Packers general manager Ted Thompson watches practice during rookie camp last week in Green Bay. Credit: Associated Press

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The NFL draft is to Ted Thompson what tax season is to accountants.

It's his Mardi Gras, Tournament of Roses and Summerfest all rolled into one. And for the most part, Thompson's drafts have been cause for celebration.

Thompson took over a Green Bay Packers franchise spiraling downward in 2005. And thanks largely to a bevy of solid drafts, Thompson built the Packers into Super Bowl champions in 2010 and a 15-2 team in 2011.

Thompson considers himself a scout first and spends a large percentage of his fall days on college campuses mining for talent.

That leg work has paid off in spades, as 19 of Green Bay's preferred starters (counting specialists) are Thompson draft picks. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Thompson's first pick in Green Bay, is the league's reigning most valuable player. Three other Thompson picks have been named to Pro Bowls, while several others appear on the brink.

Recently, after Thompson concluded his eighth draft as Green Bay's general manager, he spoke with Packer Plus.

Q. The draft is a long, grueling, yearlong process. When it's finally over, are you able to decompress at all?

A. Well, you don't right away, because you're always involved in rookie free-agent signings and working on your rookie minicamp roster. But over the course of time, you realize when you come back to your desk you'll see a stack of papers and you realize you can throw them away. And that's always a nice thing.

Q. So it's not until late June or early July until you can get away from it all, right?

A. Yeah, it usually is. You're pretty much constantly tinkering with the roster all the way up through the veteran minicamp. Once you get past that, whatever you've done you've done, and there's not a whole lot else you can do.

Q. So through this whole draft preparation process, how do you avoid burnout?

A. Well, for me I think it's a thing like anybody, if you have a job you enjoy even when times are a little hectic and a little chaotic, you still enjoy the process. But it is a grind on everybody that works here. I just think that's the nature of the beast.

Q. Go back to this draft again. Was the plan always quality over quantity . . . and to not wind up using all 12 picks?

A. I do think it's a reflection on what we think of our team, our existing team. There was no real plan in place. When you have compensatory picks, it certainly gives you flexibility in that particular round that you think you might use a tradable pick and still be able to get the same player with your compensatory pick. I think it's just the way it worked out. We felt like the draft was going to be really strong from mid-second through the fifth round. We thought there would be a lot of players there that might interest us. As it turned out, that's kind of the reason we did what we did.

Q. Does it still surprise you to have gone from 12 picks to eight?

A. I felt like we did what was best for the Packers, obviously. As long as the guys can play, then it works out. Then it doesn't matter how many picks you have.

Q. You and Bill Belichick have become pretty good trading buddies, especially this year. How did that happen?

A. It just worked out that way. The things that the Patriots were looking for were different than the things that the Packers were looking for at that particular time. There's no particular thing between the Packers and the Patriots. There were just a couple times during the course of this draft where they wanted to do something and it worked, quite frankly and coincidentally, about the same time we were wanting to do something.

Q. How early do you and your people start discussing trades with other teams and looking for potential trading partners?

A. We have several people in the draft room that are assigned different teams. John Dorsey's calling a certain list of teams and Tim Terry and Eliot Wolf and Russ Ball. All those guys are contacting teams. But really most of the time, 99.9% of the time, nothing really happens and nothing is serious until somebody is on the clock.

Q. How do you weigh "scheme fit" vs. "better football player" when making a pick?

A. Well, I think it's a combination of that. We're going to try and take the best player. But if someone happens to quote-unquote, fit our scheme, then he might be the best player for us. It might not be the best player for Team B down the street or something like that.

Q. Have you taken a guy that's a better fit for your scheme, even if at the time, you might not consider him the better football player?

A. I don't think so. We do pretty much stick to trying to take the best player.

Q. Ron Wolf talked about missing out on certain guys in a draft, the most notable being Ray Lewis by one pick in 1996. He then went with John Michels instead. Is there a guy or two you just missed out on and it still bugs you today?

A. I'm sure there are, but I try not to dwell on that. I also don't have the memory that Ron has. But I do remember that particular draft.

Q. How do you feel about this team today compared to how you felt in mid-April?

A. I feel pretty good. There are a lot of balls up in the air, and we're still in the building mode here. We're still working on it.

Q. There are a number of days during the season where the media sees you coming back with your suitcase from a scouting trip. Can you take people through what your week is like once you start going to college campuses in the fall?

A. Well normally, I'm here with the team through Monday and kind of put the previous game to bed. Usually by Tuesday, I'm traveling. If you get out of town early enough on Tuesday, visit schools on Tuesday. But for sure, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And then work my way back home or meet the team if we're playing on the road.

Q. So on a normal Wednesday or Thursday, is it mostly watching film and watching practices at these colleges?

A. A normal day for a scout on the road in the fall is you get to the football offices, depending on what time they open up; some staffs don't like you to get there too early. But let's say it's one of those that it's kind of open, you're usually there by 6:30 or 7 (a.m.). If you're a really good scout, you bring the staff that you're visiting some doughnuts so they have something to eat on. Then you watch tape until usually 2, 2:30, 3 (p.m.), then those players come into those meeting rooms and you have to leave. Then you go meet with the strength staffs and sometimes medical staffs and some other coaches on the staff to get background and things like that. Usually practice is about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and you stay there until as long as you can. Sometimes they ask you to leave before practice is over with. Then you go check into your hotel and you start writing reports. Then you get up the next day and you do it again.

