Ted Thompson Inducted into Packers HOF

[Dantés]

For whatever anyone wants to say about his imperfections and how he acquitted himself towards the end of his tenure, Thompson was a great GM for a long time and he brought a Lombardi to Green Bay. This is well deserved. I hope he enjoys his retirement. Thanks, TT.

 

[weeds]

Agree 100%. Ted's entire body of work has been one of stacked successes.

I was happy when Ted came back to Green Bay to take over after Mike Sherman's ill fated tenure as HC/GM/VP. Thompson was a Ron Wolf legacy guy and the Pack were in dire straits and I mean pretty much god-awful ... although, if you're fair you have to give Sherman some slack because his 2005 team ( 4-12 ) was decimated by injuries....still Sherman will be burnt into my memory for the stupid Cletidius Hunt contract...grrrr...

Anyway... Thank you for everything Ted. Thank you for the Lombardi. Every young poster that has taken to bashing Ted at every opportunity latches on to the same refrain... "Two HOF QB's and only one Super Bowl..." yeah, OK, whatever.

Others prattle that he was "LUCKY" to have Rodgers fall to 24. No, he drafted the best player available on his board. If he hadn't pulled the trigger then I'd say he's a moron too. Thing is he drafted him when 22 other teams passed - the Vikings passed twice because they had Culpepper (hahahahaha). Then, he hired a QB - orientated HC to knock the Tedford out of Rodgers.

Way to go Ted. Enjoy the accolades and retirement.

 

[HardRightEdge]

His first 10 years as GM are certainly Packer HOF worthy. It would be foolish to say otherwise.

If I had to pick an inflection point it was failing to replace Capers after the 2014 NFC Championship game.

 

[Mondio]

Dang right he does, and if Peppers doesn't inexplicably tell Burnett to lay down I have a good feeling they go on to win the Super Bowl in 2014 and Ted would be going to the NFL HOF for his work as a scout and then the teams he built in Seattle and GB. Well deserved honor for a man that dedicated his life to football.

 

[elcid]

His first 10 years as GM are certainly Packer HOF worthy. It would be foolish to say otherwise.

If I had to pick an inflection point it was failing to replace Capers after the 2014 NFC Championship game.

Capers should have definitely been replaced for a looong time. However that loss is more on MM

 

[HardRightEdge]

Capers should have definitely been replaced for a looong time. However that loss is more on MM

I always come back to the following:

5 minutes, 44 seconds, 17 plays, 206 yards, 3 TDs.

I don't find the argument that the Packer offense should have done something different against arguably the best defense of the last decade in order to prevent the Packer defense from getting steamrolled very compelling.

I also do not find isolating one defensive play as the difference to be compelling in the face of a generalized defensive collapse.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Then, he hired a QB - orientated HC to knock the Tedford out of Rodgers.

Rodgers has implied that he ridded himself of the Tedford mechanics, saying that getting back to his conventional high school and junior college mechanics was easy.

The following link shows some high school and JC clips of Rodgers where you see a very recognizable player. Check out the throws starting at the 5:25:

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Flash forward to Rodgers rookie preseason. I believe the following clips are in chronological order, with SD being the first preseason game and TEN the last:

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Right off the bat, you say "who the hell is that?" relative to the earlier clips. He's got that Tedford ball position up at his ear which everybody talks about. More than that, check out the choppy footwork, both in his drop and when extending plays. This is Teford's idea of how you construct a QB who can get the ball out quick, while the whole affair looks "all arm" and entirely unnatural.

I'm sure the league scouts saw those HS and JC mechanics, but working the pre-draft process they reckoned turning back the clock was not going to be like flipping a switch. After an offseason, OTAs and camp leading up to the first preseason game that switch was not flipped.

By the time you get to the TEN clips you start to see the ball position coming down on some throws and moments of smoother footwork, but he's still not quite there.

Obviously credit goes to Thompson in assessing that the Tedford training could be eventually undone.

Clearly, getting back to his old mechanics was not as easy as Rodgers has portrayed. On the other hand, how much McCarthy had to do with it is debateable. This was not a case of taking a strong-armed athlete and getting him to mechanics he's never had. This was a psychological problem, breaking bad habits that had nonetheless led to prior success. Whatever McCarthy might have contributed to this process would have been in the way of "horse whisperer". I think you have to ask yourself if McCarthy strikes you as that kind of psychological guru, Rodgers' Yoda as it were. That's questionable.

