Disappointed

[packedhouse01]

I was really disappointed with the pickups made by the Packers. Everything this team has done since Thompson took over, just smells bad. I'm hoping that this guy is a closet genious and knows way more than any of us about personel and has chosen people that will make this team solid for years to come. It's just that it doesn't look like it right now.

Is there anyone else who feels this way?

 

[HatestheEagles084]

I was really disappointed with the pickups made by the Packers. Everything this team has done since Thompson took over, just smells bad. I'm hoping that this guy is a closet genious and knows way more than any of us about personel and has chosen people that will make this team solid for years to come. It's just that it doesn't look like it right now.

Is there anyone else who feels this way?

PRO: re-building through the draft
CON: possibly brett's last season, the best he's looked in a while, gone to waste

i thought earl little was a better pickup than he turned out to be...raynoch thompson was supposed to be a solid 3rd linebacker, no one could've predicted how bad he was going to be in camp

chris johnson has done nothing for this team, dealt to STL for robert thomas who is a solid outside backer...he also picked up roy manning who has sounded impressive, i have yet to see the games where he's had an important role

we had a lot of draft picks...whitticker, coston, poppinga, montgomery, collins, hawkins, t-murph, rodgers...whether or not they've contributed, we're building a stable of young players...and with the draft position we're probably gonna have this april, we can trade down, accumulate more high picks

ALSO, salary cap space, we might actually have some this coming season...maybe acquire a solid veteran guard/new center...another running back...get the one solid pass rusher that our defense needs

and i'm willing to bet ted thompson's plan doesnt include mike sherman

 

[Greg C.]

packedhouse: Were there some better players out there who the Packers did not pick up? I'm not trying to be a smart aleck, I'm just asking.

I didn't see any players on the waiver wire (Freddie Mitchell included) who intrigued me at all, so I thought it was just as well that Thompson went with some players he already knows.

 

[DePack]

I'm hoping that this guy is a closet genious and knows way more than any of us about personel.


I would hope so!

 

[net]

Awhile back, the folks at ****** ******(they get very snippy when you quote their stuff in forums, so just to please them, I won't mention their name, either)said Thompson realized the team(when all healthy) didn't have enough playmakers to win it all. So Ted decided to restock on the run. That means you don't sign high priced free agents to win this year. Pricey and counter-productive. No one would say it, but the team concensus was to write off this year to avoid a total rebuild job a year or two down the road(whenever Favre retires)I agree with that assessment.

Cliff Christl's column a couple weeks back in Packer Plus also said something similar: the Packers don't have enough young playmakers...yet.

On offense they have Favre, Walker and Green. It's fairly obvious that Green isn't the player he once was, and probably never will be again. Bubba Franks is a solid tight end, but he isn't in the Gonzalez and Gates territory. Driver is an excellent possession receiver, but he can't carry the load, as great of a person and player as he is.

On defense, the playmakers are Grady(too fat to contribute much) Barnett, Harris, KGB. That's it.

So Thompson went young in the draft...found some good players down the line in Collins(remember the screaming after he was drafted?) Murphy(this is a red-shirt year) eventually Rodgers. I think Manning(undrafted) Poppinga, Whittaker(he'll eventually get going) will be the core of the future.

That is also why there's no way they fire Mike Sherman this year. Regardless of outcome, Sherman could say he didn't have his playmakers there and he wouldn't be fibbing. That is why I said folks like Pack66 and others are simply wasting their time obsessing on it because he's around for at least one season more from both an on-field and off-field perspective.

The final, and perhaps overriding thing for Thompson was/is the Packers horrible salary cap situation. All the dead wood had to be cut from a salary cap that hamstrung Thompson from picking up good, young talent. After next season(2006) you will see a young, more talented team with a good
deal of cap space to pick up the free agent veteran who will help.
Sherman's personnel philosophy was to bring in veteran free agents. That came at a price, which is being paid now. Thompson's philosophy is to build from the ground up.

This season is the 'bite the bullet' that you need to get the system into proper alignment. But I'm fairly optimistic about the future, Brett Favre or not.

 

[Zero2Cool]

I was really disappointed with the pickups made by the Packers. Everything this team has done since Thompson took over, just smells bad. I'm hoping that this guy is a closet genious and knows way more than any of us about personel and has chosen people that will make this team solid for years to come. It's just that it doesn't look like it right now.

