Former All-Pro quarterback
John Hadl passed away at the age of 82 and I'll have more on the career of Hadl in a future Cleaning out the Inbox but this article is about the 1974 trade of Hadl in the middle of the season from the Rams to the Packers, how the Packers paid so much for the aging thirty-four-year-old veteran, why the notion that the Rams built their powerhouse team in the seventies based off that trade is a little flawed, and how the Rams could have done even better with the acquired picks.
The 1974 Green Bay Packers were a team flailing in mediocrity with a record of 3-5 and after sliding back in 1973 after a 1972 season that saw them win the NFC Central (the only season in the seventies that Minnesota didn't win the division), the Packers were desperate for an answer at quarterback as they were using a tandem of Jerry Tagge and Jack Concannon under center.
The Los Angeles Rams were at the beginning of their dominance of the NFC West division, having dethroned the San Francisco 49ers in 1973 as the kings of the division after the 49ers had won the title for the first three seasons of the 1970s with a talented young team that would win the division for the remainder of the decade.
John Hadl was an AFL star with the San Diego Chargers through 1972 and led the Rams to the playoffs in 1973.
Hadl was named to the Pro Bowl but his struggles in 1974 had seen Hadl benched in favor of James Harris with 1973 second-round draftee Ron Jaworski on the roster and at 34, his future seemed dim, at least with the Rams.
A desperate Dan Devine, who would flee Green Bay at the end of the season for the head coaching position at Notre Dame, decided that Hadl was just what Green Bay needed to turn the tide on Devine's rapidly deteriorating Packer tenure and swapped five picks to the Rams for Hadl.
FIVE picks for a benched thirty-four-year-old passer that had thrown five touchdowns and six interceptions in his six games to that point in 1974!
Green Bay sent their first three picks in the 1975 draft and first two in the 1976 selection meeting to Los Angeles for Hadl, who did win his first three games with the Packers, lifting them to a 6-5 record with three games to go and placing them in the wild card chase.
The winning streak included a win over the division bully Vikings at Metropolitan Stadium, so it wasn't a stretch to think at that point that Hadl was worth the price that Devine paid, even if only for the short term.
The high lasted those three weeks as Green Bay lost their final three games to teams that finished with losing records, scoring only nine points in the final two games with Hadl throwing five interceptions with only a single passing touchdown.
It didn't get any better in 1975 as Hadl started thirteen of the Packers fourteen games, threw just six touchdowns, and was intercepted twenty-one times.
Hadl finished his career with the Oilers as a backup to Dan Pastorini in 1976 and 1977.
As for those picks, the Rams would use them on the following players with the legend of the Rams using these choices to build their NFC dominance.
That's not quite true, although they did well enough with them.
In the 1975 draft, the Rams used the three Packers choices to select defensive tackle, Mike Fanning of Notre Dame, in the first round, cornerback Monte Jackson of San Diego State in the second, and Washington State center Geoff Reece in the third.
Fanning would play ten seasons in the NFL, eight with the Rams, and was a starter for four of those in Los Angeles.
Jackson was named All-Pro and to the Pro Bowl in 1976 and 1977, leading the league in interceptions in 1976 with ten.
Jackson was traded to the Raiders after 1977 during a holdout and wasn't the same player in his five years as a Raiders before returning to the Rams for a final season in 1983.
Reece would play one season for the Rams in 1976 after missing his rookie season and would play one season each for the Colts and Seahawks.
In 1976, the first-round pick acquired from the Packers was sent to Detroit as compensation for the Rams signing of wide receiver Ron Jessie, while they selected Texas A&M cornerback Pat Thomas in the second.
Pat Thomas was the best player the Rams obtained as he was a first or second-team All-Pro selection in 1978 and 1980, reached the Pro Bowl in both seasons, and intercepted twenty-six passes in those seven seasons.
The Rams received three players that would start at various times and used one pick for a veteran wide receiver, so I wouldn't say they bombed out with the selections, but could they have done even better with those draft choices?
Let's see.
The two players that stand out that the Rams could have picked in round one instead of Mike Fanning are borderline Hall of Fame candidate, Louis Wright, who Denver took at seventeen, and future All-Pro tight end Russ Francis at sixteen to New England.
Had the Rams taken Wright with that pick, they could have moved in another direction at twenty-eight (then a round-two pick) rather than Jackson, also a cornerback.
Since they had their corner, they could have looked at the defensive line, since they didn't draft Mike Fanning, and two players that had better careers than Fanning were available in the second round.
Defensive Tackle Louie Kelcher would play nine years with the Chargers and one with the 49ers, making three Pro Bowls and winning the defensive player of the year in 1978.
Hall of Fame defensive end Fred Dean would win the defensive player of the year in 1980, made four Pro Bowls and finished with ninety-two sacks in an eleven-year career.
If the Rams had looked at the best available player in the third round, there were several that had solid NFL careers selected after sixty-one.
Saints defensive end Elois Grooms finished his career with fifty-three sacks, Cowboys linebacker Bob Breunig was selected to three Pro Bowls in a ten-year career with Dallas, defensive back Mike Fuller would spend eight years with the Chargers and Bengals, linebacker Bo Harris would play eight seasons with the Bengals, and after Kansas City acquired Steelers third-round tight end, Walter White, White would catch 163 passes with sixteen touchdowns in five seasons with the Chiefs.
Figuring that the Rams would have signed Ron Jessie and owed compensation to Detroit in any case, I'll skip the potential returns for the 1976 first-rounder.
While Pat Thomas was an excellent cornerback at a high level, Thomas only played seven seasons and the Rams could have selected Randy Cross, who made three Pro Bowls and started for thirteen years for the rival 49ers, 1976 rookie of the year Sammie White, a wide receiver that played ten seasons for the Vikings, or third round linebacker Reggie Williams, who would play thirteen years for the Bengals.
Los Angeles did very well in their return for a past his prime quarterback that was unlikely to play for them again unless an injury happened and only one of their picks could be considered a miss.
However, they could have done better and that is even using those picks on players at similar positions.
It's easy to say with hindsight that a team should have taken player A that had an excellent career but the team in question may not have needed a similar player at that time but when teams select players at similar positions in a particular draft, it's more than fair to criticize those decisions.
Was the John Hadl trade an awful one?
For the Packers, definitely.
For the Rams, it was a good trade but while the Rams drafted decently with the Green Bay picks, their selections from the Packers were far from building a powerhouse as is so often stated.
