Ted Thompson’s Future is Top Secret

It appears Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy knows the future of general manager Ted Thompson and has a succession plan in place. He’s just not telling anyone what it is.

Thompson is 63 and has a contract that runs through the 2018 season. Whether he will finish that contract or not has long been the topic of speculation.

Murphy told Rob Demovsky he has an idea of how much longer Thompson will continue. He also hinted that he knows who will replace Thompson when he does step down, but wouldn’t reveal anything other than that.

Two names that come up most often in these conversations are Packers director of player personnel Eliot Wolf and Seattle Seahawks general manger John Schneider.

Wolf has rapidly risen through the ranks in Green Bay and has been considered for other general manager jobs around the league. Schneider is from De Pere, Wisconsin and worked under Thompson before taking the job in Seattle, where he shares personnel control with coach Pete Carroll.

Schneider also reportedly has a clause in his contract that he could leave Seattle if offered the Packers’ GM job.

Both guys are great candidates, but if we had to guess, we’d bet there’s a reason Wolf is sticking around Green Bay.

If he is the guy, we’d also bet he’ll be waiting three more years. It doesn’t seem like Thompson is going anywhere anytime soon.