Ted Thompson (left) is a man who has a stated goal and method of doing business that he believes in and sticks to. Had Favre retired after the first year TT was GM as everyone thought he might, Ted Thompson would be the perfect man for the job. He is passive and allows the draft to come to him. He recognizes that a lot of free agents do not produce. His strategy is great for rebuilding a team. Chances are that this was part of the reason why he was hired in the first place.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, the team guessed wrong and Favre came back causing the situation to be no longer correctly aligned. The Packers had a GM who was competent in rebuilding and a QB who was looking for a GM who could give short term fixes for immediate gratification.
So who is to blame?
Ted Thompson?
Brett Favre?
Bob Harlan (right)?
Let's look at each of them to see where the blame lies:
Ted Thompson - Was hired with the intent of rebuilding a Packer's team that had salary cap issues and was slightly above mediocre the previous few years. Had a plan for rebuilding and the way he was going to run the team that was likely shared with Harlan at his hiring. Has stubbornly held to that plan.
I cannot assign much blame in his direction. He is doing what he was hired to do. Guys don't get a lot of opportunities to run teams and they are entitled to it the way they think is best. Gets unfair labels about being passive in the draft and being cheap in free agency. Seems reasonable to me that he would want to not spend much money after dropping quite a bit of scratch last season (Woodson, Pickett) and an absence of quality free agents. As far as the draft, he is certainly better than Sherman.
Brett Favre - In his twilight years. Still an above average QB. May have mislead the team about his longterm intentions.
Seems to me that he cannot be blamed for wanting the team to add players that can help him now as opposed to helping the team in 3 years.
Bob Harlan - Hired Ted Thompson.
He incorrectly gambled that Favre would leave and that he should hire a GM to rebuild the team. Should have hired a more aggressive, win now GM type to give the Packers a chance to take advantage of Favre's remaining years.
I think a lot of the blame has to go on the original hiring of Ted Thompson by Bob Harlan. Favre may also be to blame if he led Harlan to believe he wouldn't be around much longer, validating Bob's hiring of TT. It is too easy to blame Ted Thompson for doing exactly what he was hired to do. When he drafts guys like Justin Harrell, he is taking a less sexy player. If Harrell stands in the middle and plugs the holes which would be bored through us by Matt Birk, Steve Hutchinson and Bryant McKinnie for Chester Taylor/Adrian Peterson, then the pick is just as good as an offensive weapon.
