hates free agency by picking up FA guards Matt O'Dwyer and Adrian Klemm to make up for the loss of Wahle and Rivera. O'Dwyer was cut during training camp and Klemm was benched towards the end of the season. OOPS! (Lucky for Packer fans everywhere, Brett Favre can still throw a few accurate passes while running for his life!)
Following up on the success he had with filling gaping holes with "names you dont know" in 2005, Thompson again impressed Packer fans everywhere in 2006 when he elected not to retain kicker Ryan Longwell and center Mike Flanagan. Longwell was replaced by Dave Rayner, a free agent picked up off of waivers from the Colts. He hasnt exactly been all that impressive, wich may be why Thompson used another one of his precious draft picks on another kicker this year. As for Flanagan, his back problems made his replacement inevitable. His position was filled 'eventually' by Scott Wells, who was drafted with a seventh-round compensatory pick (251st overall) by none other than (SUPRISE) Mike Sherman. To his credit, not only has Wells done a fine job at center, but he has also filled in at both guard positions when needed.
It was also in 2006 that Thompson traded away Mike Shermans very first draft pick from 2002, taken 20'th overall, Javon Walker. Easily the best offensive player taken in the first round by the Packers since Sterling Sharpe, who was picked 7'th overall in 1988. I should also mention here that Sherman moved up from the 28'th spot in the draft to grab Walker. To do that, he traded first round pics with Seattle, and swapped our 2'nd round pick for Seattle's 5'th round pick.
"I wanted to make sure that we got a pick that I was really going to be excited about," Sherman said after the selection. "The second round is a valuable pick and that took a lot of forethought to be able to give that away . . . (but) I thought the options for the Green Bay Packers were better to be able to move up and get a player that I really feel confident in than to wait around and see what we could get in the second (round)."
Thompson traded Walker to Denver for their 2nd round pick, and then immediately traded that pick to the Falcons for three picks — a second-rounder (47th overall), third rounder (93rd) and fifth-rounder (148th). Overall, you could say that we traded a 1st and 2nd round pick in 2002 for a 5th in 2002 and a 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in 2006. Or another way to look at it would be to say that we gave up Walker for complete crap, as none of those picks ever amounted to anything.
This year, we have already seen a starting TE, RB, and FB let go. Their positions filled by more "names we dont know". Lucky for us, the Packers use the West Coast Offense, and Ted knows how to re-stock lost talent.
My line of thought at the end of the 2007 draft : Does this idiot realize that Brett Favre DID NOT retire and is in fact still our starting QB??
I really just could not understand what in the hell Thompson was thinking. Considering 2005 was the worst collapse from one year to the next in franchise history, I would have thought that Offense would have taken the priority during the off-season this year.
But then I read this quote from Thompson made during an interview with Bob McGinn in July of 2006, wich really helps me understand Teds way of thinking in Regards to offense...........
When asked how he was going to put a sufficient amount of points on the board, Thompson replied :
"One of the good things about a, quote-unquote, West Coast offense is you can put people in and they can perform even though you don't know what their names are".
Now everything has become so much clearer.
Upon taking over in GB, one of Ted Thompson's first decisions in 2005,was to cut ties with starting guards Mike Wahle and Marco Rivera. Thompson then showed us all why he hates free agency by picking up FA guards Matt O'Dwyer and Adrian Klemm to make up for the loss of Wahle and Rivera. O'Dwyer was cut during training camp and Klemm was benched towards the end of the season. OOPS! (Lucky for Packer fans everywhere, Brett Favre can still throw a few accurate passes while running for his life!)
Following up on the success he had with filling gaping holes with "names you dont know" in 2005, Thompson again impressed Packer fans everywhere in 2006 when he elected not to retain kicker Ryan Longwell and center Mike Flanagan. Longwell was replaced by Dave Rayner, a free agent picked up off of waivers from the Colts. He hasnt exactly been all that impressive, wich may be why Thompson used another one of his precious draft picks on another kicker this year. As for Flanagan, his back problems made his replacement inevitable. His position was filled 'eventually' by Scott Wells, who was drafted with a seventh-round compensatory pick (251st overall) by none other than (SUPRISE) Mike Sherman. To his credit, not only has Wells done a fine job at center, but he has also filled in at both guard positions when needed.
It was also in 2006 that Thompson traded away Mike Shermans very first draft pick from 2002, taken 20'th overall, Javon Walker. Easily the best offensive player taken in the first round by the Packers since Sterling Sharpe, who was picked 7'th overall in 1988. I should also mention here that Sherman moved up from the 28'th spot in the draft to grab Walker. To do that, he traded first round pics with Seattle, and swapped our 2'nd round pick for Seattle's 5'th round pick.
"I wanted to make sure that we got a pick that I was really going to be excited about," Sherman said after the selection. "The second round is a valuable pick and that took a lot of forethought to be able to give that away . . . (but) I thought the options for the Green Bay Packers were better to be able to move up and get a player that I really feel confident in than to wait around and see what we could get in the second (round)."
Thompson traded Walker to Denver for their 2nd round pick, and then immediately traded that pick to the Falcons for three picks — a second-rounder (47th overall), third rounder (93rd) and fifth-rounder (148th). Overall, you could say that we traded a 1st and 2nd round pick in 2002 for a 5th in 2002 and a 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in 2006. Or another way to look at it would be to say that we gave up Walker for complete crap, as none of those picks ever amounted to anything.
This year, we have already seen a starting TE, RB, and FB let go. Their positions filled by more "names we dont know". Lucky for us, the Packers use the West Coast Offense, and Ted knows how to re-stock lost talent.
Comment