We’ve been doing it for a while. That is, ripping Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson for building the team only through the draft.
Free agency? What’s that?
Well, apparently the rest of the league has taken notice of how the Packers operate. Bob McGinn wrote an opus about how the rest of the NFL has passed the Packers by.
It contained this nugget.
“They have no pro department up there,” an executive in personnel said. “Ted does some good things in drafting but they don’t do (expletive) in personnel.
“Ted has shut it down lately. They’ve gone stone cold. They have not been utilizing all the markets. Now it’s caught up to him.”
Technically, the Packers do have a pro department. Eliot Wolf, the son of former general manager Ron Wolf, is pro personnel director.
If you recall Wolf’s tenure, he signed all kinds of free agents. Reggie White, Sean Jones, Santana Dotson, Desmond Howard, Don Beebe, Mike Prior. I could go on.
The last guys of note that Ted signed in free agency were Charles Woodson and Ryan Pickett… in 2006.
The funny thing is, if you look at Ted’s protégées — John Schneider in Seattle, John Dorsey in Kansas City and Reggie McKenzie in Oakland — they all utilize free agency. Schneider, especially.
Seattle, the best team in the NFC, signed guys like Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett last offseason to bolster an already-stout defense.
The Packers? They signed tight end Matthew Mulligan, who didn’t even make the final roster.