Is there anyone else who feels this way?

You can't honestly feel its his fault. He drafted a lot of players that made the team including two starters! His method is through the draft and save the money. He's been known to spend the teams money as if it were his own and to me that is a VERY good theory. When you look at the players he brought in look at those he had to choose from. He's been brought in to GB to restore the Packers as a solid team, not a one year wonder and break the bank. I'd love to see Brett get another SB ring with the Packers but I don't wanna mortage our future for it when I know well I feel that TT will get us there again and keep us a strong team. Bring back Diggs and Walker and I bet we're ATLEAST .500

 

[P@ck66]

Good for you net...

IT will be funny (not) to watch Mike Sherman screw up Aaron Rodgers as the Pack go 3-13 (Farve-less) under Sherman's "extended contract"....(and i'll be there to tell you..."i told you so...")

The one thing that you forgot to mention is that Ron Wolf built the SB teams by signing "quite a few" veterans....and that it sometimes takes "years" for rookies to develop in the NFL..

So, if you are happy that Sherman..(and now TT) have squandered the remaining years of Brett Favre's career..that's all that matters...

After all..you are the self-appointed voice of "reason" on this forum..are you not?

(But you better get used to the idea of a much different scenario in GB, because a QB like Favre comes along rarely..if ever...for most teams...and we will finally see if your boy Sherman can coach without the likes of Brett Favre...i can tell you one thing--it's gonna get even uglier...)

If i were Sherman (and thank god i'm not), I would have concentrated on signing pro-bowl caliber receivers and difference makers (not just people that Favre makes look good) over the years instead of over-paying Hunt, Jackson, KGB..etc..etc..kept the o-line together, and above all...hired a REAL DC instead of one of my cronies, who doesn't know jack-sh*t about defense...but that's just me...(finally Harlan had enough this year and hired Bates..but it's too little to late for Favre it seems...)

it seems like Sherman was stitching this team together over the years as he went along without an overall plan of what the hell he was doing...and he was just taking anybody who became available...instead of putting together a team that was cohesive with a predetermained philosophy--like Mike Shanahan in Denver...for example...or dare i say it...Mike Holmgren in Seattle...but what can you expect from a tight ends coach..and a failed QB coach in the booth?

 

[DePack]

Here we go again. Your potshots at Sherman are so predictable. So many times you make idiotic statements that are questioned by the likes of myself ,musccy or net but you never come back to explain them.

It's like taking candy from a baby but I'll do it anyway. Please explain the following "but what can you expect from a tight ends coach...and a failed QB coach".

One of your heros...Andy Reid...was a tight ends coach before moving to QB coach and then getting the head job in Philly. Sherman was tight ends coach then Offensive Coordinator before getting the head job in GB. Big difference?

Here's an idea.....think before you throw out blanket statements. Don't let your personal hatred for the man get in the way of your thinking. It clouds your brain.

 

[packedhouse01]

I fully realize that Ted Thompson came in as GM with somewhat of a noose around his neck because he has had to deal with a number of bad drafts by Sherman and an equally high number of band contracts given out by Sherman. To pay the money that he did to KGB, Joe Johnson, and Hunt, to name a few, has hindered his ability to sign quality free agents. I wasn't however necessarily talking about who can pick up off the waiver wire now. This time of year, the pickings are slim. I do wonder why we picked up a guy named Taco when Mitchel, a proven receiver was available. My question marks are the draft choices. I know a lot of those draft choices made the team, but I don't see much of a future of many of them. Collins, although starting, was probably a long reach as a #2 pick. I can't remember names anymore, but I remember on draft day thinking that they could have chosen any of a number of better known and more respected players than Collins. I wasn't convinced that Murphy in the third round wasn't a reach too. Popinga surprised me because I had never heard of him and it seems that there were many who didn't think much of his skills in college. Then of course you have the two guards. The fifth rounder can't get on the active roster and the 7th rounder is starting and struggling mightily.

Maybe all of these players will develop and become stud players, but right now it doesn't look like it by athletic ability. I'm not a rose colored glasses guy. I tend not to look at something that isn't there and hope that I'm wrong. I tend to look at things and say, "this doesn't make sense to me." And honestly the moves that have been made to this date with the draft and free agent pick ups don't make sense. I know the attempt was there to fill the void in the defensive backfield, but again it looked like all we were looking for was cheap second string players who couldn't start for anyone else.

