Lost in the malaise surrounding the Green Bay Packers’ injury report last week was this nugget — pretty much everyone in the organization is pissed general manager Ted Thompson failed to acquire running back Marshawn Lynch from the Buffalo Bills.
Lynch was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a fourth-round pick in 2011 and a conditional late-round pick in 2012.
Chris Mortensen of ESPN reports that players, coaches, and scouts were upset with the failure of G.M. Ted Thompson to get the deal done.
Mort says that the Packers coveted Lynch in the 2007 draft, when he was the 12th overall pick, four spots before the Packers selected defensive tackle Justin Harrell.
While it’s not surprising Thompson didn’t make the move, it is surprising he heard about it from inside the organization. Then again, Thompson’s do nothing in free agency and on the trade market philosophy has frustrated just about everyone outside the organization for years.
The Packers starting running back, Brandon Jackson, ran for 115 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Redskins, but considering Jackson gained the bulk of his yardage on a 71-yard run in the first half, that total doesn’t look quite as impressive. It has, however, been pointed out numerous times that Jackson carried the ball only 10 times.
Removing the 71-yarder from the equation, Jackson had nine carries for 44 yards, a very respectable 4.8 yards per carry. Looking at the numbers, it’s clear coach Mike McCarthy either doesn’t believe in Jackson or has no intention of committing to the running game.
Through five games, Jackson has 55 carries for 252 yards. That’s an average of 10 carries per game. Fullback John Kuhn has 29 carries for 133 yards, which amounts to around six carries per game.
The Packers aren’t going to win in December rushing the ball 16 times per game, even if they had Lynch.
While Thompson can be questioned for not acquiring a player that could have helped the Packers, McCarthy has to be questioned for his game plan.
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It’s called accountability… who holds Mike accountable for his actions? Ted Thompson…. and we all know how that relation-shit has worked out for us.
If they still had Ryan Grant they would be running the ball 20 -30 times a game easy. Apparently our whole game plan for the season just goes out the window with 1 injury. I don’t care who you put in the backfield, ya gotta have a run game!!!! even if we don’t even gain any yards!!! Control the clock! Set up the pass! Take less hits on the quarterback! Jesus fuckin’ Christ, McCarthy WHAT ARE YOU DOING?????
Funny how so many people praise Ryan Grant, yet trash Jackson. When Jackson is no worse than Grant.
Grant got most of his yards on a big run also, the rest of his runs would be for like zero yards. Yet apparently its ok for Grant, not for Jackson.
People are idiots.
You have to consider Grant gained most of his yards after the weather got cold. Typically, early in the season, he’s not a big factor, yet he ends up with 1,200 yards the past two seasons. Point being, you can’t throw the ball every down in Green Bay in November and December. If anyone can do it, it’s Rodgers, but historically, when the Packers are good, they increase their running back touches as the season progresses.
To an extent, I agree with Matt and Tim simultaneously, which on the face would seem impossible.
With our season going up in flames, the last thing we need is to give up future draft picks to compound our problems.
If free agency led to success, the Redskins would make the playoffs every year and win titles.
Next year, the Vikes have about 14 free agents, 4 key players considering retirement, and are out a couple draft picks to boot. They gambled it all to win this year, and they are 1-3 and their QB has an injured throwing arm. Their way is not the answer.
Grant averaged about 16 carries per game. So, never a run heavy offense, I’ve said from the get go that Grant being down will only allow MM to forego any commitment to the running game altogether. Ever since, we have seen exactly what I predicted- running by committee, running only to keep the defense honest, constantly running different packages in and out. etc… Very predictable, really.
So, TT will take all the heat because that is what THE GUY DOES. He never passes the buck to anyone when it comes to the Packers. But I can virtually guarantee that the day after Grant went down, if MM goes into TTs office and says, “Hey, if we want to get where we want to go, we need another RB, now.” TT makes the trade. Of course, that would never happen because MM doesn’t think we need one. Period.
the last thing we need is to give up future draft picks to compound our problems.
Your right pal. Because TT is stout in his judgement during the draft, we should certainly stock pile the picks.
Hey, let’s refresh your memory and look at who TT has drafted over the past few years.
Jordy Nelson
Brian Brohm
Pat Lee
Jeremy Thompson
Justin Harrell
Brandon Jackson
Allen Barbre
Terrence Murphy
Marviel Underwood
Junius Coston
Ahmad Carroll
Joey Thomas
Donnell Washington
B.J. Sander
I can seriously go through the last 7 drafts of GB and find it hard to select 8-10 players who’ve made an impact. And by impact I mean consistent producer that’s last in GB more than 2 years and has remained healthy. And don’t even begin to tell me that Brandon Jackson is an impact player and should be viewed as an elite pick in the 2nd Round, or Brian Brohm. Should we start going back and looking who TT passed on to take some of these scrubs?
Yeah, TT and the draft are what keeps this team going. Stock up!