Q. Do you have a favorite place to go, a school you really enjoy visiting?

A. Well yeah, I do. I'm not going to really get into that, but I'll state the obvious that I really enjoy visiting Wisconsin because the people there are great. It's a nice easy drive for me, and they have really good players.

Q. How about SMU (his alma mater) or anywhere else down South?

A. Oh, sure. When you leave here in November, sometimes it can be a little nippy and you wind up in a place where it's 85 (degrees).

Q. You've drafted 76 players as Green Bay's general manager, 50 have been from BCS schools (65.8%). Is that by design? Do you like the big school guys better?

A. Not by design. It's an individual basis. I think there's probably a little more risk on the smaller college guys, but there's also plenty of those guys that come in and do just fine.

Q. How do you find the three-day draft vs. the two-day deal we had for so long?

A. Well, I wouldn't care to answer that directly other than to say that I work for a member club of the National Football League and whatever the National Football League decides, that's what I'll do and be happy about it.

Q. Once the NFL combine ends, take fans through a normal day for you in March and April.

A. Well, once the all-star games are concluded, we bring all of our personnel guys, all of our college scouts in and we start our pre-combine meetings, and that's pretty much just meeting all day long. We start about 7 (a.m.) every day and knock off about 6 (p.m.). The combine is a weeklong grind. They start those weigh-ins at 6:30 in the morning and you're interviewing people until 11 o'clock at night. Then once the pro days start, it pretty much depends. If I'm not at a pro day, then I'm here working with our guys in the office, either doing something on the pro side or working on the board on itself.

Q. So even at that time of the year, are you in by 5 or 6 a.m.?

A. I would think so. But again, that's choice. I'm not required to be. I'm a morning guy.

Q. You're 59. You've won a Super Bowl. You've traded a three-time MVP in the most controversial move in franchise history. You work extremely long hours. How long do you want to do this?

A. Oh, I don't know. I think I'm fortunate to be in a position where I work with really good people, and you have new people coming to your team every year, whether it's free agency or through the draft or college free agency. Those kinds of things make up for the hard days. But I don't really think of myself at the retiring age.

Q. You arrived in January 2005. What have been your best one or two moves as a GM?

A. Oh, I don't know about that. One of the most hectic times was, I believe it was 2006, when we had a pick I think at (No.) 38 and Denver called us and they had a pick at 37. They wanted to make a trade. They were going to give us the 37th pick and they would get Javon Walker. At the same time, we had multiple teams calling for our 38th pick, so we knew we could trade the 37th as well. So we wound up trading the 37th for another two and a three, and we traded the 38th for a two and a three in about a 4-minute span. That was kind of interesting. From a numbers standpoint, it was probably one of the most interesting things we've gone through.

Q. Is Rodgers your favorite draft pick?

A. They're all my favorites.

Q. Who do you talk to when you need advice on something?

A. Oh, I have plenty of people here in the building that I go and I speak with from time to time. I have friends around the league that I think are gracious enough that I can call and ask them about certain things. And when I need a little pat on the back or kick in the butt, I'll call Ron Wolf and he'll do either.

Q. When you signed Anthony Hargrove, were you expecting an eight-game suspension, or did that surprise you?

A. Yeah, I'm not going to even go there. I can't really talk about that.

Q. Rodgers is coming off an MVP season and is signed through 2014, but he doesn't even rank among the top 10 paid quarterbacks in football. Do you want to redo his deal sometime soon?

A. We never discuss business over contracts.

Q. Are we close to a day where Brett Favre's No. 4 is retired, or is that still quite a ways off?

A. Oh, I don't know where it stands. But I'm assuming that that will happen.

Q. Do you want it to happen?

A. Sure.

Q. How do you like social media like Twitter and Facebook that so many of your players now use to get out their message?

A. I don't follow it. I don't know enough to comment. I think it drives some people crazy, but I don't keep up with it.

Q. How do you like dealing with the media?

A. Fine.

Q. Quite often, you seem to say about as close to nothing as humanly possible. Is that by design?

A. No, no. Our plan is that there are certain things, certain topics that we don't discuss publicly. We don't think it serves a purpose. I'm sure it frustrates some people in the media, but we just feel like it's the proper way of doing business.

Q. What do you like doing away from football?

A. Well, I enjoy sports. I enjoy an occasional round of golf, although my game is such that it's not as enjoyable as it used to be.

Q. You've never been married. No kids. Does this job pretty much dominate your life and your time?

A. Well, it's a pretty demanding business when you get into this business, the NFL. But I wouldn't say it comprises most of my life. Hopefully, I have interests. I like to read books, like to talk about going somewhere, but I don't ever get to go.

Q. You won a Super Bowl in 2010. You're coming off a 15-2 season in 2011. How do you look at 2012? Are you the favorite or just one of the teams chasing the Giants?

A. We're going to try and be as good of a team as we can possibly be. It's a difficult thing winning in the National Football League. I don't think you can ever take it for granted. You never know where your biggest threat is going to be, and you never know how things are going to go. It's too hard to predict. It's a very difficult business. We do think we have a team capable of winning. If we play well on Sunday we can win, so we'll see how many that adds up to.

Q. The majority of your best players remain young and in their prime. Do you feel you're right in the middle of a window where you need to capitalize before guys get old or leave in free agency?

A. I think we have a pretty competitive team, and I think we'll have a chance if we play good on Sundays. But in terms of runs and historical perception, we don't pay much attention to that.

Q. Have you started working on the 2013 draft?

A. No, but the National Football Scouting (service) that we're part of, their meetings are at the end of May. So it gets going again.