The Packers finally made a purchase in the free-agent market on Friday, waiting until the Dan Synders of the world have emerged with their 60-inch plasma screen and quietly walking out with a dustbuster. It’s not a bad strategy — in fact, Ted Thompson’s beige-toned approach to free agency has put the Packers in good shape for some dicey financial situations ahead.
But here’s the problem: An approach like this one tacitly suggests the Packers are one or two pieces away from contending. And if that mentality turns out to be false, it could cost somebody their job.
The Packers wouldn’t be bringing in a new defensive staff and switching schemes if what they did last season had worked. So one of two things is happening here: By not signing anybody to drastically shape your defense, you’re either implying the players you’ve had all along are better suited to play a new defense than the one you’ve used the past four seasons (counting Jim Bates’ year as defensive coordinator), or you’re saying you have a better way to get those players than the one you’re approaching with only mild interest.
For Thompson and Mike McCarthy’s sakes, it better be the latter.
No matter what they’re saying, the Packers’ switch to a 3-4 is an admission that something wasn’t working. Changes like these aren’t made in professional sports because somebody was suddenly alerted to a concept they’ve never seen before. They’re made because somebody needs to take the blame. Somebody needs to show fans that they have a way to fix the problem. Or somebody’s going to lose their job.
Here’s the point: Thompson and McCarthy are staking a large part of their security on this switch. Thompson is compounding the risk — both for him and McCarthy — by refusing to pay even a modest price for defensive upgrades (Yeah, we’re happy about Anthony Smith. But is a backup safety who made five tackles from the line of scrimmage last season going to make this defense dominant?).
Nobody expected them to chase after Albert Haynseworth or Julius Peppers. That isn’t the Packers’ style, and it’s questionable whether either player would have delivered the kind of jolt he would have been paid to give. Thompson’s been more interested in the second-tier options in the past (Charles Woodson, Ryan Pickett, Brandon Chillar) and has used them to great effect. He decided this year, however, that Chris Canty, Igor Olshansky and Vonnie Holliday weren’t intriguing enough options to give similar deals to the ones he’s handed out to the three players mentioned above.
That approach is fine, if it works. But it means that the Packers need to get an impact player with the 9th pick, and probably another immediate contributor with one of their three picks in the next two rounds. It also means that McCarthy’s new scheme — the one that he has been so fond of for years — needs to be implemented so successfully and coached so well that the Packers’ defense, sturdy two years ago and downright bad last season, can again carry its share of the load.
Because in American sports, somebody usually needs to be blamed. There aren’t any more assistant coaches for Thompson and McCarthy to throw overboard before somebody suggests one or both of them needs to join in.
–Gene Bosling
Ol' Bag of Donuts 