GREEN BAY, Wis. -- With barely a hint of emotion, general manager Ron
Wolf drafted his last Green Bay Packers players Sunday.
Wolf now heads for retirement content the team had improved.
"I already had my emotional day and I think that is over with," said the
architect of teams in the 1990s that restored the title to "Titletown."
"I was real excited coming in here. I was hoping we would be able to take
the player we took and I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that there
wasn't any way he would be there," Wolf said.
But he was: Wisconsin lineman Bill Ferrario, a 313-pound Pennsylvania native
built so square that Wolf described him as a "big old safe."
A look of joy covered Wolf's face for one of his final accomplishments,
getting his beloved tough guy, whom he called a "diamond in the rough," with
the 105th pick.
"You say to yourself, `Wow!' How does that happen?"' Wolf said. "It is
exciting when you get him."
Wolf, general manager since 1991, led the Packers to two Super Bowls in the
1990s, putting his name alongside Vince Lombardi for hero worship in Green Bay.
He turns the job over to coach Mike Sherman on June 1.
The entire Packers staff watched Wolf make his final pick, tight end David
Martin of Tennessee in the sixth round.
"It's hard to get too sentimental with Ron," Sherman said. "I checked his
house this morning and he didn't have the moving van out there just yet."
Wolf, 62, started his pro football career in 1963 as a scout for the Oakland
Raiders. He worked for Tampa Bay and the New York Jets before joining the
Packers.
"I can't even begin to tell you what I learned from Ron Wolf the last
couple of months," Sherman said.
The Packers, 9-7 last year, when they did not make the playoffs for the
second consecutive season, took three defensive players and three offensive
players in the draft.
Wolf declared it a success.
"We needed to get somebody who could attack the quarterback. We are
confident we did that," he said. "We wanted to get a bigtime, a big receiver
that could function in this offense. We did that. We wanted to solidify our
offensive line with a quality player. We think we did that."
And the team added some depth at linebacker.
Sherman agreed, saying the team was better, but not as good as the 1996
championship team. "I think we may have a couple of future stars in these
draft picks," Sherman said.
The Packers' top pick at No. 10 was Florida State defensive end Jamal
Reynolds, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound pass rusher who won the Lombardi Award last
season as the nation's top collegiate lineman.
The fact Reynolds, who finished his college career with 23½ sacks, didn't
get a sack against Miami last season is misleading, Wolf said.
"In the biggest game against Miami, he doesn't have a sack. The guy must be
a stinko. That's not the case," Wolf said. "He had a badly sprained ankle and
should not have played that game."
The team also took wide receiver Robert Ferguson of Texas A&M, who Wolf said
would have been a first-round choice had he stayed in college another year;
Bhawoh Jue, a cornerback from Penn State; and Torrance Marshall, a linebacker
and defensive leader from national champion Oklahoma.
The Packers used the 198th pick in the draft to select Martin, who finished
with 46 catches for 543 yards and five touchdowns.
"He is a project," Sherman said.
Ferrario comes to Green Bay as an ironman, only the third player in Big Ten
Conference history to start 50 consecutive games.
In each of four years at Wisconsin, Ferrario blocked for a 1,000-yard
rusher, the only player in school history to do that.
Wolf joked that in his final draft he did little more than sit in the team's
"war room," chew bubble gum and watch players on the draft board.
But he left Sherman some unfinished business.
"There are some other holes we are going to have to fill," Wolf said. "I
would like to see us get a linebacker. I don't think we have enough
linebackers. I would also like to have competition for our punter."
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