When your head coach happens to be your GM (as was the case in Green Bay the last several years) it makes sense that the GM will draft players that will address the head coach’s most immediate needs. This is particularly true if the head coach / GM is in the last year of their contract, and it is this philosophy that Packer fans have grown accustomed to. So it isn’t any wonder that I was left scratching my head on Monday morning as I reviewed GM Ted Thompson’s first Packer draft.
Let me clarify one thing: I was ecstatic with the selection of Aaron Rodgers who has a legitimate shot of being the “next Brett Favre”. With that said, he has an equally legitimate shot of being the next Rich Campbell so let’s just hope he does well as the first Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is a bright articulate young man who has a decent arm and a great sense of humor. In press conferences he comes across comfortable and displays an air of leadership. He properly sucks up to Favre, though not nearly as much as the Sunday play by play guys (don’t worry, he’ll learn), and he put up sick numbers at Cal. Just like Rich Campbell.
See, I knew this was going to happen. I’m getting sidetracked. Fine. I have to explain who Rich Campbell is. Rich Campbell was a QB out of Cal that set every friggin passing record in college football in 1981. The only problem was Campbell had a weak arm. Some guys can tear it up in College without having the skills to make it in the pros and Campbell was one of them. The Packers selected him with the 6th pick on the NFL draft. Other players taken after Campbell included Mike Singletary, Chris Collinsworth and man this is tough, Ronnie Lott. Lott in fact dined with Bart Starr the week before the draft and the story goes that during the course of dinner indicated that he always wanted to play for Green Bay. 19 years and a hall of fame career later, all I can say is it would have been nice.
OK , back to the draft….
Much like the great St.Ides, the more I read about the draft, the more I began to like it. Well, except our second round pick. In the second round Green Bay selected Nick Collins out of Bethune-Cookman. When St. Ides posed the question “where the hell is Bethune – Cookman?” I replied “It’s right between Bethune and Cookman, just outside of Bumblefuck. Collins is a safety or a corner, no one knows for sure because he’s either too fast or too short, but he supposed to be a tremendous athlete, in other words he’s a project. He’s also not very bright, scoring a whopping 14 on the 50 question Wonderlic so I have to ask: maybe he would have been available in the third or fourth round? At least GM Thompson didn’t trade up any picks to get him.
Out second pick in the second round was Terence Murphy, a wide receiver out of Texas A& M. He’s another good, fast athlete who was able to correctly answer 15 questions on the Wonderlic exam.
We then traded out third round pick for two number 4’s .
Lets’ stop for a moment.
Last season the Packer had the third best offense in league. We also had the second worst defense in the league. So after day one we’ve drafted a QB, a WR, and a non-descript defensive back who probably won’t be able to help us for at least two seasons.
Huh?
The brilliance of Ted Thompson’s draft revealed itself on day two. With a series of trades, Thompson turned the Packer’s 7 picks into 11. The players he drafted all fit the same mold: small schools, tremendous potential, tremendous risk. I won’t get into the details here but I want you to remember two names: Marviel Underwood and Michael Hawkins. I’ll blog more about them later.
When all was said and done, no immediate help was provided to the defense and Mike Sherman was nowhere to be found after the draft, but in a way, Thompson’s strategy was a huge vote of confidence in Sherman. Sherman the GM drafted defense the last 3 years, and if you listen to defensive coordinator Jim Bates, the guys Sherman drafted are the second coming of the ’85 Bears. Here are a few Bates quotes taken shamelessly from an email to St. Ides:
• "Some people say it's going to take three years," Bates said Sunday after the draft. "I don't believe in that. Time will tell but I like what we have."
• Re: Nick “The football factory” Collins (I like that nickname, another St. Ides creation) “Collins is not a reach," Bates said. "We got two really good safeties that can tackle. And if Hawkins is into football the way we think he's into football, we may have a steal."
• Re: passing on Dan Cody and Matt Roth "Sometimes the great effort guy in college isn't as effective against the 340-pound tackles," he said. "But those guys were interesting to us."
• Re: the guys who have been injured: "I've never been in a situation that we have such good depth in the 15 years I've been in the league," he said. "People will say, 'It wasn't a very good defensive line.' I disagree. The ability's there. We will get that ability level up and you will see vast improvement in the defensive line." Peterson, Williams, Washington and Lee have done little or nothing in their pro careers but Bates sees nothing but promise. "We've never had in Miami an (inside) rusher like Cullen Jenkins," Bates said. "We never had a backup guy like Corey Williams. We never had a guy with the potential of Kenny Peterson. I mean, on and on.
• "These guys aren't just big guys. These guys are athletes. I can list five tackles that are as good depth-wise as I've ever been around."
• Finally, and this was my favorite, re: stoner loser jackass Cletius Hunt: "If he plays on an every-down basis to his ability level, he will be playing all the time," Bates said. "If he doesn't, he gets beat out. That's all there is to it. It's his job and my job to get it done."
OK, losing focus again…. The point is this: the GM is supposed to see the big picture. He’s supposed to draft the best players available. He’s supposed to be long sighted. The coaches are supposed to coach. They are supposed to take the talent and make the most out of it. Often times these jobs are diametrically opposed, but that’s what makes it great. It challenges the coaches to raise their coaching skills and it challenges the GM to sharpen his vision.
Or else what happens is the GM drafts a punter who can’t punt, and the coach is compelled to keep him on the roster even if he’s never activated.
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