Thompson Gets His UFAs - By Drafting Them

Packers General Manager made sure to bring in a good deal of competition for the back end of his roster on Day Three of the NFL Draft.

One of the major issues teams are facing, now that the 2011 NFL draft is in the books, is the fact that due to the NFL's ongoing labor issues they are unable to sign any unrestricted free agents.

Good thing Ted Thompson planned ahead.

A popular theory heading into this draft was that the Packers, with 15 players coming off of injured reserve and nine selections in this years draft, would be jumping up in several rounds to a) try and procure more talented prospects and b) eliminate brining players to camp that would have little to no chance of making the team.

It wasn't just fans thinking this way. Pat Kirwan suggested the "trade-up-because-you're-stacked" theory on his Sirius Radio show just last week.

Of course, Ted Thompson did the exact opposite.

After two days of letting the draft come to him, Thompson made five trades during the third and final day of the draft. Interestingly enough, when the dust had settled, Thompson only wound up with one more player (1o) than picks he originally had coming into the draft (9).

I never thought Thompson would be an aggressive mover up the board. The only times he's operated that way in the past is when he saw a player he really liked that fit a very specific hole on the roster (Matthews and Burnett being good examples). Traditionally, Thompson and McCarthy like to create a competitive atmosphere in training camp and let the talent weed itself out. Remember how most of Green Bay's castoffs landed on other rosters at the end of training camp last year? You can be sure for a mega-sized repeat when ever camps break for the 2011 season.

His third day haul created a good deal of competition on both sides of the ball. And that is traditionally what undrafted free agents are meant to do - come in and try to crack the bottom of the roster. Occasionally a starter will emerge from the undrafted class, though its rare. (Which made the ascension of Sam Shields and Frank Zombo all the more surprising last season) But more often than not they are there to improve play on special teams and strengthen the back end of the roster.

Unable to sign any this year, Thompson instead kept his picks, knowing he was also getting a good number of players back from the injured list, and thereby created a mini-UFA class just by keeping and increasing his selections, rather than by trading up and thereby trading them away.

The selections of D.J. Williams and Ryan Taylor will make the tight end/fullback/H-Back positional battles one of the most hotly contested this summer, with only Jermichael Finley and maybe Andrew Quarless assured of roster spots.

The same goes for the defensive line, where starters Ryan Pickett and B.J. Raji will be the only sure things heading into camp. Newcomer Lawrence Guy will battle with veterans C.J. Wilson, Mike Neal and Jarius Wynn for roster spots. Throw in  offensive guard Cable Schlauderaff and you have a healthy group of newcomers to challenge at positions  where the talent was noticeably thinner than elsewhere on the roster.

Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Its far too early to talk about who will or won't make it out of training camp. It is not too early to say that, once again, Ted Thompson has produced a stable of young talent to keep building teams that should be competing for championships.

 

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Comments (12)

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Cole's picture

April 30, 2011 at 10:51 pm

It's too bad, because Crabtree seems like an awesome dude, but he's going to have to really bust his butt to beat out Ryan Taylor. I'm confident that DJ Williams will make the team.

The more I read about each of these guys the more I'm convinced that TT has put together one of the best drafts yet.

Our offense is disgustingly lethal on paper. Hopefully, they will step up to the level of our D, which saved our rears in multiple games last year.

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PackerAaron's picture

April 30, 2011 at 11:03 pm

I actually think Tom has a very good chance to make the Final 53. My hunch is that TE becomes the new FB in that they keep most of them when people expect them to only keep two or three.

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Nerdmann's picture

May 01, 2011 at 03:25 am

Korey Hall could be gone. Can't stay healthy. I like Quinn Johnson, but not sure he's the best fit for our type of offense. Might be best to trade him to Denver or some other team that utilizes traditional lead blockers at the position.

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Cole's picture

May 01, 2011 at 12:28 pm

I hope so, Crabtree has a lot of potential.

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PackersRS's picture

April 30, 2011 at 10:59 pm

They brought in Kevin Greene to talk about Ricky Elmore. They're seeing him as an OLB, not DE.

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PackerAaron's picture

April 30, 2011 at 11:01 pm

Thanks - I even Tweeted that and totally forgot. Made the change.

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PackersRS's picture

April 30, 2011 at 11:35 pm

Being picky here, they also still have Howard Green competing for the roster spot.

Regardless, I really didn't think it was that much of a need (I didn't see any glaring need in this roster).

The point of the article is spot on. TT's MO is competition brings the best out of players.

That being said, he have more TEs and FBs than we have Wrs...

Maybe a new big five with Finley, Quarless, Crabtree, Williams and Taylor?

Oh, and the Schadenfreude pick was really interesting.

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aussiepacker's picture

May 01, 2011 at 12:05 am

They could call it the tight 5? lol

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Chad Toporski's picture

May 01, 2011 at 08:53 am

Schadenfreude... love it.

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MarkinMadison's picture

May 01, 2011 at 06:54 pm

Yeah, the basic premise is right on the money. The only thing I would quibble with is the categorization of Neal - there is no way that he misses this roster, short of catastrophic injury.

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RockinRodgers's picture

May 01, 2011 at 02:53 am

TT. The dude just knows how to draft.

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dgtalmn's picture

May 02, 2011 at 07:05 am

Is it me or is the draft really not ready for TV. All I see is talking heads, then one minute of excitment when the name is called. Aaron please call the commish and have it changed.

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