Thompson on Nelson: 'You have to go on'

Weston Hodkiewicz
Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson looks on during training camp practice at Ray Nitschke Field on Friday, Aug. 7, 2015.

Packers general manager Ted Thompson spoke to the media on Tuesday morning. Here are some highlights:

On young receivers replacing Jordy Nelson:

You lose players in this game. You have to go on. You have to turn the next page. You have extraordinary players like Jordy. With extraordinary players, you don't expect to replace them tit-for-tat. I think it will command the work of the entire offense to make up for that loss. That's our goal going forward is to win games and be successful despite a very disappointing injury.

On gaining confidence in young receivers:

I think what we've always looked for and what we've been looking for whether injury happens or not is guys to go out, have fun and play football. These games are going to come at us really fast now. In terms of what we're looking for, we're not looking for anything different than what we were before.

On feel of defense:

I'm pretty confident we're going to be a pretty good defense. There's a lot of people getting a lot of playing time. We have some huge decisions to make roster-wise coming up and a lot of football to play in the next eight-to-10 days. It'll be a challenge to sort through all the information you can get.

On intensity of evaluating the rest of the league:

Yes, it's a vitally important time. We get to know the teams a little bit better and what they're planning going forward and from a personnel standpoint. Yeah, that's really important. That's what we've been doing all along.

On if he leans towards bringing back former Packers:

Not necessarily. We're going through every team, every position and every scenario we can all across the league. We don't focus on just one spot.

On how difficult it would be to pick a team without preseason:

You'd miss out on the games, which is usually pretty important. If you want me to get into whether preseason games are worth it, that's way up the pay scale from my position.

On veterans playing in preseason games that don't count:

I understand where you guys are coming from. I'm not going to get involved in it. When you have a tough injury, it's personified a little bit more.

On bringing in young players over veterans:

I don't want people to think I'm set in stone that I can't make other decisions. We look for good football players. We look for good people and good football players. That's what we always look for. We don't go into these meetings with any preconceived notion of whether we want to find an older fella or younger fella.

On where do you get that philosophy:

We don't care if they're known or not. We hopefully we'll find the best player we can find given the market.

On Ty Montgomery inside/outside:

I thought he was a pretty versatile guy. They did a lot of things with him. He played at a pretty high level before. Challenging? Yes, but not impossible.

On Damarious Randall's debut:

I liked his interception and his exuberance after the interception. I think he ran farther than anybody else we've had.

On getting to know Clay Matthews:

Well, he was a normal process. I remember going out to the USC pro day. They had a number of players in that draft class that we're going to be draftable. I was starting the 40. Clay ran the first one and then starts complaining to one of the trainers. Somehow we get to talking and he said my hamstring feels a little tight. I told him, 'You don't want to pull it. Don't do that. Just tell everybody what's going on.' With his history and my history, I didn't know his dad. I've met him since. We played against each other certain times. I was much less of a player I might add. I might have had a better feeling about him just because I knew what kind of player his dad was. It was scouting like any other guy.