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By Tom Silverstein March 27, 2012
quote:When Schneider left, McKenzie and others were able to pick up the slack, but losing McKenzie removed Thompson's surrogate at the Packers facility when he is on the road scouting. McKenzie served as de facto general manager, monitoring events around the league, directing pro personnel operations and making sure coach Mike McCarthy had everything he needed.
Since McKenzie has left, assistant director of player personnel Eliot Wolf and assistant director of pro personnel Tim Terry have had to fill some of McKenzie's duties, but neither has the years of decision-making experience that Schneider and McKenzie did in courting free agents, negotiating trades and dealing with McCarthy and his staff on personnel issues.
"Ted's still the man, he'll be OK," said McKenzie, who was attending his first owners meeting. "He has some guys that have been there, now. He's got Eliot and (Brian) Gutekunst , Alonzo (Highsmith), guys who have been there a long time.
"But he lost me and 'Schneids' and boom, boom, that's guys he bounced a lot of stuff off of. He trusted me a lot for him to go out and do a lot of college stuff. I was the guy, the mainstay, so we could always communicate, especially through Coach Mike. That's going to be a different dynamic." continue
Past the click Tom Silverstein has; quotes from Thompson talking about replacing Reggie McKenzie and John Schneider, Ron Wolf with insight on the structure of the personnel department and the importance of having the right person back at the office when the General Manager is on the road scouting. Ron Wolf also shares who he would elevate to fill the vacated roles. The article is definitely worth the click.
