Green Bay Packers: Will Ted Thompson take ‘aggressive’ approach to free agency?

Ted Thompson, draft and develop is not enough

Ted Thompson needs to understand that when Ron Wolf pulled off the biggest free agent acquisition of all-time by bringing in Reggie White, Wolf understood he needed to surround White with other defensive players that would give the Packers one of the best defensive fronts in all of football.

So what he did is he went out and brought in guys like Gilbert Brown, Santana Dotson and Sean Jones. But he wasn’t done.

He also acquired players like Eugene Robinson, Andre Rison, Desmond Howard and Keith Jackson to help fill needs and add depth to an already solid roster.

That’s how you win championships. That’s how the Packers went to two straight Super Bowls and won one of them. It also helped set up the franchise for continued success for the next decade.

Draft and develop is fine if you’re a struggling franchise looking to win a Super Bowl in five years.

But for a team that already has the core players in place and a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you target a few areas on the team (this year being the defensive backfield), one can get a team ready to win now instead of in five years.

The old saying that you’ve got to spend money to make money certainly is something that Ted Thompson must understand.

When it comes to Aaron Rodgers, Thompson simply got lucky that nobody ahead of him in that 2005 draft needed a quarterback.

As for this most recent era of free agency and building a team, all Thompson has to do is look at a franchise like the New England Patriots. There is a team that seems to operate much like the Packers of the 1990s. Bill Belichick isn’t afraid to trade away players or pick up players midstream to help fill immediate needs.

And they do it without trading away the farm or the future.

So, yes … Ted Thompson needs to take a look at his own free agents and make a decision on whether he must re-sign them, but beyond that he needs to think about what players he needs to bring in to make this a Super Bowl-caliber team today.

Yes, with Aaron Rodgers, the Packers are perennial Super Bowl favorites, but there always appear to be glaring holes where young players don’t seem able to fill.

This year, it was the defensive backfield. As Mike McCarthy was forced to play third and fourth-string players, it showed. Matt Ryan made it abundantly clear why this team needs to go all-in to add depth and experience in the defensive backfield.

This year’s list of Packers free agents is long, but we’re sure Thompson already has his players targeted …

PLAYER (12)

POS.

AGE

FROM

TO

2016 AAV

STATUS

MARKET VALUE

C

25

GB

TBD

$643,977

UFA

OLB

26

GB

TBD

$5,050,000

UFA

OLB

37

GB

TBD

$8,666,667

UFA

–

DE

25

GB

TBD

–

UFA

–

RB

26

GB

TBD

$725,000

UFA

–

G

29

GB

TBD

$5,200,000

UFA

RB

26

GB

TBD

$848,103

UFA

OLB

26

GB

TBD

$1,929,147

UFA

–

SS

26

GB

TBD

$584,527

UFA

–

LS

32

GB

TBD

$885,000

UFA

–

TE

29

GB

TBD

$2,750,000

UFA

RT

27

GB

TBD

$700,000

UFA

One would expect that Julius Peppers, Mike Pennel, Christine Michael, Brett Goode, Don Barclay and even Eddie Lacy and J.C. Tretter may walk, while Thompson will most likely attempt to re-sign Nick Perry, T.J. Lang, Micah Hyde, Datone Jones and Jared Cook. However, given their ages, Thompson may elect to bring back Tretter and let Lang walk.

If Thompson can bring back the majority of those core players, he should have enough money in the bank to bring in a free agent or two to help this team, not only in 2017, but for the immediate future.