With just a few days left until the draft, I thought I'd look back and see what GM Ted Thompson had to say each year on draft day about his top selection.

The only year he didn't have a first-round pick was 2008, but in all he's had eight.

These remarks are taken from the press conference Thompson has at the end of the first day of each draft and shed some light on why Thompson made the pick. We'll only be focusing on the top pick and we'll start with 2005 and work our way forward on the blog.

Thompson on QB Aaron Rodgers:

Q:Was Rodgers just too good to pass up?
A:We have been watching tape and working on these guys for a year now. We had Aaron Rodgers rated as one of the top players in the draft. We felt very fortunate to be able to get him with pick No. 24.


Q: Are there any negatives with this pick?
A: None that we know about. I hope there weren't any, but no, I don't think so. He's a very solid kid. I don't know if you guys saw him on TV because he was in New York. It's got to be tough when you know you're supposed to go early and the television reporters keep coming over and interviewing you. I thought he handled himself very well. He's a very sharp kid. The coaches at Cal love him and Coach (Tom) Rossley went to his workout early in March and Darrell Bevell did a lot of work, Mike Sherman's done a lot of work. This was a collective decision organizationally and everybody felt very comfortable about it.

JSOnline  wrote: