Brats & Beer

Will Aaron Rodgers Go It Alone?

The past couple days the pool of free agent quarterback “talent” shrank by two when Joey Harrington re-signed with the Falcons, the team that cut him a couple weeks ago, and David Carr got plucked off the street by the Giants. Thankfully now those two are off the market and we can’t stop worrying about either ending up in Green Bay — not that Ted Thompson showed any interest in them, but he might have taken a nasty bump to the head and gone off his nut. You never know.

Unfortunately, the Packers still have a glaring hole at backup quarterback with plenty of unexploded bombs left in the free agent minefield, and until TT fills that hole we’ll have to endure the unceasing chatter out there in the ether about Mark Brunell, Dante Culpepper, and Byron Leftwich. Perhaps more unfortunate will be how that chatter will sound when and if TT sidesteps the whole issue and zigs when everyone else thinks he should zag.

Take this for what it’s worth from a guy with a horrible track record at making predictions, but I get the very strong impression that TT is not listening to the pundits who say the Packers need to sign an older veteran QB to mentor young Aaron Rodgers. Trent Green — for whatever reason — seemed to be the only guy they showed some interest in, and now it looks like they are casting their net for younger talent like Quinn Gray. In response to a comment by MC, it would shock me if Dalton Bell and Craig Nall were the backups but I would not be too surprised to see J.P. Losman and a rookie on the depth chart. (I know Losman isn’t a free agent, but I could possibly see TT trading a pick to get him.)

Mike McCarthy’s experience as a quarterbacks coach was a big reason he got the job in Green Bay over other candidates, and I’m betting TT wants to put that experience to full use in the post-Favre era. Together, I think TT and MM want to find another quarterback who is young enough to stay on the roster for a while, someone who is “a real football guy,” but most importantly someone who is coachable and who will fit into the system.

But are we fans prepared to go into next season without that experienced veteran everyone thinks we need? Even with the success of last year it seems like the most vocal of Packer fans are still split on TT, and if he goes the way I think he will we could be in for a long off-season of “fire Ted Thompson” talk.

I’ll admit it is disconcerting when your general manager and head coach start to think they know better how to run a football team than the fans and the contributors at ProFootballTalk.com, but before we write off our GM at the start of his fourth season, let’s consider that no one in the modern era of NFL free agency has had prolonged success running their team like a fantasy league. Unless you consider Dan Snyder’s leadership of the Redskins to be a success.