 

[Mondio]

I always come back to the following:

5 minutes, 44 seconds, 17 plays, 206 yards, 3 TDs.

I don't find the argument that the Packer offense should have done something different against arguably the best defense of the last decade in order to prevent the Packer defense from getting steamrolled very compelling.

I also do not find isolating one defensive play as the difference to be compelling in the face of a generalized defensive collapse.

There’s about 5 plays you can isolate that would have been the difference in the game. Take your pick. It was a monumental collapse of epic proportions across special teams and the defense that had performed admirably up to that point and all had to come together on one day.

 

[longtimefan]

Ted Thompson.. What else made him great?

 

[weeds]

Ted Thompson.. What else made him great?

He wore a hat resembling a bottle cap better than anyone AND he always wore brown socks with penny loafers. Never a fashion faux pas with that guy.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Ted Thompson.. What else made him great?

What else? Roster building in the early years. He took over a team that was over the cap and losing. The conversion to 3-4 with Capers and the Raji/Matthews draft was his signature accomplishment after hiring McCarthy and drafting Rodgers.

2011 showed early signs that something was rotten in Denmark, with the historically bad passing yards surrendered and +20 yard plays surrendered to go with all of those picks. Defensive discipline went out the window and it became "just outscore 'em".

In the final analysis, I conclude that Thompson was a builder but not a "maintainer". Capers track record shows the same.

 

[rmontro]

Whatever McCarthy might have contributed to this process would have been in the way of "horse whisperer". I think you have to ask yourself if McCarthy strikes you as that kind of psychological guru, Rodgers' Yoda as it were.

McCarthy did seem to have a gift for developing quarterbacks, when he had a talented team, and before they changed the CBA (which reduced the amount of time he was able to spend with them). I have no problem recognizing McCarthy as a QB guru of sorts under the old rules.

 

[longtimefan]

What else? Roster building in the early years. He took over a team that was over the cap and losing. The conversion to 3-4 with Capers and the Raji/Matthews draft was his signature accomplishment after hiring McCarthy and drafting Rodgers.

2011 showed early signs that something was rotten in Denmark, with the historically bad passing yards surrendered and +20 yard plays surrendered to go with all of those picks. Defensive discipline went out the window and it became "just outscore 'em".

In the final analysis, I conclude that Thompson was a builder but not a "maintainer". Capers track record shows the same.

Was my way of getting back to Ted and hof

 

[HardRightEdge]

There’s about 5 plays you can isolate that would have been the difference in the game. Take your pick. It was a monumental collapse of epic proportions across special teams and the defense that had performed admirably up to that point and all had to come together on one day.

In any game that is close enough to go overtime with some 160 plays including ST, give or take, you can always point to 5 plays (or more) that might have made the difference.

If I was going to point to a single moment it would be Matthews pulling himself from the game and yucking it up on the sidelines. It was that moment where a team is in "we've got this" mode and then when it starts slipping away confidence goes out the window.

Or, as a poker body once said, "little possums walk early, big possums walk late." Winners are close.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Was my way of getting back to Ted and hof

It was all on Thompson's watch, the good and the bad in Ted's rich pageant.

 

[sschind]

I don't know how anyone could put a reasonable argument that TT isn't Packer HOF worthy. Heck I don't think you could put up an unreasonable argument. As soon as someone says Ted Thompson should not... they should be thrown down a well.

No one has suggested it as of yet but I am sure there are a few haters who don't think he is worthy, they just haven't spoken up yet.

 

[rmontro]

Others prattle that he was "LUCKY" to have Rodgers fall to 24. No, he drafted the best player available on his board.

Ted gets credit for picking Rodgers when he had the chance, but he was still lucky that he fell.
He was also lucky that there weren't more teams interested in Charles Woodson, or he never would have been able to sign him.

It's a combination of luck and recognizing your opportunities. Ted was the kind of guy to let players come to him rather than go out and get them. Although he did trade up to get Clay Matthews. That was a happy day.

 

[Dantés]

Ted gets credit for picking Rodgers when he had the chance, but he was still lucky that he fell.
He was also lucky that there weren't more teams interested in Charles Woodson, or he never would have been able to sign him.

