Now You Tell Me Ted Thompson Isn’t Still Running The Packers

It’s been almost 7 months since Head Honcho, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, Executive Vice President, General Manager and Director of Football Operations Ted Thompson, who ran the operation like President Donald J. Trump runs the country by being accountable to no one, transitioned to Senior Advisor to Football Operations and Director of Player Personnel Brian Gutekunst was promoted to General Manager, but not as Executive Vice President and/or Director of Football Operations. Instead Vice President of Football Administration/Player Finance Russ Ball was promoted to Executive Vice President/Director of Football Operations.

So January 7th the 3-headed Ted Thompson monster had been cut in two and one more important thing happened when President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Murphy’s small balls only grew 2 sizes that day instead of the 3 The Grinch’s heart grew when he finally saw the light.

The President of the “In Ted We Trust” cult and Ted Thompson’s chief ass kisser wanted his power back after 12 years of having his subordinate ignore him daily by having Gutekunst, Ball and Head Coach Mike McCarthy report directly to him instead of the previous arrangement of those men reporting to Thompson alone. However, in a sign Murphy hasn’t dealt with his Thompson man-crush issues evidently Thompson still reports to no one.

So with this new structure in place and a new man in charge of personnel decisions I was hoping the Packers, who had gone extremely stale and chaep under the Ted Thompson II Regime, were going to go a different direction after the front office shakeup. But it seems it was just cosmetic because the leadership of Gutekunst and Ball looks a whole like the leadership of King Ted the Terrible.

1st: Thompson’s policy of releasing veteran players who cost too much continued with the release of Jordy Nelson and letting Morgan Burnett, Richie Rodgers and his 3rd inside linebacker Joe Thomas go in free agency just like Thompson let Jared Cook, T.J. Lang, Micah Hyde, JC Tretter and Julius Peppers because he thought he was too old go when they wanted too much money (but it seemed Cook signed with the Raiders for less money, so that might just have been part of Thompson’s FAKE NEWS operation, so we may never know why Cook wasn’t resigned).

2nd: Thompson’s obsession with tight ends continued with the signing of Jimmy Graham and Marcedes Lewis just like Thompson did last year with the signing of Martellus Bennett and Lance Kendricks.

3rd: Thompson’s practice of drafting of 2 defensive backs as the top 2 picks for 2 of the last 3 years with the selection Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins, Kevin King and Josh Jones continued with the drafting of Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson.

4th: Thompson’s dependence on undrafted free agents filling out the roster instead of drafted players and veterans. We will see at the end of camp how Gutekunst compares to Thompson on this issue.

5th: Thompson’s practice of drafting players that played other positions in college to play inside linebacker for the Packers in 5 of the last 7drafts. Thompson drafted strong safety D.J. Smith in 2011 at #6; outside linebacker Terrell Manning in 2012 at #5; inside linebacker Sam Barrington in 2013 at #7; outside linebacker Jake Ryan in 2015 at #4; and inside linebacker Blake Martinez in 2016 at #4. This year Gutekunst drafted outside linebacker Oren Burks at #3 and outside linebacker Kendall Donnerson at #7.and they were slated to play inside this year.

6th: Thompson’s practice of doing the absolute minimum at inside linebacker. The last 2 years Thompson has had only 3 players at inside linebacker, Ryan, Martinez and Thomas. Ryan and Martinez were the starters with Thomas the passing down replacement although Thomas was really a starter at times. It seems Gutekunst is also following that practice.

Going into camp Gutekunst had Ryan and Martinez and little used 2nd year man Ahmad Thomas (who was actually an outside linebacker last year) returning after letting Thomas leave for the Cowboys. He drafted Burks to take the place of Thomas and Donnerson more of a project. He also signed undrafted free agents defensive end Naashon Hughes, inside linebacker Parris Bennett and outside linebacker C.J. Johnson to compete as backups.

Now with the loss of Ryan for the season that leaves one of three options. 1st: Burks will have to jump right in as a rookie and almost everyone agreed he was somewhat a project and his performance during camp confirmed that assessment. 2nd: Clay Matthews returns to middle and I think that might be the final solution. 3rd: Sign another veteran and it seems Gutekunst has already stated he is not going to do that unless every other option has not worked.

So looking at the what has happened so far tell me why I’m wrong with my thinking that either Ted Thompson is still calling the shots either actually or by proxy since Gutekunst runs every decision he makes through him as he stated when he was hired, “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.”

So the first big crisis has hit with the loss of Jake Ryan. Where we go from here and how we get there will let us know if the changes at 1265 Lombardi Avenue were actually real or just cosmetic. I think as long as Tyrant Ted is still in the building the Packers will never progress from being the “Just Good Enough” Packers they’ve been during the Ted Thompson II regime (2011-2017).