Packers promote Eliot Wolf and Brian Gutekunst, but Thompson says it's not about the future

[Frozen Tundra]

B) TT would not keep someone around, much less promote them, if they had drastically different philosophies than his own. You don't do that in business and hope to keep things running smoothly. Everyone has to be on the same page and buy into the philosophy or it breaks down. Might he deviate a little? Sure, but things won't change much IMHO.

Thing is, though, there really are very few things he'd need to do differently in order to do things a lot differently than TT, IMO. I don't think things really need to change much in order to change quite a bit.

My only two problems with Ted are that he relies too much on the draft and UFDAs to build the roster, at the expense of other tools such as free agency and trades, and that he doesn't seem to demand as much accountability from McCarthy as I think he ought to. As for the first of those two, if every single one of us can see how big of a problem that is, I'd be very alarmed if Wolf is unaware of it. I think it's quite reasonable to expect that this is something he might do very differently.

As for the second... well, that's a potential problem, i admit. It would be tough for a 35-year old GM (possibly even younger than some of the players on the roster) to come in and lay down the law to a stubborn, veteran coach who's repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn't take criticism well. That would be a real test for any incoming GM, and especially so for Wolf, I would imagine. In many aspects of his job, I would think McCarthy has been as much of a mentor to him as Ted has been. But good leaders have to make tough decisions, and never let anyone forget who's got the biggest office in the building. If Wolf is the right man for the job, then that may be a challenge he'll have to meet very early in his tenure, and if he's not up to it, then Murphy and the board will have made the wrong call.

Other than those two things, i don't think any new GM (whether it's Wolf or anybody else) would really need to change much from the way Ted runs the team. I thinkthe changes that do need to be made are well within the parameters of Wolf's apparent abilities, and wouldn't really require a drastic departure from Ted's basic operational philosophy.