Thompson's plan may be suspect
December 19
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Columnist Michael Hunt
"At some point after the Green Bay Packers bring a fitting close to a gloomy season on the 28th against the Detroit Lions, Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy will meet to determine what went wrong short-term.
Then it will be Mark Murphy's job to identify what is going wrong long-term.
There are many ways to interpret the failure of 2008, with most of the reasons entangled in a vague blame-game web that loosely indicts everyone for such a steep falloff in the course of one season.
The big picture, though, is somewhat less hazy.
Since their renaissance began in 1992, the Packers have had just two losing seasons. Both have occurred since 2005, when Thompson was named general manager. And in Thompson's four seasons of judging talent, the Packers have missed the playoffs three times.
This isn't to suggest that the Packers, a year after almost making the Super Bowl, have regressed into another one of their extended dark ages. Nor is it to say that Thompson needs to go, the season after he was voted NFL Executive of the Year. Along with being the reactionary approach to such a disappointing season, it would ignore the reality that Thompson and McCarthy are going nowhere anytime soon after signing big contract extensions.
But if the big picture is pointing more toward the truth than what was likely an aberration in 2007, when maybe a lucky 13-3 obscured a critical look at the state of the franchise, then the new president should have hard questions for the GM's philosophy.
Of course, Thompson cannot be held overly responsible for a 4-12 finish in 2005, when he was brought in to clean up Mike Sherman's personnel messes. Since then, Thompson has had time to build the Packers his way. Accordingly, the GM and his coach were handsomely rewarded for the 17-3 run that followed the bad start of '06.
But if the same boneheaded play that characterized '08 carries into '09, Thompson's player-acquisition methods must be subjected to even greater scrutiny.
Chiefly, the Packers keep getting younger, but they sure aren't getting any smarter, judging by the repetitive pattern of mistakes that doomed this season. With all that cap money in '06 and '07, why weren't more veterans, assuming qualified ones were available, brought in to counter the inevitable mistakes that spring from inexperience?
While coaching has come under justified fire, it's looking more like the players assembled by the GM were at fault for how the Packers lost so many close games this season.
The success of 2007 gave Thompson a total pass on Justin Harrell, but now that first-round pick is coming home to roost. So, too, might A.J. Hawk, perhaps no more than an ordinary player against such a lavish investment in the 2006 draft.
As for Thompson's first draft pick for the Packers, Murphy completely backed the GM and McCarthy in moving forward with Aaron Rodgers. A good first season from Rodgers has been undermined by red-zone ineffici
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