Green Bay Packers: The top 5 moves made by GM Ted Thompson
By Matt George
When former Green Bay Packers president and CEO Bob Harlan named Ted Thompson general manager, you wouldn’t be alone in questioning who this man was.
That position was held by fan-favorite Mike Sherman for years, but the franchise wasn’t moving in the right direction and it was time to bring in some new personnel.
Thompson joined the team in 2005 and was already faced with a huge dilemma. The team was over the salary cap. The only way to get the team to the proper salary would be to cut veterans who were eating up a majority of the cap.
The first thing Thompson did?
He released starting guard Mike Wahle and starting safety Darren Sharper and declined to re-sign starting guard Marco Rivera.
That is just one of the many bold moves Thompson made. And though his first season brought a lot of heat toward him with most of Packers Nation thinking his career as a general manager was over before it even started, the fan base has grown to respect Thompson and actually support every move he makes or doesn’t make.
In fact, if there is a free agent fans think the Packers should target, but they don’t. We respond, “Ted is going to be Ted.”
When the Packers draft a player we never even heard of in the first round, we respond, “In Ted we trust.”
It took a bit of patience, but Thompson eventually won over the fan base with gutsy moves that might have originally been questioned, but eventually paid off.
So, let’s take a look at a few of the moves Thompson has made over the years …
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