 

[DePack]

It's hard to judge a draft for a few years but I kind of liked this one. Of course, I DO wear rose-colored glasses. I think he went for speed on defense which I like. As far as taking Taco over Freddie Mtchell...I have no problem with that. Freddie is NOT a proven receiver. He was awful with Philly. He made one good catch his entire career. Can you guess it? Besides....he had arthroscopic surgery on his knee recently. He's a bum!

 

[musccy]

If i were Sherman (and thank god i'm not), I would have concentrated on signing pro-bowl caliber receivers and difference makers (not just people that Favre makes look good) over the years instead of over-paying Hunt, Jackson, KGB..etc..etc..kept the o-line together, and above all...hired a REAL DC instead of one of my cronies, who doesn't know jack-sh*t about defense

DePack already tackled your Andy Reid contradiction...

He didn't keep the o-line together...what in the hell are you talking about?!? He gave big $$$ to Tausch and Clifton, and it sounded like Wahle would still have been here if MS weren't fired.

I too was not too happy w/ MS as a defensive GM, but at least he tried to build a team (and Grady was a good move, I've even seen you say that).

Glenn, Driver, and Walker have been very good wrs for Brett. DD and Walker didn't go to the PB just because of Brett. If that were the case, why didn't Bill Shroeder put up the #s that DD and JW did?

 

[Zero2Cool]

If i were Sherman (and thank god i'm not), I would have concentrated on signing pro-bowl caliber receivers and difference makers (not just people that Favre makes look good) over the years instead of over-paying Hunt, Jackson, KGB..etc..etc..kept the o-line together, and above all...hired a REAL DC instead of one of my cronies, who doesn't know jack-sh*t about defense

DePack already tackled your Andy Reid contradiction...

He didn't keep the o-line together...what in the hell are you talking about?!? He gave big $$$ to Tausch and Clifton, and it sounded like Wahle would still have been here if MS weren't fired.

I too was not too happy w/ MS as a defensive GM, but at least he tried to build a team (and Grady was a good move, I've even seen you say that).

Glenn, Driver, and Walker have been very good wrs for Brett. DD and Walker didn't go to the PB just because of Brett. If that were the case, why didn't Bill Shroeder put up the #s that DD and JW did?

Schroeder did put up similar numbers. 74 receptions over 1000 and five td's. Not a mirror image but it is in the same ball park.

 

[net]

Frank Winters was signed through Plan "B"(cheap) by Wolf. Reggie White was a monster signing. Other than those two, he refrained from signing the overpriced and unworkable until the first Super Bowl year.

He had the cap space(or the equivalent) to do it. Thompson has not had the cap space.

History is a wonderful thing when it's viewed accurately.

 

[Greg C.]

Good post, net, although I disagree with one statement you made: "Sherman's personnel philosophy was to bring in veteran free agents."

Actually, Sherman continued Ron Wolf's strategy of trying to keep the talent that had already been drafted by the team. Sherman's free agent signings were mostly just role players, with one big (and disastrous) exception: Joe Johnson.

Wolf signed more big-name free agents than Sherman ever did. I'm thinking Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, and Eugene Robinson.

To say that Wolf refrained from signing the overpriced and unworkable is just hindsight. His signings worked out great, and he deserves credit for that, but if the team hadn't won a Super Bowl they would not be remembered that way.

 

[Zero2Cool]

Wolf signed the best talent available just as TT is doing the same.

 

[Chamuko]

That is also why there's no way they fire Mike Sherman this year. Regardless of outcome, Sherman could say he didn't have his playmakers there and he wouldn't be fibbing. That is why I said folks like Pack66 and others are simply wasting their time obsessing on it because he's around for at least one season more from both an on-field and off-field perspective.

The final, and perhaps overriding thing for Thompson was/is the Packers horrible salary cap situation. All the dead wood had to be cut from a salary cap that hamstrung Thompson from picking up good, young talent. After next season(2006) you will see a young, more talented team with a good
deal of cap space to pick up the free agent veteran who will help.
Sherman's personnel philosophy was to bring in veteran free agents. That came at a price, which is being paid now. Thompson's philosophy is to build from the ground up. .

I dont like Sherman based not only on this year, should I remind you who is the first coach ever to have lost a post season game at Lambeau, etc, etc.

Also who placed the team in such a bad cap situation ?

Etc, etc, etc.