Did he forget to mention it is a group?

I love his candor.

Just listened to it on Packers.com. He sounded like he was slurring his speech, didn't he? Mimosas for breakfast maybe? Three martini lunch?

I had a discussion with my brother not too long ago who was expressing angst that TT always speaks in generalities and never gives much info. It is frustrating to listen to but what good does it do for him to be open and candid with the public? It gives us fans some insight and makes us happy for a time but it probably causes far more damage then it is worth when you have a gut like TT doing the talking. In fact, I am pretty sure that TT knows that he just doesn't have the ability to speak openly and not say too much or say something that irritates a player. So, he says as little as possible and blathers on about nothing. Man, it is super annoying but in the end all we fans really care about is winning and losing. He can say nothing all day and I am super happy as long as he finds a front 7 that can dominate in a 3-4!!

Why again is TT the Packers GM? Does he even know anything about his team? A good GM would say that ALL groups need improvement. How is TT going to improve our team if he thinks that all the groups look "pretty good"? And you know that if Crabtree makes it to the 9th round, TT won't be able to resist. Oh, and everyone out there who is dreaming about having a great defensive player in the first round, just keep dreaming. TT has his own "style". He doesn't believe in acquiring good players. Just a bunch more average players. He will be dumb enough to trade of a 2nd and 4th round.

Must have been the beers at happy hour that got me fired up...

Fairly confident you meant to say 9th pick, and if he fell that far, you have to take him. No question.

I don't understand your angst, do you really believe that Thompson thinks that? Once you accept the fact that he cares nothing about what anyone thinks, then you will understand where he's coming from. He's just doing his job, he's expected to talk to the press, and he did.

Do you want him to be an egomaniac a la AJ Smith in San Diego trashing his star player? No, that's not what you want. Do you want a him to be a pushover and roll over for players? No, that's not what you want. You want a GM to make calculated business decisions that make your team better, which is all TT does.

FH, yea, I mean 9th pick lol. The problem is, other then him sounding like a complete dumb@ss, he really hasn't made much good calculated business decisions. He doesn't sound like a person that really knows how to improve the team. He probably thought his punting group was good all last season too. I think someone had to hit him over the head before he thought they should look for someone else....

AR, Actually FH is right he does make calculated business decisions. It is obvious his incentives are based on Net Profit and he will do anything to keep the bottom line intact. Trading down this year is not out of the question. Winning games is secondary to profit in his mind. Every move he makes supports that conclusion. It started with Marco and Wahle and it keeps on going. Can we say Tauscher?

He has a chance to prove his detractors (me) wrong this year. I will entertain bets that he doesn't.

From Mc Gins article on the draft - JSOline this morning. He added four more executives to his survey group. Seems his emphasis is on a left OT for the Packers. He is guessing Michael Oher #1 at the ninth pick based on his survey. My head is going to explode. He degrades virtually any and all defensive options.

At the end of the artice comes this little tid bit from TT:

Thompson closed by saying it wouldn't be the end if his first-round choice doesn't contribute immediately.

"In a perfect world you'd be able to address a particular need with a really good player," Thompson said. "But if it turns out this guy comes and sits behind somebody for a couple years, that's fine, too, as long as he's that quality of player."

My question is behind who?

GB is going to trade down. No, please No!

Ahman Green
Marco Rivera
Mike Wahle
Jevon Walker
Darren Sharper

5 reasons you gotta love Ted, addition by subtraction. He is willing to make the tough decisions and to hell with the Fans. Thats what the position calls for...Much better than Jerry Jones IMO.

Or should we go out and sign a Joe Johnson so we can make a Splash in FA? Or Draft a Vernon Gholsen because he runs fast?

Ted Thompson is very very good at his job, part of being good at that job is to ignore us fans and keep the media at arms length. In the end none of us matters, only the Wins and Losses Matter. If he can consistently win then I guess many of you will be consistently whining....If he loses he is out.

buckslayernyc said:
"Ted Thompson is very very good at his job...
In the end none of us matters, only the Wins and Losses Matter."
_____________________________________________________________
If the only thing that matters is wins and losses, then how is 1 winning season, and a sub .500 record after 4 years, "very very good?"

"Winning games is secondary to profit"

You're out of your freaking mind if you truly believe that is Thompson's mindset, Ron.

