Ted Thompson, who passed away Wednesday, would have loved this Packers team. Even three years out, his fingerprints are still all over it.
Brian Gutekunst is certain his friend and mentor, Ted Thompson, who passed away at age 68 on Wednesday night, would have loved this Green Bay Packers team.
The Packers have won 14 games and are preparing to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday. Gutekunst said Thompson, the team’s general manager for 13 years, would’ve “really enjoyed” the spirited collection of players that have the Packers on the doorstep of the Super Bowl.
This team would be easily recognizable for Thompson. Even three years out, his fingerprints remain all over it. In fact, he laid most of the team’s foundation.
Of the players on the Packers roster, practice squad or injured reserve list currently, 13 were either drafted or acquired by Thompson: quarterback Aaron Rodgers, running backs Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams, receiver Davante Adams, tight end Robert Tonyan, left tackle David Bakhtiari, center Corey Linsley, guard Lucas Patrick, defensive linemen Kenny Clark and Dean Lowry, cornerbacks Kevin King and Tramon Williams and kicker Mason Crosby.
Consider the following:
– Eleven of the 13 are preferred starters.
– All four of the Packers’ first-team All-Pro players in 2020 were drafted by Thompson (Rodgers, Adams, Bakhtiari, Linsley).
– The Packers had the No. 1 offense in the NFL in 2020. The team’s quarterback, best running back, best receiver, best tight end and three of the five starters along the offensive line were acquired by Thompson.
Thompson gets a tremendous amount of credit for Rodgers and all his accomplishments as a player. Not only did he draft Rodgers with Iron Man quarterback and future Hall of Famer Brett Favre on the roster, but he correctly picked Rodgers over Favre in the long summer of 2008 and later signed Rodgers to an incredibly friendly deal before he blew up as the next NFL superstar. Every step of the way, Thompson got it right – and he was rewarded with one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
In 2020, the 37-year-old Rodgers is the presumptive MVP after throwing 48 touchdown passes and nearly breaking his own single-season passer rating record.
What Thompson did during his final month as the Packers general manager still reverberates. Not only did he sign Adams and Linsley to what turned out to be team-friendly contract extensions, but he also added an unknown tight end named Robert Tonyan to the practice squad. All three moves were strokes of genius.
These acknowledgments don’t take away from what Gutekunst has accomplished since taking over in 2018. He might have inherited a strong foundation with a future Hall of Fame quarterback, but he’s built up all the other important pieces necessary for creating a Super Bowl contender. Where Thompson failed late in his tenure, Gutekunst is thriving, using all forms of player acquisition to build a complete and deep team that has won 26 regular-season games and advanced to back-to-back NFC title games.
But credit for this team is Gutekunst’s to share. His mentor, a man who worked alongside him and helped train him in the art of scouting players, helped build the team that will play the Buccaneers for a chance to go to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
His health battles late in life were very real, but it’s a damn shame Thompson didn’t live long enough to see if this Packers team, featuring a collection of important players he acquired, could hoist the Lombardi Trophy one more time.
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