It's a combination of luck and recognizing your opportunities. Ted was the kind of guy to let players come to him rather than go out and get them. Although he did trade up to get Clay Matthews. That was a happy day.

Sure, but by this logic every good choice that anyone ever makes is "lucky."

 

[rmontro]

Sure, but by this logic every good choice that anyone ever makes is "lucky."

To some extent, but not entirely. Ted's philosophy in free agency was to let the herd thin before he would jump in. Some might argue this is a good idea, and maybe it was, but his approach was somewhat passive. In contrast, Gutenkunst was active in free agency early this year.

 

[Dantés]

To some extent, but not entirely. Ted's philosophy in free agency was to let the herd thin before he would jump in. Some might argue this is a good idea, and maybe it was, but his approach was somewhat passive. In contrast, Gutenkunst was active in free agency early this year.

Yes, that's true. But it's also unrelated. By the standard of "lucky" you set in your first post, literally every good decision any team makes is lucky.

 

[OldSchool101]

What else? Roster building in the early years. He took over a team that was over the cap and losing. The conversion to 3-4 with Capers and the Raji/Matthews draft was his signature accomplishment after hiring McCarthy and drafting Rodgers.

2011 showed early signs that something was rotten in Denmark, with the historically bad passing yards surrendered and +20 yard plays surrendered to go with all of those picks. Defensive discipline went out the window and it became "just outscore 'em".

In the final analysis, I conclude that Thompson was a builder but not a "maintainer". Capers track record shows the same.

I could be wrong, but in regard to the 2011 campaign.. when your team outscores it’s opponents so much so that FOX network programming switches the game altogether to another markets football game mid-3rd quarter? (this happened to me several times on FOX and worse yet after my football package had blacked out the Game because it was showing in the local market!). That’s a setup for lots of garbage time and lots of “prevent D” being played regardless of the scheme or team.

In other words, the 2011 season was a statisticians anomaly of sorts and probably the one year I wouldn’t put so much stake in Defensive stats. But yes, Everything else he touched though began a slow and methodical downward spiral. It’s possible that lack of discipline you mentioned, coupled with stratosphere like Offensive expectations, coupled with poor strategy in staying with the times each played a part in setting the template of demise in the years that followed.

 

[rmontro]

Yes, that's true. But it's also unrelated. By the standard of "lucky" you set in your first post, literally every good decision any team makes is lucky.

There's luck involved, as I said. No getting around it.
But if you wait to go after free agents after everyone else has had their pick, you're relying on luck that a bargain will fall to you. That's not a bad strategy necessarily, we got one Super Bowl out of it, but it's not being proactive (which is making your own luck, essentially).

 

[AKCheese]

The cowardly and dishonorable way he handled the Favre situation brought shame to the franchise. It literally irreparably destroyed a large part of what made Green Bay special in the NFL. The only thing salvaging anything from his tenure is the way the team caught lightning in a bottle and won a Super Bowl after fluking into the playoffs. Otherwise they have been a team of underachievers failing to rise to the occasion in big games choking in spectacular fashion as befitting his lack of character. Winning a lot of regular season games has come to pass as “special” in Green Bay now... sad. Sad that he’ll be ushered in to stand unworthy among the truly great... but the illusion will satisfy many. Ball don’t lie...

 

[rmontro]

The only thing salvaging anything from his tenure is the way the team caught lightning in a bottle and won a Super Bowl after fluking into the playoffs.

Funny thing is, I had been expecting the Packers to win a Super Bowl that way for years. To sort of sneak in as a wild card and win it all, which is what happened. In their prior Super Bowl wins, they were considered the best team in the league, or close to it.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

I could be wrong, but in regard to the 2011 campaign.. when your team outscores it’s opponents so much so that FOX network programming switches the game altogether to another markets football game mid-3rd quarter? (this happened to me several times on FOX and worse yet after my football package had blacked out the Game because it was showing in the local market!). That’s a setup for lots of garbage time and lots of “prevent D” being played regardless of the scheme or team.

Actually I have never realized that but you make a valid point. The Packers 2011 team was ranked 10th in points allowed at both half time and after three quarters.

The cowardly and dishonorable way he handled the Favre situation brought shame to the franchise.

It was Favre who brought shame to the franchise during the summer of 2008. I won't comment on the other things you posted as there's absolutely no doubt Thompson did a great job of putting together a legit contender for most of his tenure.