When you're comparing Thompson to Matt Millen like some have, you've been more wrong than right. That has been over the top criticism and that is what makes some roll their eyes. I'm not patting anyone on the back for that.

The criticism of Thompson has been sometimes fair and sometimes unfair. I think criticizing the move to release Michael Wahle and not retain Marco Rivera is wrong. They were the right moves. There really isn't much of a debate about that especially with Rivera.

Where Thompson failed was in replacing them at least right away. To be fair, the interior line is not the weakness of the offensive line any longer.

The tackles are.

The irony to that is Thompson is usually pretty quick to get rid of veterans even if they're still playing good. Wahle, Darren Sharper, and Brett Favre come to mind.

He replaced Favre with Rodgers. Not bad and Sharper with Collins. Again, not bad.

He missed the boat this time though with Chad Clifton and now he may have to turn to Mark Tauscher as well to pretty much save the season. Thompson never found any tackles to replace them with. The only tackle on the roster Thompson has brought in is Breno G. Everyone else is either a true guard or a guard being asked to play tackle.

That is just ridiculous and there isn't anyway to put it.

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Agreed with you about the line.

But of all the ironies, Darren Sharper has Hall of Fame numbers. Yes, we know his weaknesses. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about if you were born in 2020 and were a Packers fan and never watched Darren Sharper play and just looked at his stats, you'd think anyone would be a fool to get rid of him.

That's the funny thing about stats.

59 career INTS 1311 career INT return yards 10 TDs from INTs 99 longest

Once led the NFL is INTs. Currently leading NFL in INTs. Twice led the NFL in INT return yardage. Twice led the NFL in INTs returned for TDs. Currently leading the NFL in INTs, INTs returned for TDs, and INT yardage.

Funny, huh?

Oh, and Porky, I generally agree with your criticisms, because they're fair. You give credit where it's due but also criticize when it's necessary.

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I think Sharper did the most of his damage while with the Vikings and that needs to be considered as well as his contract demands. Which, don't make much sense. Because the Packers were offering him more money to stay in GB in a paycut than he accepted to go with the Vikings. The departure of Sharper falls equally on Sharper himself as much as our GM.

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I'm noticing this more and more, and absolutely no offense meant to you. It's almost like Rodgers playing well has led to the conclusion that Favre was replaced with Rodgers. I almost never hear mention of the entire retired/unretired/retired/unretired/retired again as MM/TT are flying down with the red carpet saga.

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I'm just going to pass over the guy who wants everyone to pat him on the ass for his "correct predictions" - your priorities are embarrassingly out of whack.

As stated before by many: Thompson, barring some total collapse or something nobody here could predict, will not lose his job. He's just done too much good for the team as a whole.

There IS talent on this team - a lot of it. Some of that talent was here before he got here, but much of it is his doing. There are weak spots as well, but until someone shows me a team that has no weak spots, I don't see how that's a strike against Thompson specifically - could be said about any GM of any team.

That talent is not performing at a consistently high level. This doesn't fall on the GM, folks, it falls on coaching.

Now, I'm one who resists knee-jerk "Fire him!" reactions, but if anyone thinks that's due to some man-love for McCarthy, they're wrong. The reason I don't like that whole game is that it almost never works. Yes, the Dolphins turned things around in a season - or did they? They don't look so hot this season. What's more likely is that you waste your talent by changing shit up on them season after season. New schemes, new coaches, then more new schemes and more new coaches. It never ends. THAT is what I recall about the 70s and 80s - trying a new coach/scheme again and again. Gregg, Infante, blah, blah, blah.

IF the Packers could get someone like Cowher in, and then leave him the hell alone and allow him to put a structure and culture in place, I would be all for that. Pittsburgh hasn't just "gotten lucky" with their coaching - that's a part of that team's culture, and that consistency is why they're in the running almost every year. If we're talking about putting something like that in place, that would be good.

But if it's just another cycle of trying something new every time our increasingly whiny and skittish fan base blows a fuse, then no thank you. If I wanted that, I could root for the damn Texans.

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My negative feelings with regard to TT:
1. I didn't like the way he handled Mike Sherman.
2. I think he's a lousy judge of OL talent, or a lousy judge of people who judge OL talent, or both.
3. I'd rather he take a bit more risks in free agency.

But of these only #2 bugs the crap out of me. #1 is ancient history -- everyone screws up in year 1. And #3, I don't think he's done particularly badly over the years with his FA approach (and he'd have done worse if he'd listen to me on non-OL moves).

As for McCarthy. Of the people in Favregate (Favre, Thompson, Murphy, McCarthy, Rodgers), McCarthy to me came out looking the worst. Rodgers came out of it looking like a leader. I understood Thompson and Favre. Murphy, well, frankly, I haven't expected much from him and so haven't been disappointed. But McCarthy and his "train has left station" and his Fleischering...that bugged me.

But I keep wondering what the heck happened to the McCarthy of 2007. Was he a one-hit wonder? In 2007 he wasn't this coach-speak, predictable, can't solve the same problems week after week; in 2007 he brought us the Fab 5 and discovered that Ryan Grant could be a running back and had the elephant formation and....where the heck did that Mike McCarthy go?

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Yeah, I didn't like that either (Favregate). I do think Rodgers came out of it looking good. I got a lot of respect for Rodgers for that.

The '07 MM died. We have a retarded doppleganger pretending to be MM right now.

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Yeah I hear what your saying. In the end though it's all about perception and the perception is Rodgers replaced Favre. Nobody will care about the stuff in the middle even though, like you pointed out, there is more too it.

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will you guys stop bashing Ted Thompson your not leaving me any ammo, get on your own damn train :P



oops to late it already left the station 😛

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David - I actually think Ted Thompson is average. I don't hate him. I think we're a 9-7 team, which is better than 17 other teams.

The criticism I have is does he have what it takes to make us a perennial Playoff team? That's the thing that gives us the best chance at winning a SB - being a perennial Playoff team.

Not with this OL. We'll go one and out every year.

I used to criticize Sherman, but now looking back, at least he gave us an OL and didn't get Favre killed. Rodgers is getting killed back there. 20 sacks in 4 games, I'm seriously concerned for him.

Sherman didn't give us a D though. So it was like the Lynn Dickey years all over again - score lots of points and pray it's more than they'll score.

So, with TT, it's a different Achilles' Heel.

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