Packerlifer
Cheesehead
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Ted Thompson is famous and respected for his "build thru the draft" philosophy. The Packers' GM has, in his 9 years running the football operation in Green Bay ,brought in the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy, Greg Jennings, Randall Cobb, Jordy Nelson, Josh Sitton, Mason Crosby on draft days. You'll note that list is all on offense. That's because on the other side of the football the record is not nearly so good.
Thompson has drafted 37 defensive players, 45% of all his picks, and has hit an "A" or better rating on only two: Nick Collins and Clay Matthews.
The Packers have had two top ten first round picks during TT's tenure and he's used both on defensive players; A. J. Hawk #5 in 2006 and B.J. Raji #9 in '09. While both have been decent players neither has ever been as dominant as envisioned or hoped for for such high selections. If these were quarterback or runningback picks at those levels with these kind of results they would be almost considered busts.
The Packers have used 3 other first round picks on defense: Justin Harrell in 2007, Nick Perry in 2012, and Datone Jones in 2013. Harrell gets a Dolly Parton for one of the all time biggest busts in Packers' history. Perry is trending down a similar path and Jones was an invisible rookie this past season.
The Packers have also invested prime second and third round picks on defense: Jerel Worthy, Mike Neal, Pat Lee, Casey Hayward, Morgan Burnett, Abdul Hodge, Aaron Rouse. What do they have to show for these? Sure, injuries took down some but chronically injured and unavailable players are as much a liability to the team as incapable ones.
Remember that knack Ron Wolf had for finding gems in the middle and late rounds? It apparently didn't rub off on his disciple. That's where such memorable guesses were made on Jeremy Thompson, Will Blackmon, Tyrone Culver, Marviel Underwood, Mike Montgomery, Kurt Campbell, Jerrion McMillian, Terrell Manning, Brandon Underwood, Michael Hawkins.
I don't mean to create the impression that TT hasn't found any one in those later rounds. He did choose Johnny Jolly, Brad Jones, Desmond Bishop, CJ Wilson, Brady Poppinga, Mike Daniels and Micah Hyde in those stages. But you can see and judge for yourself how to grade out those selections.
There's clearly a pattern here, although I don't pretend to have the answer to what it is. One thought is to look at where Thompson looks for his defensive prospects. It's pretty heavy on the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences. In 9 drafts he's selected 6 Pac-10 and 5 Big Ten defensive players, close to one-third of all his drafted defensive players since 2005.
Teams from those conferences, though, keep getting exposed defensively when they venture out into bowl games against the SEC and other conferences for lacking in speed, agility and athleticism. It'sno wonder they don't have much success in the NFL with their limited skill sets.
Thompson also has a fondness for small college prospects. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if it works, but in the last four drafts one-third of his defensive prospects hailed from Mississippi St., Illinois St., Southern Florida,Maine and Appalachian St. Good players can come out of small colleges but so far none has out of these drafts for Green Bay.
When people call for firing coaches it should be kept in mind that in spite of this poor drafting history on defense for almost a decade the Packers have managed to produce some respectable defensive showings. The 4-3 coordinated by Bob Sanders in 2007 was 6th in the league in scoring defense and 11th in yards. The 3-4 Dom Capers and the current staff was brought in to implement in 2009 ranked 2nd in the NFL that first year and 5th in 2010 and was second in the league in scoring defense that year when they won the Super Bowl.
But the shortcomings of the club's defensive drafts over the past 9 years keep catching up with the team as they repeatedly fall off on their defensive showing in the other seasons, including the most recent one. It's why the Packers are spending the divisional and conference championship rounds of the playoffs watching the games on TV like the rest of us.
Einstein famously said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Hopefully Ted Thompson and every one involved in the scouting, evaluating, investigating and choosing of defensive prospects for the club this year will look at that and figure out doing something different and getting a much better result.
Thompson has drafted 37 defensive players, 45% of all his picks, and has hit an "A" or better rating on only two: Nick Collins and Clay Matthews.
The Packers have had two top ten first round picks during TT's tenure and he's used both on defensive players; A. J. Hawk #5 in 2006 and B.J. Raji #9 in '09. While both have been decent players neither has ever been as dominant as envisioned or hoped for for such high selections. If these were quarterback or runningback picks at those levels with these kind of results they would be almost considered busts.
The Packers have used 3 other first round picks on defense: Justin Harrell in 2007, Nick Perry in 2012, and Datone Jones in 2013. Harrell gets a Dolly Parton for one of the all time biggest busts in Packers' history. Perry is trending down a similar path and Jones was an invisible rookie this past season.
The Packers have also invested prime second and third round picks on defense: Jerel Worthy, Mike Neal, Pat Lee, Casey Hayward, Morgan Burnett, Abdul Hodge, Aaron Rouse. What do they have to show for these? Sure, injuries took down some but chronically injured and unavailable players are as much a liability to the team as incapable ones.
Remember that knack Ron Wolf had for finding gems in the middle and late rounds? It apparently didn't rub off on his disciple. That's where such memorable guesses were made on Jeremy Thompson, Will Blackmon, Tyrone Culver, Marviel Underwood, Mike Montgomery, Kurt Campbell, Jerrion McMillian, Terrell Manning, Brandon Underwood, Michael Hawkins.
I don't mean to create the impression that TT hasn't found any one in those later rounds. He did choose Johnny Jolly, Brad Jones, Desmond Bishop, CJ Wilson, Brady Poppinga, Mike Daniels and Micah Hyde in those stages. But you can see and judge for yourself how to grade out those selections.
There's clearly a pattern here, although I don't pretend to have the answer to what it is. One thought is to look at where Thompson looks for his defensive prospects. It's pretty heavy on the Big Ten and Pac 10 conferences. In 9 drafts he's selected 6 Pac-10 and 5 Big Ten defensive players, close to one-third of all his drafted defensive players since 2005.
Teams from those conferences, though, keep getting exposed defensively when they venture out into bowl games against the SEC and other conferences for lacking in speed, agility and athleticism. It'sno wonder they don't have much success in the NFL with their limited skill sets.
Thompson also has a fondness for small college prospects. Not that there's anything wrong with that, if it works, but in the last four drafts one-third of his defensive prospects hailed from Mississippi St., Illinois St., Southern Florida,Maine and Appalachian St. Good players can come out of small colleges but so far none has out of these drafts for Green Bay.
When people call for firing coaches it should be kept in mind that in spite of this poor drafting history on defense for almost a decade the Packers have managed to produce some respectable defensive showings. The 4-3 coordinated by Bob Sanders in 2007 was 6th in the league in scoring defense and 11th in yards. The 3-4 Dom Capers and the current staff was brought in to implement in 2009 ranked 2nd in the NFL that first year and 5th in 2010 and was second in the league in scoring defense that year when they won the Super Bowl.
But the shortcomings of the club's defensive drafts over the past 9 years keep catching up with the team as they repeatedly fall off on their defensive showing in the other seasons, including the most recent one. It's why the Packers are spending the divisional and conference championship rounds of the playoffs watching the games on TV like the rest of us.
Einstein famously said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Hopefully Ted Thompson and every one involved in the scouting, evaluating, investigating and choosing of defensive prospects for the club this year will look at that and figure out doing something different and getting a much better result.