Packer Update took an interesting look at Ted Thompson's strategy of being pretty quiet during free agency and building his team from within (ie the draft). Only 17.7% of the players currently on the Packers roster have worn another team's jersey in a regular season game. This is much lower than a team like the Minnesota Vikings, at 29.3%, which Packer Update claims is near the league average.Because I am a big baseball fan, this reminds me of the New York Yankees. Although I am a big Yankee hater, when they were winning championships in the 1990's, it was with players from in-house that they brought up through their system. Since, they have become a team that delves into huge free agent contracts, they have had the league's highest payroll every year, yet they have not won a championship since 2000. While the numbers in baseball are quite different, in relation, it follows the same idea. In 1998, a historic season with 114 regular season wins and a World Series championship, only 54.06% of the players on the Yankees had played for a different team. Compare that to the 76.29% of the San Diego Padres, the team that they swept 4-0 in the World Series. In 2008, the world champion Philadelphia Phillies had only 57.5% of their players that hadn't come up through their system.
Maybe the comparison between the NFL and MLB is farfetched, but hey, when you're a Packers fan sitting around watching other teams make moves to improve themselves, and Ted Thompson is sitting still and banking on the draft, you gotta reach for something. Even Nick Barnett thinks that some help could be used.
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