Does anyone else feel that without Aaron Rodgers Green Bay would easily be a bottom five team in the NFL? It’s true. Aaron Rodgers is what holds this team up.
Ted Thompson has done absolutely nothing to help the star status of this team. Consider if Rodgers doesn’t play and the Pack had acquired Marshawn Lynch or could (possibly) acquire a DeAngelo Williams, at least there is some semblance there of a star whom you could lead on. But the Packers have average receivers (at best) and Brandon Jackson/John Kuhn combo at RB is a joke. Now that injuries have depleted this team there is only Rodgers holding it up.
This team needs to desperately add more offensive and defensive weapons if they want to consider contending this season. In all honesty, and I hate the Vikings more than anyone else in Packer Nation, but the reason they win is because they spend money and take risks. The signing of Moss rejuvenated that entire team. Imagine what trading for DeAngelo Williams and Vincent Jackson would do for Green Bay? Add (maybe) a few CB or SS to help fill the injury holes in the secondary and Packer Nation is back on track!
Is it really that hard to fathom? I understand Carolina says they won’t deal DeAngelo, but in all realistic senses, if the right deal came along they would. The same goes for Vincent Jackson, the Packers have enough room in salary to make a move for him.
I don’t mean for those two to be the primary source of what should be done, but the main point here is that for fucksake, do something Ted Thompson.
PackerBaker, your sign on name seems like a contradiction to your post.
The Vikings win? The Vikings win what? They are 1-3. Yeah, they went to NFC Championship game last year. So did the Pack in ’07 under TT. How many Super Bowls have they won, again?
Vincent Jackson? You are seriously fricking joking with us, right?
The Packers have 1-4 one of the best WR cores in football, even with Finley gone.
A-Rodge has been holding us up? AAAHHHHH… I don’t know, but it seems to me that our defense has won every game this year except for Buffalo. And the two games we lost, it was A-Rodge and our offense that let us down, not the defense.
Who says the Panthers would even trade DeAngelo Williams? Where are people getting that nonsense? Sure, it would be nice if Minnesota would have traded us AP for Longwell, but SHIT, that didn’t happen!!
NO, you all know what we need to do! We need to be more like those WINNERS, the 0-4 Super Bowls, 0-3 in their last 3 NFC Championship Games, MINNESOTA FRICKIN VIKINGS!!! YEAHHHHH!!!!!!
The Vikings kicked the living piss out of us twice last year and the way things look this year they’ll do it again.
The Packers had 1-4 one of the best WR cores in football? Your seriously joking right? How many dropped passes did they have last week and who led the league in drops last season? Your really on top of your stuff there. Jordy Nelson? Your kidding right? Greg Jennings is a legit #1 WR in the NFL huh? How many catches does he have this year again?
The Pack Defense has been winning games? They aren’t even close to a top 10 defense in the NFL but your right they certainly do hold up when it comes to penalties and turnovers, as evident by their decorated performances against Chicago and Washington. Give me a break.
You want to compare Vikings and Packers, I would look at the strength of each time and the last two meetings, they’ve kicked our dicks in the dirt and are going to embarrass us again because this organization has done absolutely nothing to improve this team.
Let’s see how our defense does against Moss, AP, Rice, Harvin and Shiancoe. Oh wait, we’ve got Jordy Nelson, James Jones, Brandon Jackson, John Kuhn and a defense that won us a game against Detroit. Yeah, okay buddy, I’ll talk to you in a few weeks when the Pack are 2-5.
The point of the article was would Lynch help us.No.
Simple point is the OL is not run block efficient and everybody knows we don’t have(GRANT,JACKSON or whoever) that is a serious threat on 3rd and short,period.
Sure would of liked to have him on 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 last Sunday.
Brilliant. Yeah, take every single GM in the league and you can make a list of all the players drafted who never made an impact. You miss more than you hit; that is a fact of life with the NFL draft. I could list an equally long list of players drafted by Ron Wolf who never made an impact. I guess that makes him a shit GM, right?
The Packers have 4 WRs who can, and have, all make plays. Right, they had a bad game last week, I guess that means they suck. By that logic, Peyton Manning sucks too.
Oh, I see, the Vikings win and we should be more like them because they beat us twice last year. I see. Then the Bears should be more like us because we beat them twice. Or wait, the Bears are 4-1 while the Vikes are 1-3.
One thing I can guarantee is that the Pack won’t be “2-5” in a couple weeks. You see that’s an impossibility since we are 3-2 now.
Sounds like you’ll be pulling for the Vikes in a couple weeks. PackerBaker?? We can tell.
Who says Jackson and Kuhn aren’t threats on 3rd and short? Wouldn’t you have to actually give them the ball on 3rd and short to find out?
And yeah, Finley was a 3rd round draft choice. Josh Sitton was a 4th round draft choice. So, no, don’t trade potentially one of those guys away for a RB that your coach isn’t even going to use.