Fred Strickland

In 1994, Ron Wolf was entering his third year on the job in Green Bay.

He had his head coach, his quarterback, and his marquee defensive player in place in Mike Holmgren, Brett Favre, and Reggie White. The foundation was laid. Now it was time to get the Packers over the top.

But how do you get your team over the top? How do you turn a promising roster into a winner?

Adding talent is the obvious choice, but the way in which you go about it is important. You can spend lavishly in free agency, but that carries significant penalties for missing, especially for a small-town outfit like the Packers in the early days of unrestricted free agency. You can add through the draft, but it’s hard to improve quickly through the draft, especially if you’re not picking at the very top, which the Packers weren’t; their first pick in 1994 was 16th overall, which is high, but not super high.

Or you can take a measured approach, adding free agents carefully while drafting judiciously, continuing to lay a foundation with the draft’s cheap talent while supplementing it through free agency.

Given what he had in place, that approach made the most sense for Wolf and the Packers, and that’s what he chose in 1994. In that year’s draft, he spent his top pick on offensive lineman Adam Timmerman while adding competition at numerous other positions with the rest of his selections. And in free agency, he carefully added experienced veterans, supplementing his still young roster with older players like Sean Jones, who came over from the Houston Oilers, and Reggie Cobb, recently of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The last of Wolf’s significant free agent pickups that year was linebacker Fred Strickland. Strickland was an extraordinarily late signing, joining the Packers in late June after a first-refusal clause in his contract with the Minnesota Vikings, for whom he’d played the previous year, finally expired.

Strickland was entering his age 28 season and looked to be hitting his stride. A second-round pick in the 1988 NFL Draft, Strickland had spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Rams before signing with the Vikings for the 1993 season. That year, he had racked up 137 tackles and started 15 of the Vikings’ 16 regular season games. It was, to that point, easily the best season of his career, and now he was joining a Packers team on the rise.

Strickland was not immediately a starter with the Packers, but slid into the starting lineup when Bryce Paup had to take over at outside linebacker for an injured Wayne Simmons. He’d go on to start 14 games for the Packers that season, and early on he’d be involved in a play that would help serve as a microcosm of the Packers’ development.

In Week 5, the Packers traveled east to take on the Patriots and, after the teams traded three-and-outs, drew first blood with a Chris Jacke field goal to take a 3-0 lead. Then, midway through the second quarter, Strickland picked off a Drew Bledsoe pass in Patriots’ territory, setting the Packers up with prime field position, which they used to cash in a touchdown and take a 10-0 lead.

But everything bogged down from there. The Packers offense slowed down for most of the next two quarters, while the Patriots slowly clawed their way back into the game, scoring two touchdowns to take a 14-10 lead. The second came just a few plays into the fourth quarter, giving the Packers plenty of time to respond, but that’s when things fell apart completely. Brett Favre threw interceptions on the Packers’ first two drives of the fourth quarter, and although he eventually led a touchdown drive to put the Packers back on top with just over a minute to go, they missed the extra point, giving the ball back to New England with a chance to win the game with a field goal — which they did.

The Packers were just not quite there yet. They had all the pieces, and could even put together some great performances, but they weren’t ready to win. They finished the year with the league’s fourth best scoring offense and fifth best scoring defense, but got bounced by the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.

In 1995, the story was much the same. After starting just 5-4, the Packers went on a tear to finish the year, winning six of their last seven to win their division for the first time in more than a generation. And after convincing wins in the Wildcard and Divisional Rounds, they looked like a team of destiny as they prepared to take on the Dallas Cowboys with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. But the Cowboys played spoiler again, and the Packers ended another season in disappointment.

Strickland’s second year in Green Bay had been a bit of a disappointment, too. He’d been limited to just 14 games and had started just 10. Perhaps believing the Packers were maxed out, he left that offseason, signing with, of all teams, the Dallas Cowboys.

Strickland may not have been in the Packers plans, but if he chose to leave voluntarily, he picked a heck of a time to jump ship. 1996 was the exact moment the respective trajectories of the Packers and Cowboys switched places for good — the Packers headed upwards, and the Cowboys headed downwards. They were a game away from meeting in the playoffs in 1996, but there was no “third time’s the charm” rematch to be had for the Packers. They had to find their way to the Super Bowl without beating the Cowboys, and they were happy to do so.

Strickland, for his part, did well for himself in Dallas. He started all 16 games for the Cowboys and broke the 100-tackle mark for the second time in his career. He’d end up playing three seasons in Dallas before ending his career with a five-game stint in Washington in 1999.

He wasn’t there at the peak, but Strickland was part of the group that helped show the Packers what it took to get there.