4. Ted Thompson, Packers
Last Year’s Ranking: 3
Ted Thompson is the kind of person who never ventures outside the county, let alone the state. Why travel? He’s got everything he needs right here. With free agency four days old, longtime Packers follower Michael Rodney shared the most astounding stat of the spring: Of the 60 Packers under contract on March 14, only one — Julius Peppers — had ever played a game for another team. Even for Thompson, that remarkable feat is an outlier, but still a signpost of his outlook. Stay the course, and develop from within. Of course, the course is fairly straightforward when you have Aaron Rodgers as your franchise player, but Thompson hasn’t looked his gift horse in the mouth. He’s surrounded it with talent, letting the right ones go (Greg Jennings) and bringing the right ones back (Jordy Nelson). Thompson’s home-fried philosophy isn’t a winner in and of itself — it doesn’t matter where your players come from if you don’t get the right ones — but his implementation of it sure is.
PATRICK DAUGHERTY wrote: