Steelers and Packers: Built for success

Associated Press

ARLINGTON, Texas

NFL executives always talk about building the core of their club through the draft, then using free agency to fill in some blanks.

They might be saying it more after this Super Bowl.

Look at the breakdown of the starting lineups for the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s as if these old-school franchises were using the same throwback playbook because the numbers are identical:

Sixteen of the 22 expected starters are homegrown players, draft picks who’ve never left.

Two more are the next-best thing, guys who were signed after nobody drafted them and have never left.

The remaining four were signed off the open market. But even those additions were made through scouting acumen rather than winning bidding wars.

Packers cornerback Charles Woodson and Steelers linebacker James Farrior are valuable players now, both team captains. However, both joined their clubs for the simple reason that nobody else wanted them.

“We made a bunch of phone calls, my agent did, with no success,” said Woodson, who left Oakland with the reputation of being more interested in fun than football. “For some reason, Green Bay kept calling him. I kept trying to blow it off, blow it off, blow it off. Finally, I took a visit to Green Bay, and the rest is history.”

Farrior was a ’tweener for the New York Jets, too slow to be an outside linebacker, too small to be an inside linebacker. But the Steelers saw him as a perfect fit for their scheme. He now says, “I was born to play inside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers.”

“I felt like I was wanted there,” he said. “I think they do a great job of getting people to fit within their system. That’s one thing about the Steelers: They’ve always been able to do that. They’ve always been able to judge good people, good character, good players. That’s why the Steelers organization has been so successful over the years.”

Pittsburgh and Green Bay are franchises built on tradition and a clear sense of how things should be done. They must be. Neither is a high- profile destination for free agents, nor are their owners the deep-pocketed types who are willing to overpay a player or two or three to help generate headlines.

They have to get it right if they are going to succeed. Sometimes, that requires patience and trust. The Packers exhibited both by sticking with general manager Ted Thompson despite moves that rattled the fan base — spending a first-round pick on Aaron Rodgers when they already had Brett Favre.

“The principles are in place of how you evaluate a player,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “So when you’re in a personnel meeting prior to the draft and discussions are going around the table about a player, you know when the final decision is made, that Ted has probably had his eyes on him and definitely has done his due diligence. It’s very impressive to watch now for five years, and it’s a big part of why we select the right people. We have to give our personnel department a lot of credit for our season.”

Thompson learned how to build a club from Ron Wolf, who was the architect of the teams Favre led to two Super Bowls. This is the first Super Bowl on Thompson’s watch, but there’s no reason to think it will be the last. The majority of the starters are in their 20s, and Rodgers is a blossoming star who’s turned Favre into old news.