I agree that a lot of the players Thompson has drafted have had questions like "injuries" or in this case "effort" surrounding them. This is not done on accident. With everything that Thompson evaluates in a player, talent is #1. And you can't deny these guys don't have talent.
There is 2 sides of the equation McGinn addresses: Overachievers(he calls them achievers) and Underachievers.
Overachivers- High effort guys, flow to the ball, want it more, never take plays off etc.
GB Examples: Clay Matthews, Ryan Pickett, C.J Wilson, Mike Daniels, A.J Hawk, D.J Smith, Erik Walden
Underachievers- Exceeding talent, questionable effort, minimal energy etc.
GB Examples: B.J Raji, Nick Perry, Jerel Worthy, Charles Woodson, Tramon Williams.
The first thing I take offense to in McGinn's article is he claims the Packers don't have enough high effort guys but then proceeds to name more high effort guys on this defense then low effort. I also think he is confusing effort with nastiness when it suits his article most. He has most of the overachievers and "high effort" in the trenches and linebacker core while he has most of the underachievers and "low effort" guys in the defensive backfield.
He seems to value his college overachievers higher than the college underachievers. This makes no sense to me. Tim Tebow was a college overachiever. Tom Brady was a college underachiver. Tom Brady's talent > Tim Tebow's talent. Now at each of their respective Draft Day's if given the option on their college career's I'm sure you would say that Tim Tebow "wants" it more and is a "winner" and he would do better in the NFL based on McGinn's same reasoning. Obviously Tom Brady has shown over the course of his career that that assumption would be false. Drafting "overachievers" and "high effort" guys is a nearly impossible feat at the college level. McGinn doesn't seem to understand this. That's why you got to value talent (Nick Perry, Jerel Worthy, Charles Woodson) over whatever his form of "wanting it more" is ( Ryan Pickett, C.J Wilson, Mike Daniels) It's can't fathom how he values talent under anything when it comes to drafting.
He kudos to SEA, STL, ARI and HOU all on their drafting of hard-working defensive players. I agree. But they've all also been had many struggling teams in the recent past which gives them alot higher of picks to get these great "hard working" players. Thompson hasn't had the chance to go that route. Because other then when he was first getting settled in, all the Packers have done is win.
Overall I guess the article makes sense. I mean if we had 11 Clay Matthews's on defense we'd be much better off. But in my opinion, Hard Working < Talent
