All this talk about it's mainly the QB for the Packers.... HELLO!!! It's mainly the QB for all NFL offenses... it's not just the Packers, it's the NFL.... when talking about how a GM would do in the NFL... we should compare them to the NFL standards... and lots of GMs have tried to get QBs.... a lot of GM have used a lot higher picks on QB.... and yet Thompson weather it was skill or pure luck got a great QB for his team... that's like the #1 check-off thing for GMs to do and Thompson did it, and now people are saying with out he's poor...
Well look at the Vikings and Lions... they got some good talent on their offense... yet they don't have great QBs t push them to the next level... Thompson got that done.
Also last year the Packers didn't miss JUST Rodgers... they missed, Rodgers, Cobb, Finley, Bulaga on offense... that's their best player on the team, best QB, best OL, 2 of their best 3 receivers... I don't know but if you take that away from more offenses they're going to struggle. That's not even going into all the injuries at OLB which is the most important position of a 3-4 defense...
Is Thompson the best GM in the NFL? Probably not... is he one of the best GMs in the NFL... I honestly don't understand how someone could say no when talking about the depth of the roster.... instead the style/personality of how he gets it done... he's an unlikable robot... who does his function well and better than most (aka better than 16) of the human GMs...
If I had any complaints about him, it'd be
1) his coaching selection as I think there were better choices (Sean Peyton)... but Thompson said he picked the best person for the job (which might mean there was better coaches)... (Sean Peyton has gotten into a number of scandals while with the Saints, including accused to have been stealing pain meds from the Saints and maybe illegal giving them to players and/or keeping them for himself or others and the bounty scandal and I think there are one of two more as well).
I haven't really like some of the defensive schemes but they've draft players to fit those schemes...
2) Lack of length on some of their defenders...don't get me wrong they don't have to all be long... Daniels isn't ad he's a good player... but it's be nice if some of them are... but the Packers have seemed to go for the shorter/less long armed guys a number of times on the DL... and I've wondered if maybe that's what the coaches asked for, the DL coach has talked about it being length vs leverage and someone prefers leverage (shorter getting down lower) but length can help a lot specially when dealing with those OTs... which the 3-4 DEs have had to do at times...
And yes with out a doubt every GM has made some big mistake but that's the natural of the NFL draft... no body bats .500... my wild guess is few to none bat .300 in the draft... and Thompson drafts have had a lot of bust, but what GM hasn't? ... and despite a lot of injuries to important players, they came one drop (Hyde's INT drop) moving on in the playoffs.