Favre, Thompson, Rogers. The End.

[The Leaper]

Anyone else find themselves wishing that Thompson had gone through the trouble of picking up an extra veteran WR or RB last night?

If Thompson is going to acquire someone in free agency, they should be an IMPACT player...not some guy who represents a marginal upgrade over a young improving player.

I just didn't see many impact players available at RB or WR this offseason. Lots of old/injured guys, but not many impact players.

[The Leaper]

Re: Offense

I don't think it is fair to hang Walker leaving entirely on Thompson's head.

As I and others have pointed out, Walker had no leverage when he made his initial hissy fit. Thompson's decision to not put an offer on the table for Walker to either take or leave is ridiculous to me.

I don't care about precedent...I care about keeping IMPACT PLAYERS like Walker happy. You can sit here and poo-poo whether or not he was proven, but the bottom line is that Walker was a guy with elite size and speed who had performed at an All Pro level for 24 games at that point. He was a guy who would look DAMN GOOD right now in a Packer uniform.

When you have a QB the caliber of Brett Favre, you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER skimp on providing weapons for him...for ANY reason. Walker was a holdout with no leverage...and Thompson was the one who had Walker squarely by the nutsack. There was no reason for him to play hardball and risk losing an elite WR.

[PackerBlues]

Re: Offense

I don't think it is fair to hang Walker leaving entirely on Thompson's head.

As I and others have pointed out, Walker had no leverage when he made his initial hissy fit. Thompson's decision to not put an offer on the table for Walker to either take or leave is ridiculous to me.

I don't care about precedent...I care about keeping IMPACT PLAYERS like Walker happy. You can sit here and poo-poo whether or not he was proven, but the bottom line is that Walker was a guy with elite size and speed who had performed at an All Pro level for 24 games at that point. He was a guy who would look DAMN GOOD right now in a Packer uniform.

When you have a QB the caliber of Brett Favre, you NEVER, NEVER, NEVER skimp on providing weapons for him...for ANY reason. Walker was a holdout with no leverage...and Thompson was the one who had Walker squarely by the nutsack. There was no reason for him to play hardball and risk losing an elite WR.

I agree with everything that you said Leaper. The sad part of it though, is that short of getting Walker signed to a long term contract, we may have had to sit through watching him prove what a punk he was, by just going through the motions until his contract was over.
While I still think that Thompson lacks skill in negotiating the important contracts, I would not put this one completely on his head. I would however hold him accountable for not replacing Walker with someone of similar talent. For anyone to look at our line up of recievers behind Driver as being acceptable in any way is a joke to me.

(edited to add Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with these young WR's that we have, and look forward to seeing them move into the starting positions. But lets face it, every big name WR we have ever had, either worked their way up slowly over time, or was brought in as a proven veteran with known skills. These young guys need time to develop.

[RashanGary]

I had a big list of about 15 young players earlier in this thread. They are all good players now, but they'll be better players tomorrow and they'll need to get paid. That is the core of our team and the hard workers on that list will be rewarded with pay days. We have a lot of space now, but if TT's guys pan out, it's going to get hard to afford them some day. EVentually there will be a climax of talent. This is the year year the climb should start.

This was three years ago. Three years later, Jennings, Rodgers and Collins are signed to big contracts, the Packers are growing into a veteran team and all of the tightwad Ted crap is dispelled.

Things like this are not surprising if you really listen and think. The Packers are starting to peak. Many of us saw this coming years ago. Many of us knew he wasn't cheap, but rather had no talent to pay after Sherman left.

[RashanGary]

I've tried over and over and over to explain how price paid has an ultimate effect on the other talent you can afford. Patler has tried many times too.

Many understand it. Many don't. Those who understand it and had an accurate evaluation of the situation three years ago, envisioned this day. Those who couldn't see it, had no clue this day would ever come. We could dig up conversation after conversation after conversation, but this thing played out exactly as many of as predicted years before it happened.