Are the Green Bay Packers Influenced by the NFL Combine? Apparently, NOT MUCH…

For all you Packer fans that spent the weekend glued to NFL Network (myself included), getting all worked up about who just ran the fastest 40 or bench-pressed the most reps;  evidently, we could have been doing something more important…

It appears that Ted Thompson and his staff don’t give a very strong consideration to combine results.  NOW , I find that out…

In an article by Greg Bedard on JSOnline.com , he wrote about getting a glimpse at the proceedings inside the Lucas Oil Dome. Wrote Bedard:

Packers general manager Ted Thompson sat next to San Francisco 49ers GM Scott McCoughan, who worked under Thompson in both Green Bay and Seattle.  Mike McCarthy sat a few rows back by himself and was carefully studying the prospects and took notes. Didn’t appear that Thompson took notes…

Soon after, I was reading an article by Bob McGinn on JSonline.com about Wisconsin’s O’Brien Schofield when innocently enough at the end of article, McGinn segues into the following:

General manager Ted Thompson said he and John Dorsey, the Packers’ director of college scouting, will move players up and players down based on the new  {combine} information. Over the next four weeks, scouts will fan out testing prospects on their college campuses.

In the two weeks leading up to the draft, Thompson, Dorsey and others will make their final adjustments, and guess what? Their stack of players won’t look much different than it was before Indy.

“By the time you get to the draft, those names go back to the original place they were before we came to the combine,” Thompson said. “I swear it happens.

“You go back and watch the tape and say, ‘You know what? We’re nuts.’

“So, as much as we can, we try to lean on the football stuff and say, ‘Is he a good player? Does he like to play the game?’

“If he can do those things, he has a chance to be a Packer.”

Wow. Did Ted Thompson really admit that the combine results end up having very little bearing on who they draft? That might be one of the most forthcoming things the normally tight-lipped Ted Thompson has ever let slip out.

Kudos to Bob McGinn, who seems to be able to, better than any other reporter, get Ted Thompson to actually say something meaningful.

So Packers fanatics, instead of wasting the whole weekend tracking the NFL combine, you could have been baking cookies, giving the dog a bath, or fixing that loose doorknob.  You know,  something IMPORTANT …

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Jersey Al Bracco is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com. You can find more of Jersey Al ’s articles on several sports web sites: NFL Touchdown , Packers Lounge , Packer Chatters & Bleacher Report .