FH, Then why does he insist on carrying down $20 plus million every year since he's been in GB? The profit number is very closely related to the Cap Differential. As a percent of profit GB relys on League generated revenues at a greater rate than any other team. I do believe the Exec. Committee is quite happy with his results. Stadium is sold out forever.

The population density is the lowest of any NFL city. That results in very low outside income locally. The bill for remoceling the stadium is still being paid. The possibilty of a no cap season is on the horizon.

The Packers are a non-profit organization. The money that hits the bottom line goes to the Corporation's Reserves. Taxes are paid to the Feds but not the State. One question that will impact personnel decisions this year is just how much of the Packers Retained Earnings was invested, how it was invested, and with whom? There is a fairly good possibility they have lost a ton of their liquid reserves.

Yes, FH TT is making many decisions based of the Bottom Line. And if things don't improve soon the team we love will be facing a potential crisis. Of course, it is possible that many of the individual owners are just as bad off. Let's hope so.

Aaron,
Renegotiated Contracts are considered expenses in the appropriate accounting time periods. They are already in the reported expenses during the report year. The Cap Gap (hey that sounds like something out of "Dr. Strangelove") only means that the difference between allowed salary expnses and actual salary expenses is less than allowed amount. It is not real money.

Net Profit = Total Revenue - Total Expenses. Net profit for the Packers then is due to lower actual expenses. They could have spent the $20 million on additional salaries. They did not. Therefore the Cap Cap has everything to do with Net Profit. They didn't spend what they could have (lower costs).

God finance is boring. That's why I switched Sales.

The NFLPA will not let teams put an appreciable amount of salary cap back in their coffers, its contrary to the collective bargaining agreement. The Packers are not, nor have been "consistently $20 mil under the cap". The packers have generally resigned who they wanted, with a few exceptions. That seems to be the norm in the NFL.

The Guaranteed $ figure for today's signing bonuses, which is rising precipitously every year, is correctly pointed out as the reason for the cushion with respect to resigning your own players. That guaranteed $ must be taken sooner rather than later or you end up in Cap hell for injured players or worse, players you cut.

There is no conspiracy here, the Packers spend the same on players as other teams, they can't spend more, and they really can't spend much less. The challenge for Ted is that he is building a team from the ground up. When you do that, with your own players, then you win in the locker room when you extend them, and you lose horribly when you overpay a FA aquisition. In the latter scenario the whole team sees the outsider as gaining the fruits unfairly (rightly or wrongly) while they toil in relative anonymity (Green bay for low pay).

Ted's Model can work, but only if he is able to maintain good locker room mentalities based on the all for one one for all and if we do good then we will all get paid philosophy.

Again, if they lose, he is out. Also, by necessity, this philosophy probably takes longer to consistently bare fruit since it is predicated on drafting lots of players and letting them mature, and then resigning the best ones as they get really good and drafting more young bodies to replace the ones that are not making great progress. I would think that this year you will see an all Thompson Oline, o backfield, Dline, and mostly Dbackfield and Linebacker core. If he loses with that, then he is out. But if he wins, people will still complain because that's mostly all there is to do this time of year in Wisconsin.....

I think you might want to compare TT to Warren Buffet - both are value driven - that means they won't overspend no matter how much flash is out there.

When the Internet bubble made stocks jump 40 points a day, Buffet stood on the sideline, waiting for his pitch - he knew he couldn't value these companies so he waited something is underrated, merits buying and then goes out and gets it. You'll see TT do the same thing - sure there are a bunch of fancy players out there but he's not going to buy if the price isn't right or overpay for them.

As for TT not spending. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some form of mandate by the GBP Management that said, you can get players but understand we're a small market team and we can't waste money. So instead of being a big player in FA, TT takes the tack of I'd rather pay for what we know vs a player we don't and have it blow up in our face.

Anyway, a little off topic - people say TT and the GBP handled the Favre thing poorly. I'm not being argumentative but does anyone know why? I mean what would anyone else do if they were in his shoes? I think that he handled it as well as he could but if I'm not seeing it right - can someone explain?

Noone else thinks Thompson is actually a good dude? When I read that quote I chuckled. He is aware of the type of guy he is and he's making a joke in his own way. I like it.

He's knowledgeable as hell and puts a lot of time into the draft and I trust his decision making. I think people like to micro manage a little too much. Of course if he has another losing season then I can understand the complaints.