Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson celebrates after the Packers&#8217; 31-25 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys

As a result of general manager Ted Thompson's long-standing draft-and-develop philosophy, the Green Bay Packers enter the off-season in a different fraternity from the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.

The Packers' roommates are teams like the Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins.


It is especially so if you have one of the best quarterbacks in the game signed to a long-term deal, a ton of offensive talent and three consecutive division titles in the bank because it means you didn't earn the salary cap room by being one of the worst teams in the NFL.




The Seahawks, 49ers, Panthers and Saints are better teams than the Packers, but because all of them have very limited salary cap space, Thompson has a chance to get the jump on them this off-season. As has been the case every year the Packers have been loaded with cap room -- five of the last eight years they've had $17 million or more -- it's what you do with it that really matters.

This off-season, the to-do list isn't centralized around two star players but rather around 17 unrestricted free agents, eight of whom were preferred starters last season.


The Packers were not able to sign any of those free agents to extensions during the '13 season and in many cases they didn't even try because they plan to elevate recent draft picks into their spots. As a result, they will carry $9.8 million of leftover cap space from '13 into 2014.

According to a source with NFLPA salary information, the Packers have about $108.5 million in charges committed to their 2014 cap, so if the cap limit comes in at $126.3 million, the figure league officials projected late last year, their '13 leftovers will be added to roughly $18 million of space.


How did the Packers get there?


And they have avoided writing a lot of bad contracts.

"There is no question that we are primarily a draft-and-develop team -- we use the draft as the main vehicle to add players to our roster," Packers president Mark Murphy said on the team's website recently. "We use other means to acquire players, including signing undrafted free agents, 'street' free agents and unrestricted free agents.



So while they have lots of cap space, maybe their passivity in free agency is a reason the Packers have not risen to the top of the NFC since winning Super Bowl XLV -- something they did with the help of two key free agents, Charles Woodson and Pickett.



It's pretty unlikely Thompson will re-sign Finley given he wouldn't medically clear safety Nick Collins, who had the same neck injury. If he can't get Shields signed to a long-term deal, he can put a franchise tag on him for approximately $10 million. And if he can sign Shields, he could use the franchise tag on Raji for maybe $9 million.



Thompson doesn't have a lot of tough decisions to make this off-season; his biggest ones -- besides what to do with Shields and Raji -- are draft-related. Some scouts have described the draft this year as very deep and with the 21st pick in the first round, Thompson needs to stack a very good one on top of the '13 class, which has a chance to be among his best.


"We know we have to make tough decisions," Seahawks general manager John Schneider said during Super Bowl week. "Everybody does. But we're a young football team. We like our guys and we're going to keep drafting and trying to get ready for whoever has to depart."


The 2012 NFC champion 49ers had a similar one in '11, when they drafted linebacker Aldon Smith, Kaepernick, cornerback Chris Culliver, running back Kendall Hunter and fullback Bruce Miller.
