Post Draft Analysis

2018 was supposed to be a new beginning with Executive Vice President/General Manager/Director of Football Operations Ted Thompson pushed out after 13 seasons at the helm and a brand new younger General Manager taking over in hopes of revitalizing the Packers after seven years of atrophy following the team’s fifth Super Bowl appearance and fourth Super Bowl title falling from Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers to the “Just Good Enough” Packers where the front office was “just” happy to make the playoffs each year before having the playoff streak of 8 snapped last year when the loss of Aaron Rodgers showed the talent level of the next 52 plus 10 was not even average in the NFL. Sorry for the long sentence.

However, the “Big” change was only cosmetic. Ted Thompson wasn’t fired or retired he was just bumped upstairs as a senior advisor The “New” General Manager Brian Gutekunst was not new he was actually Thompson’s assistant and Russ Ball, another Thompson assistant, was also promoted to Director of Football Operations as CEO Mark Murphy restructured the front office to take Thompson’s 3 jobs and move the power into the himself, Gutekunst and Ball.

Over the past 12 years Ted Thompson was totally in charge. He reported to no one. Murphy, who was technically his boss, wasn’t consulted on any moves and was just a smilin’ fool brought out during the Stockholder’s Meeting to fool the Packer Backers into thinking he had a real job. Coach Mike McCarthy reported to Thompson and Thompson was in charge of the other half of the front office. So anything that happened from 2011 to 2017 (i.e. failed draft picks, a reliance on undrafted draft picks as reserves, releasing veterans in favor of undrafted draft picks, releasing players after their rookie contracts to save money and relying on cheaper undrafted draft picks and lower draft picks, having no veteran backup offensive line even though the starters routinely got injury, etc, etc, etc) was Thompson’s doing and nobody else’s. He was “Large and In Charge” and totally unaccountable.

During Thompson’s “Reign of Terror” not only were his underlings (his boss Murphy, his handpicked assistants Gutekunst and Ball, his handpicked head Coach McCarthy and the rest of the front office including the Digital, Broadcast and Game Presentation Department were demanded to backup “Thompson News” with a slick “FAKE NEWS” operation. During the Thompson Era the truth was put on the shelf and at the very least a “Rosy Scenario” was presented and the worst straight out lies. The face of the official Packers New Operation is Larry McCarren, who never saw a player or situation he didn’t like, and looking for him to tell the public anything close to the truth is a exercise in futility as is getting anything but the “Thompson Perspective” from the staff writers on PACKERS.COM.  The local media is just an arm of the Thompson “FAKE NEWS” operation. They don’t dig or even evaluated just regurgitate the “Daily FAKE NEWS” releases and again don’t give the public anything close to the truth. The national media can’t evaluate what is actually happening around the Packers, so they take on faith the local media is feeding them accurate information, but since at least 2011 the local media has been kissing Thompson ass on a daily basis either because they are stupid and go by the axiom “Don’t Believe Your Lyin’ Eyes, Believe What I’m Telling You” or they are scared of losing access if they reported anything contrary to Thompson’s “Rosy Scenario” releases. The Thompson “Reign of Terror” was a very efficient machine indeed, so it was left up to “THEM’ as in US verses THEM like me who is far enough away to be ignored by the Green Bay Gestapo, so THEM can comment on as much reality as we can ferret out without having actual access to the team. But the Thompson “Mafia” also includes the “In Ted We Trust” crowd or “Tedders” as I can them that scour the “internets” and personally attack the THEMs around the country and world if WE don’t toe the “Thompson Line”. They are very vicious as anyone who has crossed Thompson will attest.

So with that being said we come to the post “blood letting” of January 7, 2018. When the dust settled Murphy reinserted his power splitting up Ted Thompson’s duties in hopes of finally finding a pair. But he didn’t go far enough because he didn’t fire his “man crush” and just pushed him upstairs as senior advisor to football operations and promoting a sycophant “Gute”, who may love Ted Thompson as much as Murphy does, and that’s saying a lot.

