Packers extend Thompson's contract

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JBlood

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TT saved the Packers after the mess Sherman left as a GM. I love the guy and happy he's going to be around for a while.
 

TJV

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I know I sound like a broken record* on this but IMO the current structure of the organization lends itself to success. It doesn't guarantee it of course, but it spells out the lines of authority.
Extending Head Coach Mike McCarthy’s contract? “It’s a big priority. It’s always been the way it’s been done here; the general manager gets done (first),” Thompson said.

* If you don't know what "record" means in this context, ask your parents. ;)
 

PikeBadger

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TT saved the Packers after the mess Sherman left as a GM. I love the guy and happy he's going to be around for a while.
And how! Sherman was a total train wreck of a GM.
 

Forget Favre

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I like the one-two punch of Ted and Mike.
You've heard of dumb and dumber?
These guys are smart and smarter.
 
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Anyone know the backstory of why Sherman was the GM?
Did it have anything to do with Holmgren leaving because he didn't get the job of GM as he wanted?

Sherman became head coach because of Holmgren leaving in 2000. The Packers named him GM after Wolf stepped down in 2001.
 

TJV

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Anyone know the backstory of why Sherman was the GM? Did it have anything to do with Holmgren leaving because he didn't get the job of GM as he wanted?
When Holmgren left after the 1998 season (IMO he had his ‘foot out of the door’ for the preceding season), Wolf was GM with no plans to retire. After Wolf made the mistake of hiring Ray Rhodes as HC in 1999, he fired Rhodes and hired Sherman as HC in 2000 and then abruptly decided to retire after the 2000 season. Harlan liked/loved Sherman as HC so much he made what he later said was his worst decision as president of the Packers and promoted Sherman to GM/HC. He was afraid a new GM may not get along with Sherman or just want his “own man” as HC. At the time he left, Holmgren had no reason to believe Wolf would retire two years later and Wolf wasn’t going to be fired. If Holmgren had been patient and stayed, he probably would have received the promotion Sherman got. But both jobs were too big for Holmgren too – just like Sherman he never trained to be a GM. Contrast that to Thompson, who had been trained by Wolf for eight years before becoming Seattle’s VP of football operations for 5 years. (BTW, Harlan made another mistake - a minor one - IMO when he made keeping Sherman as HC for one season a condition of Thompson's accepting the VP/GM job.)
 
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When Holmgren left after the 1998 season (IMO he had his ‘foot out of the door’ for the preceding season), Wolf was GM with no plans to retire. After Wolf made the mistake of hiring Ray Rhodes as HC in 1999, he fired Rhodes and hired Sherman as HC in 2000 and then abruptly decided to retire after the 2000 season. Harlan liked/loved Sherman as HC so much he made what he later said was his worst decision as president of the Packers and promoted Sherman to GM/HC. He was afraid a new GM may not get along with Sherman or just want his “own man” as HC. At the time he left, Holmgren had no reason to believe Wolf would retire two years later and Wolf wasn’t going to be fired. If Holmgren had been patient and stayed, he probably would have received the promotion Sherman got. But both jobs were too big for Holmgren too – just like Sherman he never trained to be a GM. Contrast that to Thompson, who had been trained by Wolf for eight years before becoming Seattle’s VP of football operations for 5 years. (BTW, Harlan made another mistake - a minor one - IMO when he made keeping Sherman as HC for one season a condition of Thompson's accepting the VP/GM job.)

Totally forgot about Ray Rhodes being head coach for a year.
 

El Guapo

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The team has gone back and forth over the decades about having a coach/GM versus two people running the positions. At some point we'll get another "genius" coach that comes along and begs for the dual role. Unfortunately, it takes a real special person (Lombardi) to make it work. Sherman certainly wasn't that but the situation provided a convenient exit strategy for Wolf.
 

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The team has gone back and forth over the decades about having a coach/GM versus two people running the positions. At some point we'll get another "genius" coach that comes along and begs for the dual role. Unfortunately, it takes a real special person (Lombardi) to make it work. Sherman certainly wasn't that but the situation provided a convenient exit strategy for Wolf.
The NFL is very different today than it was when Lombardi was here. IMO, in todays business of the NFL, you need a separate coach and GM. Involves two completely different mindsets and skill sets.
 

JBlood

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Wolf commented about Holmgren's absence at a management meeting shortly after the Super Bowl loss, saying he thought Holmgren was interested in being a GM, but apparently not interested enough to attend a meeting. Holmgren later proved his ineptness at GM both in Seattle and in Cleveland. Good coach, bad GM just like Sherman.
 
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Wolf commented about Holmgren's absence at a management meeting shortly after the Super Bowl loss, saying he thought Holmgren was interested in being a GM, but apparently not interested enough to attend a meeting. Holmgren later proved his ineptness at GM both in Seattle and in Cleveland. Good coach, bad GM just like Sherman.
Holding both jobs in a traditional command-and-control fashion is a recipe for burnout.

Pete Carroll has an interesting set-up in Seattle with dotted line seniority over Schneider.

While Schneider holds EVP and GM titles, it was Carroll who hired Schneider and it has been reported that Carroll has final say on personnel decisions as a kind of uber-GM.
 

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I think the only way the HC/GM jobs being combined in one man works in today's NFL is when there is a John Schnieder type personnel man in the organization. My guess is it was a similar situation in New England with Belichick and Pioli. To be fair, the Packers did hire a VP of football operations three months after Wolf retired, but of course Sherman had the GM job and final say. Mark Hatley had held a similar personnel position with the Bears when he was hired by the Packers and he basically took charge of the scouting staff. It was still a mistake because scouting obviously wasn’t the problem, Sherman’s decision making as a GM was. (“Obvious” IMO because Thompson kept the same scouting staff in place and the relative results speak for themselves.) Unfortunately Hatley died in July of 2004 at the age of 54.
 
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