It’s the news I have been waiting for for years. Ted Thompson will no longer be the Green Bay Packers’ general manager.
That’s not to say he won’t still be with the organization. Thompson will reportedly transition into another role. It has long thought that would either be an advisory role or he’d go back to being a scout. Friends of Thompson have suggested that’s what he really enjoys.
Sources: #Packers GM Ted Thompson is expected to transition into a new role within the organization. The team will begin a search for a new GM. Bombshell.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 1, 2018
Thank god. The diminishing returns the Packers have been getting through the good old draft-and-develop philosophy has started to show. It became crystal clear how the greatness of Aaron Rodgers masked the other fatal flaws of the team’s roster, this year.
As far as transitioning into another role, I think it’s a nice way of saying thanks for drafting Aaron Rodgers and bringing us that one Super Bowl, we’re not going to fire you, but it’s time to let someone else do this job. You can frame it however you like.
As far as the search for a new GM goes, there are obviously some qualified in-house candidates. Chief among those would be Eliot Wolf and Brian Gutenkunst. Both have interviewed for other GM jobs around the league and have repeatedly been promoted within the Packers’ organization, usually after taking those interviews.
That being the case, we still expect the Packers to cast a wide net and look outside the organization, as well.
And you know what that means. A new GM — especially if that person comes from outside the organization — typically wants to hire their own coach. So, Mike McCarthy might not be 100 percent safe at this point.
I’m not one of those who would give an enema to the whole football side of the organization. I think McCarthy can still do the job. He obviously needed someone who can get the defense in line and the process of that started with the firing of Dom Capers.
However, Thompson needed to move on. This is the graceful way of making that happen.
Way to finally grow a set of nuts, Ginger Gap Tooth.