What Murphy and the LOCAL KISS ASS MEDIA Has Wrought

Ding, Dong, The Ted is Dead. Ding, Dong, The Dom is Dead. Those two refrains should be enough for any Packer Backer to be dancing in the streets and for most of us we are, if for no other reason that Dom Capers’ wide open in the middle, laid back pass coverage and “No Tackle” zone defensive is really gone.

However, in the infinite wisdom of the Packers Brain Trust (I have my doubts about the brain part) Ted Thompson wasn’t fired or retired, but given a promotion where he could and probably will be influencing the moves “new” general manager Brian Gutekunst will be making this offseason, including the upcoming draft. I have acid indigestion over the thought that the man who gave us a team that needed overtime to beat the 0-16 Browns is still wielding influence.

If you have any doubt about Ted Thompson still be calling the shots behind the scenes just listen to what Gutekunst said at his coming out press conference, “I think he’ll have a big role. With his experience and doing this for as long as he’s done it at a high level, I’m going to lean on him tremendously.” Well, it seems the reports of Ted Thompson’s retirement are grossly exaggerated.

Thompson, Jr. also confirmed what I’ve been saying all along about Thompson ignoring everyone’s voice, but his own, despite the FAKE NEWS saying Thompson listened to his subordinates (including his boss (sic) Mark Murphy), “One of the big things that I think about with him sitting in this general manager’s chair is … there’s all kinds of voices in your ear and people pulling at you trying to get their opinion to you and what you should do. His ability to kind of come here and block it all out and focus on what he thought was right … I always thought his discipline there, his self-control was remarkable, and it’s something that I will always try to pattern myself after.” So it seems, Il Duce, will be alive and well at 1265 Lombardi Avenue with a new name and face.

Then Thompson, Jr. had this to say about the man who built a team that advanced to the Super Bowl just once in 13 seasons with the best two quarterbacks in the game at the helm and fielded a team that needed overtime to beat the 0-16 Browns (yes, I repeated myself because it bears repeating for those of you who think the same way Thompson, Jr.,“He’s one of the best evaluators that has ever done this. (Is Canton and a statue far behind?) So he’s going to be part of our meetings, he’s going to be part of our evaluation, he’ll be a pretty big deal. Hopefully it will free him up to watch more tape. He is exceptional at that part of it.” and Murphy does, "As long as he wants to continue to work, and he’s still doing a good job — and I think he still does a great job for us — we want him to continue to be our general manager. At a point he decides he doesn’t want to do it anymore for whatever reason, then we would do a search."

So it seems it wasn’t Murphy who made the decision to “retire” Thompson, but it was Thompson himself who decided he wanted to get rid of the mundane part of being general manager like talking to the media and fans and just wield the power of drafting, not signing free agents, signing undrafted free agents, and getting rid of All-Pros who have the audacity of questioning Il Duce’s methods (i.e. Josh Sitton) or just wanted to be paid (i.e. T.J. Lang, Casey Hayward, Micah Hyde).

So let’s see how the “Great Evaluator” has done since 2010. Since the Super Bowl the Packers have had two First Team All-Pros (Aaron Rodgers, his name comes up a lot) and Charles Woodson. Both those players were acquired before the Super Bowl.

In addition the Packers have had 19 Pro Bowlers (Aaron Rodgers, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016), Charles Woodson (2011), Clay Matthews (2011. 2012, 2014, 2015), John Kuhn (2011, 2014, 2015), Greg Jennings (2011), B.J. Raji (2011), Scott Wells (2011), Josh Sitton (2012, 2014, 2015), Jeff Saturday (2012), Eddie Lacy (2013), Randall Cobb (2014), Sam Shields (2014), Jordy Nelson (2014), Julius Peppers (2015), Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (2016), David Bakhtiari (2016 replacement, 2017). T.J. Lang (2016), Davante Adams (2017 replacement), Mike Daniels (2017 replacement).

Out of those 19 Cobb was drafted in 2011, Daniels in 2012, Lacy and Bakhtiari in 2013, and Clinton-Dix and Adams in 2014. That means only six of the 19 were drafted after the Super Bowl while none of the vaunted undrafted free agents Thompson hangs his hat on have made the Pro Bowl or been named All-Pro.

