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Over the next few weeks, we're going to find out exactly where Thompson intends taking the Packers. How he handles our own free agents. How he approaches other free agents. How he views, and picks in the draft will probably be decided before the draft, based on what he envisions doing, with free agents.
Thompson is conservative to a fault. He won't spend a nickel that isn't deemed "guaranteed" by bean counters. Yet, those guarantees aren't guarantees. Great players end up playing part time due to injuries, or play past injuries, and have poor games because of it. You still pay the guy as if he was a super star.
Point in mind, Clay Matthews. Is Matthews worth the money on the table, if the Packers keep him? From a fan perspective, there's going to be a lot of people asking for Thompson to be drawn and quartered if he opts out of Matthews contract, and tries to low ball him. Yet, is he wrong for doing it? The same applies with our offensive linemen. Do we have guys good enough to step up and do adequately, at only a fraction of the cost of a free agent contract? What about Peppers? Say what you want, he was a steal this past year, considering how well he did when they had him on the field. In the McCarthy/Capers system, players are compartmentalized, and assigned specialties. Peppers was one of them. We even saw Matthews off the field in some defensive packages, and not for a rest. It was in dime packages mainly.
Thompson inherited a team that the cap was crushing. He had to make some big decisions that weren't popular at the time. His decisions were made based on the fact that Sherman's push to "win now" had pretty much put us in cap hell. I think he still remembers that, and don't intend going there again. I also believe he sees this team as maybe one or two lucky breaks, and a break through player away from playing in a Super Bowl. That would make him consider his plan of conservative decisions valid. It would mean that he'd see his choices as obviously being right.
That said, is this the year he starts pulling the plug on the veterans left, outside of Rodgers, that have won so many games, but not a championship? Will he keep Rodgers, and do a rebuild around him from the bottom up, or will he find players to plug in, and play, to keep them going the direction he believes they're going?
My opinion is that Thompson will let some free agents go, and try to make it up through the draft. Although we may still win games next year, we are never going to get close enough to win another Lombardi Trophy, unless he pulls out all stops. In the end, Thompson will go down in history with the Packers as the GM who knew how to work a cap, but failed to capitalize on how well he did it.
Thompson is conservative to a fault. He won't spend a nickel that isn't deemed "guaranteed" by bean counters. Yet, those guarantees aren't guarantees. Great players end up playing part time due to injuries, or play past injuries, and have poor games because of it. You still pay the guy as if he was a super star.
Point in mind, Clay Matthews. Is Matthews worth the money on the table, if the Packers keep him? From a fan perspective, there's going to be a lot of people asking for Thompson to be drawn and quartered if he opts out of Matthews contract, and tries to low ball him. Yet, is he wrong for doing it? The same applies with our offensive linemen. Do we have guys good enough to step up and do adequately, at only a fraction of the cost of a free agent contract? What about Peppers? Say what you want, he was a steal this past year, considering how well he did when they had him on the field. In the McCarthy/Capers system, players are compartmentalized, and assigned specialties. Peppers was one of them. We even saw Matthews off the field in some defensive packages, and not for a rest. It was in dime packages mainly.
Thompson inherited a team that the cap was crushing. He had to make some big decisions that weren't popular at the time. His decisions were made based on the fact that Sherman's push to "win now" had pretty much put us in cap hell. I think he still remembers that, and don't intend going there again. I also believe he sees this team as maybe one or two lucky breaks, and a break through player away from playing in a Super Bowl. That would make him consider his plan of conservative decisions valid. It would mean that he'd see his choices as obviously being right.
That said, is this the year he starts pulling the plug on the veterans left, outside of Rodgers, that have won so many games, but not a championship? Will he keep Rodgers, and do a rebuild around him from the bottom up, or will he find players to plug in, and play, to keep them going the direction he believes they're going?
My opinion is that Thompson will let some free agents go, and try to make it up through the draft. Although we may still win games next year, we are never going to get close enough to win another Lombardi Trophy, unless he pulls out all stops. In the end, Thompson will go down in history with the Packers as the GM who knew how to work a cap, but failed to capitalize on how well he did it.
