Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers. (Pioneer Press: Chris Polydoroff)

PHOENIX -- Besides preferring to build through the draft, there's a reason Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson is doing nothing more than window shopping during the NFL free agency period.

It has to do with the guy walking through the Arizona Biltmore hotel, the site of this year's NFL owners meeting, with his signature yellow note pad and some very big numbers written on it.

David Dunn is the agent for quarterback Aaron Rodgers and linebacker Clay Matthews, and barring unforeseen circumstances he'll be co-authoring a pair of enormous contract extensions that will eat up a healthy amount of the Packers' salary cap space.

It's not known what stage Dunn and Packers negotiator Russ Ball are in with either contract, but they have been talking and it's likely they'll meet more than once over the next three days at the meetings.

Thompson acknowledged Sunday that it is a natural progression for players like Rodgers and Matthews to have their contracts addressed at this stage of their careers and didn't dispute talks were going on.

"Those things will be looked at at some point," Thompson said. "You can never predict on those things. We're always working at stuff like that. I'm not talking about those guys specifically, and I never comment directly about those guys, but we're always working, contemplating, talking in that realm. Always."

Having to make Rodgers the highest-paid player in the NFL and Matthews one of the highest-paid defensive players offers a handy excuse for Thompson to eschew free agency, but the fact is even if the Packers had $100 million salary cap space -- instead of $18 million -- Thompson still would want to build his team through the draft.

He saves his cap money for players like Rodgers and Matthews, who have been brought up through the system, and just says no to hot free agents like Dashon Goldson, Daniel Ellerbe and Paul Kruger, no matter how attractive they might look. In Thompson's eyes, mistakes made with your own players are more acceptable than those with somebody else's.

"You get these contracts at the time, they look really good for the team and the player, and then three years later it looks good for the player but it doesn't look quite as good for the team," Thompson said. "Or vice versa. And somebody has to break that contract, and then you have to pay the consequences of that.

"But at the same time, a person in my position, you can't be so afraid of that or so concerned about not having a bad deal sometime that you become comatose and don't do anything."

So far, the Packers have been linked with free agents Chris Canty, Peyton Hillis, Steven Jackson and, on Sunday, Ahmad Bradshaw. Such name-dropping excites the Packers' fan base, but it does not alter Thompson's vision. It merely reflects the work his personnel team does in exploring all possibilities.

But as for those who work for him, expecting Thompson to sign off on a free agent who might stunt the growth of one of his younger players isn't going to happen. Coach Mike McCarthy knew Thompson's philosophy when he signed on and has accepted that it's his job to get young players ready to play right away.

Together their success rate has been pretty good.

The Packers are 80-42 (including playoffs) in McCarthy's seven years with three division titles and five playoff appearances, including two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl.

Bowing out of the playoffs two straight seasons in decisive fashion has raised the hackles of fans, who are concerned there are only so many years the 29-year-old Rodgers will be an elite player and Thompson isn't doing enough to surround him with Super Bowl-winning talent.

Thompson argues there is only so much money to go around, and when it's time to pay players like Rodgers, Matthews, B.J. Raji, Sam Shields and Randall Cobb, you want to have as much money as possible to keep them. Sometimes you choose not to pay as was the case with Greg Jennings, Scott Wells, Daryn Colledge and Nick Barnett.

"If you've done a good enough job of drafting and developing, you're going to have more of those at that stage than you can keep," Thompson said. "But that's, relatively speaking, a good problem to have. You have to try to make good decisions in every deal that you do.

"It's not a question of being tight or anything like that. It's a question of being pragmatic and saying, 'How do we do this, given the budget?' "

In McCarthy's case it means ignoring the temptation to imagine Goldson in his secondary or Ellerbe next to Desmond Bishop at inside linebacker. He said he used to follow the comings and goings in free agency more closely but has decided his time is better spent focusing exclusively on the young players he has and the ones he's going to get.

"Are you going to consume yourself on 70 players when maybe three of them are going to be in your building," McCarthy said of free agents. "Or are you going to consume your time in player acquisition more toward the draft, which you know you have a better chance of.

"Opinions are heard and given, but I think I've done a much better job of keeping our coaching staff focused on our guys. That's the group we know we're going to train and we know we're going to help get better."

One thing that is a little different this year is that there are a significant number of veterans who have been cut because the salary cap grew very little and teams no longer could live with their contracts. Thompson might investigate a few now, but what about after the draft when he potentially has holes to fill and can sign an experienced player for minimum wage or a little more?

It happened last year when he signed running back Cedric Benson, who was starting to gel with the offense when he suffered a season-ending foot injury. That signing showed both the value and risk of signing veterans, since Benson offered stability in the backfield but couldn't finish the season.

"That's a little bit more of a gamble," he said. "I think you just have to let that come to you. But if opportunities arise, then we certainly would be willing to look into it. Just because free agency that usually stays hot and heavy for a week or 10 days, (doesn't mean) there (won't) be a lot of roster moves, including for our team, over the course of the spring and summer."

For now, his focus is somewhere else.