As the draft approached “Gute” made this statement, "Ted has been here through the entire process. He'll be in the room on draft day. I've used him for a lot of scenarios. Obviously, he's one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this. He's been very much a part of what we're doing.” With that statement “Gute” should have been fired. Doesn’t the showing the 2017 Packers mean anything at all? When Rodgers went down the rest of the roster was shown to have been made up of “smoke and mirrors” and all the great things Thompson, McCarren and the local kiss-ass media said about those players were CRAP, especially the key position of backup quarterback proved to be lacking as were the backups at many positions when the inevitable injuries hit the Packers as they do each season, but Thompson never seemed to plan for. So saying, “Obviously, he's one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” shows “Gute” doesn’t know “his ass from a hole in the ground”. There have been few true future All-Pros drafted by Thompson since the Super Bowl, especially lately, as evidenced by the 1st 2 draft picks last week mirroring the 1st 2 draft picks of just 3 years ago, which were a total disaster.

And then saying, “He's been very much a part of what we're doing” defeats the purpose of making the front office change. When “Gute” was hired he said this, “For me, just to be able to have a guy in the building that’s done what he’s done as a general manager, to lean on him and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m thinking. How would you do this? What would you think about this?’ I’m going to be my own man and do things the way I believe, and that will be different than Ted sometimes, but I’m heavily influenced by him, so there’s probably going to be a lot of similarities.” I bet Thompson didn’t lean on anybody when he was hired, but Murphy hired someone who needs “training wheels”. Why hire a baby instead of a man. What a mistake!!!

Post draft “Gute” said this, “And those times sitting in that room watching film, Ted’s been there, pretty much the entire time as we’d go through the prospects. We have a very good relationship, and having him in there has been very calming for me because I can bounce things off him. Obviously, that man has done it as good as anybody in this business for a long, long time, and I think he’s enjoying being on the other side of it, too, being able to bust my chops when he can. It’s been great having him there and it can only help us as we go forward.” I would scream if someone would listen to me. We just can’t get rid of Thompson.

Ok a few more words on the actual draft. In general the Thompson/Gutekunst Collaboration corrected the mistakes of the 2015 draft of “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” with the top 3 picks. Remember the need at cornerback is a direct result of the bad drafting of never All-Pros Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins and the released of current All-Pros Casey Hayward and Micah Hyde, who were released because their rookie contracts had expired by “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this”.

The rest of the draft seems to fill spots, but I feel like getting a guard to replace former All-Pro Jahri Evans, who replaced current All-Pro T.J. Lang, who was released by “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this” in the 5th round is a reach by the local kiss-ass media, who also think the drafting of 3 receivers in the 4th, 5th and 6th rounds will replace the rapport Rodgers had with Jordy Nelson, who every one thinks lost a step or 3 when I think the only problems Nelson had was with the incompetence of Brett Hundley, who was drafted and groomed by “one of the best talent evaluators that have ever done this”.

The non-drafting of an edge rusher leaves one to wonder when are Thompson/Gutekunst going to address that issue. It seems that ship has sailed and the hope that Vince Biegel and Kyler Fankrell or the resurgence of Clay Matthews and Nick Perry will become the solution is another stretch.

Then there is the drafting of a punter in the 5th round and an unrated long snapper in the 7th round was a puzzler. I can sort of see the long snapper, but he could have been signed after the draft and the explanation by the local kiss-ass media of being out-bid is ridiculous for the mere fact only the Packers really needed a long snapper. The punter was weird and there is no exclamation for wasting a draft pick that was sorely needed elsewhere.

But the Boy “GM” and his mentor know best because they have guided the Packers into their 3rd dynasty, NOT, since the Super Bowl the Packers with the best quarterback and the best pass rusher haven’t been back while the Patriots have been there 4 times and the Seahawks and Broncos twice.

The “new look” “old look” Packers with “Old Look” Thompson and “New Look” Gutekunst are still on a course to be nothing more than the “Just Good Enough” Packers until Thompson and his sycophants have actually left the building.