A CHANCE AT REDEMPTION, IN THE OTHER CONFERENCE.

The Green Bay Packers traded former kick returner and slot receiver converted to running back Ty Montgomery to the Baltimore Ravens.  They also traded safety Ha-Ha Clinton Dix to the Washington Redskins.  There might be some history behind that trade.  Although former tight end Brandon Bostick took most of the abuse for missing, or improvising, an assignment on a Seattle onside kick, Mr Clinton-Dix lost coverage of his man as Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson bought time to complete a two-point conversion.  That left the Packers in a position of having to score a touchdown to win, and a field goal would at best force an overtime.

Perhaps there were reasons deeper than the Packers' failures on defense exposed while Aaron Rodgers was out last season for general manager Ted Thompson being kicked upstairs.

The trade also essentially wipes away the 2015 draft class for the Packers:

• First round: Damarious Randall, S – traded to Cleveland on March 9 for DeShone Kizer
• Second round: Quinten Rollins, CB – released with an injury settlement on Sept. 10.
• Third round: Ty Montgomery, WR – traded to Baltimore on Oct. 30.
• Fourth round: Jake Ryan, LB – on Packers injured reserve
• Fifth round: Brett Hundley, QB – traded to Seattle on Aug. 29.
• Sixth round: Aaron Ripkowski, FB – cut by team on Sept. 1.
• Sixth round: Christian Ringo, DE – cut by team in September, 2017.
• Seventh round: Kennard Backman, TE – cut by team August, 2016.

If your philosophy for winning championships is recruit, draft, and develop and you don't mind players emerging and producing compensatory draft picks, those players have to be with the team long enough to become free agents that merit compensatory draft picks.  Tom Silverstein suggests the new general manager dealt players without the contingency that accompanies compensatory draft picks.  "The best you can do in the compensatory drawing is a third-round pick and that is usually only pegged to someone who signs a massive contract and has a great first season with his new team. The Packers got a fourth-round pick from Washington, which is pretty good all things considered." Not quite a fire sale. We'll see what happens over the next nine games.

The standard is still five championships in six championship games in eight seasons.