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Under Ted Thompson, the Green Bay Packers have made it a priority to keep their own players.
Often, that means rewarding them with contract extensions before they’ve really proven themselves. In certain cases, the Packers seem to see something in a guy that the rest of the league doesn’t and then they overpay.
Sure, Thompson has made some great deals.
He locked up Jordy Nelson for four years in 2011. That contract averages $3.15 million per season and Jordy has outplayed that deal by a mile.
Thompson also rewarded the Packers’ best offensive lineman, Josh Sitton, with a six-year deal in 2011. Sitton’s contract averages $6.75 million per season. That’s not cheap, but it’s certainly in line with what a talent like Sitton would get anywhere else.
While that’s all well and good, Thompson has also signed off on some real bone-headed deals. The kind of bone-headed deals where you’re giving a mediocre player way more money than he deserves. The kind of bone-headed deal where, if the team were to cut that player, they’d have a bunch of dead money eating away at their salary cap.
Here are Ted Thompson’s greatest misses.