With the 2020 NFL season almost upon us, I figure it’s time to get up on my soap box again. To bring attention to some glaringly obvious personnel decisions made by former Packers General Manager Ted Thompson. Why does it matter anymore some of you may be thinking? Well it matters because some decisions take some time to surface.

Here were the Packers defensive backs in the 2016 season, when the team started 4-6, only to upset the NFC’s No. 1 seed the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, thanks to Aaron Rodgers, Jared Cook and Mason Crosby: Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, HaHa Clinton-Dix, LaDarius Gunter and Kentrell Brice.

With Clinton-Dix getting released this week by the Cowboys, now coached by former GB head coach Mike McCarthy, all of those afore listed DBs, except Brice, are currently out of the league. Brice was in the XFL briefly, after not playing for anyone in 2019. That group of five went on the week after upsetting Dallas to get absolutely shredded and made to look foolish by Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game.

Why does this have anything to do with the current Packers team you may be wondering? Let us look at the guys Thompson let go to keep this group of five around. The two that stand out are still solid players to this day.

— Casey Hayward Jr., who went to the Los Angeles Chargers in 2016. To begin with, he led the entire NFL in interceptions in 2016, was named 2nd Team All-Pro and was selected to the Pro Bowl. The following season, 2017, was named 2nd Team All-Pro and was selected to the Pro Bowl; sound familiar doesn’t it? Pro Football Focus grades out all sorts of different aspects of the NFL. Hayward is ranked one spot ahead of Jaire Alexander of the Packers on PFF Top 25 Cornerbacks going into the 2020 NFL season; and is seven years older than Alexander. Interesting huh? The Chargers secondary was rated after the 2019 season as the top secondary in the NFL by PFF. “Despite being an 8-year veteran, Casey Hayward Jr. has as much to do with this ranking, as the younger players in the Chargers secondary do,” says PFF. Even more interesting hey?

— Now on to Micah Hyde; he was left unsigned by the Packers after 2016. Yes, he was a part of the aforementioned secondary that got trounced by Atlanta in the NFC Championship game. Albeit in a minor roll, but a part of it none the less. He was signed by the Buffalo Bills, where he still plays to this day. Wouldn’t you know it, he was also selected to the Pro Bowl and as 2nd Team All-Pro in 2017. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? PFF has him rated one spot ahead of Adrian Amos of the Packers, in their Top 25 safeties going into the 2020 season. PFF also considers Hyde as a premier safety in the league.

Both Amos and Alexander are great players in my opinion; Alexander is young and is said by PFF to have a great deal of potential. With Amos being only two years older, he’s said to have his own amount of promise as well.

The moral of the story is simple: until Alexander was drafted and Amos signed as a free agent prior to last season, think back to the countless games that the aforementioned group of five showed why they’re mostly out of the league now, and were “out of their league” in the first place. I hope Hayward and Hyde continue to play at a high level, kudos to them and the teams that signed them. As for the Packers fan that once told me “Hayward only had one good year since he left Matt!” No Jon, he didn’t! He’s had four good years since then and that’s as many seasons as he’s been gone from Green Bay. Nice Job, Ted. …

I recently had a baseball discussion with someone who will still remain nameless, but he is a current East Vulcan resident and the son of a former Iron Mountain milkman and Cubs super-fan, and is also a Cubs super-fan himself. So let’s start by putting the Cubs fan aspect in perspective: Some, not all Cubs fans are as objective to talk to as having a Heisman Trophy discussion with a Notre Dame fan who thinks whomever is the Irish’s best player, on either side of the ball, is an automatic lock to win the Heisman, simply because he dons a gold helmet. Anyway, the nameless individual and far too many Cubs fans soak up the national media attention given to shortstop Javier Baez.

Baez is a great hitter and exciting base runner; he’s as athletic of an infielder as I’ve ever seen; he was a National League Championship Series MVP in 2016. But he is not the best shortstop in baseball, nor is he the best shortstop in the NL. Both of those attributes belong to Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies. In fact, in the shortened 2020 season, a case can be made that Baez hasn’t been the best shortstop in the NL Central. Consider Orlando Arcia of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Some statistics as of Friday through 35 games: batting average, Arcia: .256; on base percentage .343; slugging percentage .367; OPS .710; strike outs: 12; fielding percentage .990; fielding errors: 1; fielding errors that have cost the Brewers a win: none.

Baez same statistics: batting average: .194; on base percentage .235; slugging percentage .374; OPS .609; strikeouts: 50; fielding percentage .978; fielding errors: 3; fielding errors that have cost the Cubs a win: 2.

In the words of an area girls varsity basketball coach, who happens to be a diehard Cubs fan, “Stats don’t lie Sweets!” You’re right Brad, they don’t. Same as the Cubs World Series win four years ago has nothing to do with Baez’s current season resume and play. …

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney had what was in my opinion a very arrogant response in regards to the absence of the Big 10 and PAC 12 in the College Football Playoff this year. Swinney basically dismissed the fact that not having those two conferences in the mix, would have any bearing on the significance on the playoff itself and the National Championship. That’s coming from the same guy who politely complained about having to play Ohio State in a National Semifinal last season. …

Have a safe, healthy and relaxing Labor Day weekend everyone. …