Packers: Top 15 what-ifs of the Ted Thompson era Part 1

14. What if John Dorsey never left Green Bay?

What happened?

John Dorsey left his position as director of football operations with the Packers to become the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013.

Dorsey went on to draft several talented players with the Chiefs included names such as Travis Kelce, Marcus Peters, Tyreek Hill, Patrick Mahomes and Kareem Hunt.

The Alex Smith trade was arguably the biggest move he made during his tenure with the Chiefs and that is a main reason why the Chiefs were so successful during his time in Kansas City.

Dorsey was fired last offseason but his tenure in Kansas City should still be viewed as a success.

Dorsey became the general manager of the Cleveland Browns towards the end of the 2017 season and has went on to hire several former Packers front office personnel including Eliot Wolf, Alonzo Highsmith and Scot McCloughan.

What if John Dorsey never left Green Bay?

The Packers’ strategy in the draft and free agency would not have changed all that much as Ted Thompson still would have been calling the shots but I think the team’s drafts would have been better.

I doubt the Packers would have tried to pick some of the guys that Dorsey picked that had “off-field concerns” like Marcus Peters or Tyreek Hill as they rarely (if ever) draft guys like that.

The overall drafting would definitely have been better though. Dorsey is excellent at evaluating collegiate talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and some of the best players that Green Bay picked during the Thompson era were when Dorsey was there, with names such as Clay Matthews, Mike Daniels and Nick Perry.

I think he could have been promoted to the general manager position this offseason if he had stayed. Bob McGinn (then of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) even pegged him as the “best bet” to replace Thompson last year.