There is good and bad about Ted Thompson and how he has built the team. Obviously, the Packers are a great team, but that is due in large part to having Aaron Rodgers. And there is always the excuse of injuries for the shortcomings. Just the same, when I look around the league at D personnel and O Lines, there are a LOT of teams who have had more success drafting than Thompson. He has been particularly weak in those areas.

As has been said, we shouldn't sell the farm to get high priced free agents. I think we should do a little more than Thompson has done, though - if nothing else, to catch up after some slippage. The money should certainly be available with Raji, Finley, and probably Jones not being re-signed, as well as the possibility of some creative capology. Going after Byrd and maybe Worilds this year for example would be good, also maybe a Corner like Verner, and going with Hyde or even House or Hayward or even Tramon at Safety.

Drafting better, though, is the key. Why was 2013 better than 2011 or 2012? IMO it had to do with taking KNOWN QUANTITIES - players who had performed better in college. Look at 2011: the only star quality player, Cobb, was Not just a project, but a good college player. Same with Lacy; I have good hope for Jerel Worthy for the same reason; And Daniels - maybe lacking in measurables, but high performance. We should be trading UP when it seems like a good idea - more than in the past, and we should virtually never trade down for more picks. Look at Thompson's strong point: UDFAs - THAT is the reason why it is a mistake to stockpile low round picks and lose quality in the high rounds. In addition to the "gems" mentioned, I would add Mulumba, who I have high hopes for. There are always players like that out there, and Ted is good at finding them. Therefore, adding low round picks just ain't worth it.

I have ranted in the past about getting rid of Thompson, and others have ranted about getting rid of coaches. Likely, none of that is gonna happen, so Ted simply needs to shape up and draft better.

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Richard Sherman makes the same amount of money as Davon House.

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Not for long…

That's the beauty of this blowup of talent on teams relatively new to the scene. They will have to pay, suffer the attrition of talented players, coaches and personnel staff lost to other jobs/positions in the open market, and try to keep themselves from the fall. We've seen it. PIT has, NYG has, BAL has, NE has. No easy task.

That is why the Packers are at an advantage. Would you rather pay Rodgers his money or Wilson/Kaepernick Flacco money?

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There's no such thing as a "known quantity" coming out of the draft. That's just a ridiculous assertion.



Cobb was the only good college player? Sherrod was a 4 year starter at left tackle and named First-Team All-SEC as a Senior. DJ Williams was also First-Team All-SEC as a Senior on his way to winning the John Mackey award for best college football tight end (beating out our own Lance Kendricks). Ricky Elmore had 21 sacks his last two seasons at Arizona and was Second-Team All-Pac 10 both years. How are these not "good college players."



Then you throw Mike Daniels in there who, while a productive college player, achieved "only" Third-Team All-Big Ten his senior year with 9 sackes (I say only relative to the college resumes of the players I name above; I'm not knocking Daniels).

And nevermind that arguably the second best draft choice Thompson has ever made--Nick Collins--went to Bethune Cookman.

Thompson and co. need to draft better than they did in 2011; but it isn't something as simple as who has the best college resume. There are plenty of examples of accomplished college players completely flopping in the NFL (just look at the list of Heisman winners) while many no name college players go on to very successful professional careers.

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lol nothing like simply making crap up to fit into your own little pre determined narrative.

Raji and Hawk were pretty proven commodities as well, supposedly.

oh no not Hawk! [grin1]

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hahahaha OK, I guess I'll just go back to saying Thompson is a shitty GM instead of trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. He couldn't be all bad with the quality of teams we have had, and he did have the good fortune, after all to draft Aaron Rodgers. However, the simple fact is, he has NOT hit on as many draft picks as a lot of other teams. That was made abundantly clear when Rodgers was out. However, we have to live with his drafting and signing (or lack thereof) of free agents from other teams for the forseeable future. You whiny piss ants who think you know what kind of draft philosophy to have, what would you recommend?

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How many teams? Which teams? How far behind those teams is he? Or are you just making things up again without having actual knowledge of your "simple facts".