Ted Thompson will step down from Packers’ GM job, per report

And here we were on New Year’s Day, thinking the biggest thing we would be covering was the Green Bay Packers’ vacant defensive coordinator job.

Ted Thompson just threw a wrench into everything.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Packers’ general manager is going to step down from his current position and move to a different role in the front office, leaving the Packers in need of a replacement GM. Thompson had one year remaining on his contract.

The Packers have multiple internal candidates to replace Thompson, including Director-Football Operations Eliot Wolf, Director of Player Personnel Brian Gutekunst, and VP of Football Administration Russ Ball. Wolf and Gutekunst have interviewed with other NFL teams for GM jobs in the past, but have remained within the organization.

Another option — though an unconventional one — would be to share the GM duties among some combination of those three individuals. (UPDATE: According to ESPN’s Jason Wilde, the Packers will indeed have a single GM.)

As for Thompson, his future role is unclear, but it would be likely that the team will want to continue to utilize him as a talent evaluator. That could involve some sort of scouting director job or even working simply as an area scout, something that has been speculated about in the past.

This also could put head coach Mike McCarthy’s status in question for the future, as a new GM may want to install a new head coach. It would at least put a potential contract extension on hold, as McCarthy’s contract also runs through the 2018 season. Expect the Packers to make a GM decision first before making additional decisions about the vacant defensive coordinator job.