It’s Funny How Reactive the Packers Have Become
I’m going to piggyback off something Shawn mentioned on the podcast this week. If you haven’t listened to that, you should go check it out here.
It’s true. It’s funny how reactive the Green Bay Packers have become of late. That’s as opposed to being proactive.
It became apparent when you look at the team’s current roster. What position did they go heavy on this year?
Cornerback.
Seven cornerbacks.
What position were they terrible at and/or beat up all last season?
Cornerback.
How about a year earlier?
Wide receiver. Seven wide receivers. Do you think it’s coincidental that Jordy Nelson went down with a torn ACL the preseason before? The Packers’ receivers were bad without Nelson in 2015, so in 2016, we may not have quality, but we’ll definitely have quantity!
Most of those guys barely saw the field, by the way.
Remember the season Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone? It was 2013. The Packers — for whatever reason — tried to pass off Seneca Wallace as his backup. Amusingly, Wallace came in and quickly got injured. Then it was on to Scott Tolzien and finally back to Matt Flynn. None of them were terribly good.
So what happened next year? The Packers continued to develop Tolzien, they kept Flynn around and the next year they drafted Brett Hundley in the fifth round.
In each case, the Packers have overloaded a position that didn’t really need to be overloaded.
Call it the ongoing paranoia of Big Ted.
Clearly, he believes this strategy will make sure these events do not occur twice. They’ll just happen at other positions.
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Expect “Weekend at Ted’s” to select 6 OL next draft…
He is not active enough and now he overreacted? The only thing that is clear and consistent is your slamming of TT no matter what he does.
The point he was making is Thompson reacts after the damage is done by watching how things play out first rather than try to ward off damage ahead of time. And in that time another area becomes deficient so Ted is always a day late to the party. And when his draft picks don’t pan out, he becomes even further behind.
Jimbo…ever see a dog chase it’s tail?
Ted is kind of jumping the gun this year though, shouldn’t he be keeping 10 O-lineman next season? keeping 10 this season is kind of being proactive…i think.
So you sort of have to give him credit for at least seeing the train coming down the tracks.
The Cadaver is FKG Clueless. I will say at least hes doing something to help the defense, but rigor mortis Ted is never going to make a push for Superstar in their prime. Its always a castoff or someone they don’t have to give up that precious 7th rd drat pick for. This organization should be going on SB 3-4 by now with Rodgers. Thanks to face of Death Ted, were still flopping on the dock, like a fish!!!!
Superstars rarely make it to free agency unless it is past their best years. I mean, remember Jarius Byrd a few years back? He flopped big time with the saints.
Superstars in their prime shouldn’t be your free agency targets. Those get vastly overpaid by crappy teams desperate to make two or three guys make up for an entirely bad roster. Thus, their prices are inherently driven up and beyond their contribution potential. The deal for Bennet looks very good to me, and I am not often defending Ted’s FA movements (or lack thereof). Kudos to Ted for that, but we can’t expect big names being brought to GB as the norm. A good usage for FA is to get those bargain type deals for less flashy but competent guys, frequently underrated in outright bad teams or playing in systems that do not suit them, and that strenghten a position of need in our team. Another avenue for team building is trades, though the team has to absorb whatever contract the player has, so that is not always a good solution. From recent trades, I didn’t see a lot being asked from the receiving team in terms of picks, and at the same time, players can be dealt to play their last rookie contract year with their new team, so even those do not hobble you for years if the players don’t produce. Yes, he could have addressed our issues with some time in advance and exploring trades more aggressively so as to reach the draft bring able to draft the truly BPA, which helps you in the long run when your own guys reach free agency.
Yea…I think you want to use free agency more for depth than anything, but what do i know.
If you can’t draft defensive players, sometimes you need to pay the price and step up. Like Ted should have done with Stephon Gilmore. Lets be real, we’d feel a lot better about this season seeing him as one of our starting corners.
Signing someone like Jahri Evans should be done for depth. but in Ted’s case, it was done as a band-aid.
As far as Bennett, i figured that was an improvement signing, based on blocking skills. I’m tempering that based on his sub par blocking in pre-season. I’m also starting to wonder about his personality (drama) in the locker room. This guy doesn’t change team’s as much as he has because everyone loves him. We are his 5th team.
I look at it as they are loading up with players where they know they are weak. They know they have 5 starters on the offensive line but they have doubts after that, so they are keeping more bodies. Same deal at corner, there’s lot of doubt, no shut down corner exists, so they have extra bodies.
Also, I think the fact that the Packers only kept 5 receivers is a sign they are ready to move away from the spread offense. Maybe they looked at teams like the Saints, Falcons and Patriots where they each have 800-1000 yards passing going to running backs and another 800-1000 yards passing going to tight ends and they realize that this is more difficult to defend, especially in the playoffs.
Ok…so tell me what position group will be decimated by injury in 2018? Then I’ll tell Ted, so he can go and draft a bunch of them BEFORE it happens and already have them on the roster.