The Green Bay Packers have given G.M. Ted Thompson a new five-year deal.  The contract, which replaces his existing deal, runs through 2012.

“We are very pleased with the way Ted Thompson has led the football operations of this organization,” team chairman Bob Harlan said in a statement.  “He is doing exactly what we anticipated when we hired him.  He crafted his trade under Ron Wolf, built a strong football team in Seattle and has built a team here in Green Bay that is back in the playoffs.  He has a great system of building the team through the draft and has the Packers positioned very well for the future.”

Thompson deserves plenty of credit for the current state of the team, but his tenure has not always been rosy.  And if the Packers make it to the Super Bowl and lose to the Patriots, you can bet that Thompson will get plenty of questions regarding his failure to jump into the bidding for receiver Randy Moss, who set the single-season touchdown reception record in 2007 after being traded to New England from the Raiders.

Although some league insiders believe that Moss wanted only to go to the Pats, the Packers could have afforded to outbid them — and it’s well known that quarterback Brett Favre wanted Moss to play in Green Bay.

The Packers host the Seahawks during the divisional round of the playoffs.