Ted Thompson Press Conference: Sam Shields, free agents and more

Ted Thompson addressed the media Friday morning at the NFL Scouting Combine. Below is a transcript of what he had to say.

On if he’s comfortable with the time frame of making decisions on players like Jermichael Finley:

"I think it’ll work itself out. There’s a number of guys whether their under contract or not under contract that things will sort themselves out as we go along through the spring."

On Datone Jones…

"He did a nice job, he fit into a lot of our sub packages and we’re looking forward to having him do more stuff next year."

On possibly giving the franchise tag to Sam Shields…

"We’d never discuss anything like that. As best we can, we’d like to have our guys back. "

On the depth of this draft...

"It’s hard for me to rate drafts. I don’t think we’ll know about how deep or strong a draft is for a number of years down the road. I think that always has to sort itself out."

On the success of John Dorsey with the Chiefs…

‘John and Andy, they had a great year. We're very happy for them. He's a real scout in this day and age. Sometimes those are hard to find. We’re proud of him, and wish we would’ve won as many games as they won."

On free agency…

"There’s always surprises. We try not to get too worked up on what could or couldn’t happen. Like I said, it’s been our policy and it will continue to be our policy and if we can, we would like to keep our own free agents. We take it day by day and let it sort itself out. Every year it’s a little different, as a whole the market is different year-to-year so we’ll work it out.

On Sam Shields’ career and his next step…

"I think Sam’s been a good player for us and does a good job. He’s one of the fellas and we’d like to have him back."

On if he has a set of expectations for number of starters he needs to get out of the draft…

"No, we take it player-by-player and hopefully try to make a good decision whether it’s in the first-round or sixth-round, what’s the best thing for the Packers. We try to keep it simple like that.

Has it become harder or easer to scout tight ends with how pass happy the college game has become…

"I think the position is the same, people use them different. There are a different style of tight ends. I don’t know if it’s more difficult now than it was before."