TT's GM role for the Packers began in 2005. He was born Jan. 17, 1953 in Atlanta, Texas. He grew up in Texas and attended SMU. He was an undrafted free agent for the Houston Oilers where he started in 8 games between 1975 to 1984 at LB. He served as a scout for Seattle before coming to GB. These are some of the draft picks he has made sense he became the Packer GM in 2005.
2005 - round 2 - 51st pick - Nick Collins - DB - Bethune-Cookman
2005 - round 7 - 245th pick - Kurt Campbell - DB - Albany (NY)
2006 - round 5 - 148th pick - Ingle Martin - QB - Furman
2010 - round 7 - 230th pick - C.J.Wilson - DE - East Carolina
2011 - round 6 - 179th pick - Caleb Schlauderaff - OL - Southern Utah
2011 - round 6 - 186 th pick - D.J.Smith - LB - Applachian State
2012 - round 4 - 132nd pick - Jerron McMillon - SS - Maine
2012 - round 7 - 243rd pick - B.J,Coleman - QB - Tenn-Chattanooga
2013 - round 7 - 216th pick - Charles Johnson - WR - Grand Valley State
2014 - round 7 - 236th pick - Jeff Janis - WR - Sagina Vally State
2015 - round 2 - 62nd pick - Quinten Rollins - DB - Miami (Ohio)
Only 1 of this list of 11 picks have paid off for the Packers, Nick Collins. The last 2 are still in question. The remaining picks never proved to be worth picking. All of these players came from, IMO, less than nationally competitive schools. 72% were comparative failures and poor draft picks.
Ted Thompson has a propensity for picking unknown players from week colleges that serve as easy wins for larger schools to pad their records upon. Yes it is possible to find a good player from such a college, as Nick Collins is an example, but they are very rare and wasting any opportunity to pick players from the best quality programs is poor management.
As Ted Thompson is a product from Texas, it is all to clear where he developed his football philosophy. Most things from there generally bullshit or have an over inflated opinion of itself.
Originally Posted by: Smokey
All I see on this list is a bunch of 6th and 7th rounders that were either camp fodder or contributed minimally (CJ Wilson). And that's the entire point of those picks-take unknown guys and projects and hope they contribute something. And that applies to guys from big schools too.
Way too soon to know about guys like Rollins and Janis (as much as I'm tired of hearing about him, he does possess the tools; his ceiling is another matter that doesn't need to be rehashed here). The only we know that was a definite reach was McMillian.
And if you're going to lump Rollins into your list who came from a MAC school, you need to include Greg Jennings, Lang Starks and Sitton on your list. In fact, you're not entirely clear on what is a "week" college is. A quick look over the drafts shows plenty of guys from DI schools like San Diego St, New Mexico, Boise St etc that are not from traditional power conferences/football factories that you want players to be drafted from. Even a lot of the picks from big conferences came from schools that are inconsistent (Nelson from K-State, Quarless from Penn St) or considered bottom tier in conference (Cobb from Kentucky, Bahktiari from Colorado).
The big football factory schools like Ohio St, Alabama, etc only put out 8-9 picks a year out of 256 total picks for the draft and that's not even getting into retained players from the previous year or the position the players play. You'd have to draft one of their players every round for a decade to get a full 53 man roster and have every position covered. In short, it's not possible to construct an NFL roster solely from a half dozen of teams like Ohio St, Florida St or Michigan (I'm not sure why you included them in your list since they've been a dumpster fire the past decade; Michigan St and Iowa have been more successful). And that's not even getting into draft busts from big schools. Is wasn't long ago you didn't pick a RB from Penn St or a QB from California because it was thought they were system players who thrived against "week" opponents. Half the reason Lacy lasted like he did is because many thought Alabama RBs were made by their oline.
I can only imagine what your reaction would be if this were 1991 and GB drafted Favre in the 2nd round from Southern Mississippi.
Last but not least, who should GB have drafted instead of the players you listed above?