Here Is Former GM’s NFL Draft Game Plan for Packers

Mark Dominik spent five years as general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. On Thursday, he shared how he would proceed if he were Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst.

Author:
Bill Huber
Apr 18, 2024

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Armed with 11 picks, including five in the first three rounds, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst should be aggressive in next week’s NFL Draft in hopes of pushing his team into the Super Bowl.

“I look at their depth chart and say it's in pretty good shape,” former NFL general manager Mark Dominik told Packer Central as part of a SiriusXM NFL Radio conference call on Thursday. “Gutey has done such a good job of putting so much young talent around a young quarterback.”

That young quarterback is Jordan Love. After a bumpy start to his first season replacing Aaron Rodgers, Love flourished with a Rodgers-esque second half of the season. It wasn’t just Love. With every game, Love and his hot-shot group of rookie and second-year receivers and tight ends got better and better.

It was exactly what Gutekunst hoped for when he elected not to give his first-year starting quarterback a veteran security blanket in the passing game to help ease the transition.

“They're all going to get to grow up [together] a little bit,” Dominik continued. “How long they get to stay together is one thing, but the tight end room looks very comfortable, the running back room is really good now, the receiver room feels overflowing; I think [Dontayvion] Wicks has got tremendous potential still as the third or fourth receiver.”

The “how long” part of that statement is critical as Gutekunst considers his next steps in turning a good team into a great team. Love played last season under an inexpensive contract extension, and the receivers and tight ends played under their cheap rookie contracts. That’s going to change, though, with Love’s massive contract extension perhaps a couple weeks away.

Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson have two more years on their rookie contracts, and Jayden Reed, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft have three more years.

Thus, the Packers have a small window in which their building-block playmakers will be earning relative pennies on the dollar. That’s why Dominik would “be aggressive” in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Gutekunst has the 25th pick of the first round, the 41st and 58th picks of the second round and the 88th and 91st picks of the third round. That’s an opportunity to add five quality players.

But what about trading one of those Day 2 picks to move up to get another instant-impact contributor? Why not trade away the fourth-round pick if it means inching up a couple slots?

“I think when you're at that door and you think you can knock through it, then I think you've got to try to swing forward, especially with where they are as a football team,” Dominik said of the team the Packers are chasing in the NFC North, the Detroit Lions. “I look at them and say be aggressive here. [Trade up] and go get two guys that are going to make a difference for you.”

The same thinking applies to the Packers.

“I think this is a team that, go be aggressive,” he said about the Packers. “Go get yourself another corner, go get yourself maybe one more speedier linebacker, that kind of thing. And you can never have enough pass rushers, even though Lukas Van Ness, hopefully, is going to take a big step this year.

“But I don't think you have a lot of needs. I think you can take an interior offensive linemen and certainly tackle. I think you can, obviously, take another corner and then I think you can go back and try to get one more rusher. You walk out of the draft with five guys, you're feeling really good. But this is a good roster and a good job by Gutey over the last couple of years to be hitting on these.”