Read what I said more carefully.
I never said that Ted didn't take risks. I didn't even say he didn't take big risks. What I said was that he doesn't take big risks when it comes to veteran free agents. Not like Wolf did.
As to why Reggie White was a risk? He was 32 years old. How many times have we heard regarding big name free agents over the age of 32 that its too risky to overspend for them?
Consider Julius Peppers, but not Julius Peppers in 2014. Consider the Julius Peppers of free agency in 2010. The Julius Peppers that was only thirty years old when the Bears signed him. THAT was the kind of move Wolf made with Reggie White, and a 32-year. DE probably brings more risk than a 30-year old one.
Be clear, I'm not saying here that Peppers in 2010 was worth the salary he got from the Bears. What I'm saying is that Ron Wolf was willing to take bigger risks and more risks in veteran free agency than Ted Thompson is.
And I don't you can just explain it away by the restrictions of salary cap management.
I mean, look just at the D-Line on Wolf's championship team. How many veteran free agents were there? White. Jones. Dotson. (Arguably Gilbert Brown, though to me that's not the same kind of veteran pickup since unlike Jones and Dotson and White, Brown never did much of anything before coming to GB.) Add Eugene Robinson and Mike Prior and you have 5 of the top 12 defensive players coming via veteran free agency.
And on offense: Jackson, obviously. But there were also Winters, Wilkerson, Rison, and another backup OL I can't remember.
And lets not forget Desmond Howard.
Every GM takes risks.
But GM Thompson takes different kinds of risks than GM Ron Wolf.
Limit stud players take risks; but they are far different risks than a pot limit Omaha player takes.
Omar Bradley and Frank Clark and even William Westmoreland took risks. But not the kind Ike took, much less the kind Patton and Billy Mitchell would take.
I'd not complain if Thompson were the GM equivalent of Bradley.
I'd rather play poker against Wolf than against Thompson. But I don't think poker-playing skills are as important in the GM world -- poker's more about finesse than dominance, and as I've said many times, I want team's leadership focusing on dominance not on finessing the game.
And when I'm feeling down on the Packers' prospects, though, I fear the analogy of Thompson isn't to Bradley, or even to Westmoreland. It's to Westmoreland's boss, Robert McNamara.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)