GREEN BAY, Wis. -- There comes a time when every NFL general manager must decide whether to jettison a player that hasn't quite lived up to expectations.

Khyri Thornton and Carl Bradford better hope Ted Thompson hasn't reached that point with them.

Drafted 15 months ago -- Thornton in the third round (No. 85 overall) and Bradford in the fourth (No. 121) -- both have given the Green Bay Packers general manager plenty of reason to think he erred in picking them so high, or at all.

Thornton spent all of last season on injured reserve because of a hamstring injury that he now admits probably occurred because he came to training camp out of shape. Even without the injury, he likely would've been in the same situation as Bradford, who made the 53-man roster but did not suit up for a single game.

Neither has made much of a climb up the depth chart in the first two weeks of training camp. At this point, Thornton can't be rated any higher than the seventh defensive lineman (although two in front of him -- Datone Jones and Letroy Guion -- are facing suspensions to start the season), and Bradford looks no better than the fifth or sixth inside linebacker.

So what will Thompson do?

When asked how he knows when it's time to move on from a player -- not about Bradford or Thornton, specifically -- Thompson was omniscient.

"Well you just do," he said recently. "If you get to a point where you don't think a player's going to contribute to the team, regardless of how you acquired that player, I think you have to start getting comfortable with the idea that it's probably the time to move on. But you don't want to hurry that moment. There's time to do that and there's other times not."

Say this about Bradford and Thornton, both appreciate the urgency of the situation.

"I have to show that I'm capable of being here, that I'm capable of playing at this next level," Thornton said. "I want to show that I belong here. It's of the highest and most importance. Sat out all of last year. Really wasn't a good year for me.

"I didn't come in how I was supposed to come in. I really didn't come in how I was expected to come in."

The 6-foot-3 Thornton said he reported to training camp in 2014 at 340 pounds.

"Out of shape," he said.

It wasn't much better when he reported back for the offseason program this past April. He said he weighed 331 pounds. But by the time he returned for training camp on July 29, he said he was back at his listed weight of 315.

"Changed my mind, changed my diet and changed my workout habits," he said. "I was irresponsible. No excuse."

At least Bradford has an excuse. He switched from outside linebacker in the final week of the preseason last summer, so he's less than a year into his new position.

"Since spring ball, I feel like I've gotten to really know the defense to where I understand it," Bradford said. "I feel like that was a big improvement from last year. Now in camp, I feel way more ahead of where I was. Just from spring until now, I understand the defense pretty easy and I don't do too much thinking now. It's just playing and reacting."

Along the way, Bradford shed the bulk and weight he need to play outside linebacker. He's at 240 pounds now -- 10 pounds lighter than last year at this time and 20 pounds lighter than he was at the end of last season, when he admittedly "let myself go a little bit."

In 25 days, Thompson will trim the roster to 53. Between now and then, Thornton and Bradford have four preseason games to convince their GM it's not time to move on.

"You have to do something to stand out," Thornton said. "You have to do something to show that you're capable of being here. You can't go out every day and be average. You have to go out there and push it to the limit. You have to go out there and show them why they drafted you."