The only other player to be named to the Pro Bowl was street free agent signee Julius Peppers in 2014, but he was allowed to leave after last season and led the Panthers with 11 sacks this year while Clay Matthews and Nick Perry led the Packers with 7.5 and 7 sacks, respectively. The “Great Evaluator” indeed.

Now before you get your knickers in a twist I didn’t forget Jeff Saturday, who was signed in 2012 as an unrestricted free agent to replace Scott Wells, who was allowed to leave in free agency. Saturday was named to the Pro Bowl on reputation alone because he actually ran out of gas and was benched for the last two games and replaced by Evan Dietrick-Smith.

In addition, Josh Sitton made the Pro Bowl in 2016 with the Bears as a replacement for Lang. Casey Hayward was named to the Pro Bowl in 2016 after leading the league in interceptions and again this season along with Micah Hyde. Lang was also named to the Pro Bowl this year as a replacement. Sitton and Lang were drafted before 2011. Hayward was drafted in 2012 and allowed to leave after his rookie contract expired in 2015. Hyde was drafted in 2013 and also allowed to leave after his rookie contract expired in 2016 as well as Lang. The “Great Evaluator” indeed. More like the “Great Penny Pincher”.

Here’s an interesting side note. The Packers had no selections to the 2017 Pro Bowl (except for the replacements Daniels and Adams) for the first time since 2005 while the 0-16 Browns had two alternates. This is a good measuring stick on how well the “Great Evaluator” has done building a Super Bowl contending roster.

What this past season has shone is that all the Packers success hinged on Aaron Rodgers and Aaron Rodgers alone. When he was removed from the equation with the Packers at 4-1-0 the Packers couldn’t beat anyone, but the 5-11 Bears, needing overtime to beat the 5-11 Bucs and, once again repeating, needing overtime to beat the 0-16 Browns.

What this past season also has shone was the play of handpicked Brett Hundley as a replacement for Aaron Rodgers. Thompson traded up in 2015 giving the Patriots a fifth and seventh round pick to jump up 29 spots to get Hundley in the fifth round. Hundley was a bust. The “Great Evaluator” indeed.

Now if you “Tedders” want to make excuses for the Packers having to play with a backup quarterback all you have to do is look at two of the playoff teams this year. The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl with a backup quarterback and the Minnesota Vikings won the North Division with a backup quarterback. The “Great Evaluator” indeed.

So it all comes down to this. The great change Murphy has done isn’t all it seems. Murphy is still at the table, Thompson (he’s going to be part of our meetings, he’s going to be part of our evaluation, he’ll be a pretty big deal.), is still at the table, Gutekunst has been at the table since 1998 and Russ Ball has been at the table since 2008. The same people are still in charge with Thompson, including Head Coach Mike McCarthy for the past 12 years, wielding considerable influence despite doing a terrible job for the past seven seasons.

So don’t believe anything you hear from the FAKE NEWS operation out of 1265 Lombardi Avenue and from the LOCAL KISS ASS MEDIA, who thought it was a plus to tell the locals that they didn’t have to be afraid of Thompson leaving, (which he didn’t) (he’s going to be part of our meetings, he’s going to be part of our evaluation, he’ll be a pretty big deal.), because Gutekunst was just an extension of the “Great Evaluator” and the “Great Evaluator” was going to be new and improved since he didn’t have to do anything, but evaluate after his promotion.

When I read that I had to laugh at the LOCAL KISS ASS MEDIA being so out of touch they didn’t realize we want change, not just a rearranging of the deck chairs (new titles, same people) on the Packers Titanic. However, in their favor the LOCAL KISS ASS MEDIA has been up Thompson’s ASS so long they haven’t seen daylight for 13 years, so they don’t know how to evaluate themselves since they haven’t had to for 13 years. They do nobody any service by touting the company line and lies instead of telling the truth (horn tooting time-something I have done my entire time) to give us (the owners) the best Packers organization we deserve and expect.

The Packers have been treading water for way too long and I’m afraid the change we got wasn’t change at all (he’s going to be part of our meetings, he’s going to be part of our evaluation, he’ll be a pretty big deal.). I hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid I am not.