Packers Working on Potential NFL Draft Trades

Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst explained the trade process during his predraft news conference at Lambeau Field.

Author:
Bill Huber
Apr 22, 2024

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NFL Draft

Green Bay Packers

Brian Gutekunst

Packers draft

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With five picks in the first three rounds, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst will enter the 2024 NFL Draft with ample assets to trade up for a coveted player.

Doesn’t mean he’s going to, though.

“To give one of those picks to move up, it better be for the kind of player that you don’t feel you’re going to have an opportunity to get in most years,” Gutekunst said during his predraft news conference at Lambeau Field on Monday.

With Thursday’s first round just a few days away, the groundwork for those trades is being laid. Through calls around the league, Gutekunst knows who might be looking to move up and who might be looking to move back.

Those calls will intensify in the moment on Thursday as teams react to who’s left on their draft boards.

“I think the next few days, there’s a lot of conversations, just trying to get an idea of what teams might be interested in going up, going back and trying to get some of that information from different teams,” Gutekunst explained. “There will be those conversations (but) those are more around the first round.

“I think the conversations during Thursday, Friday and Saturday, not necessarily just with me, but with all my guys that are on the phones with their teams. We’ve got a number of guys that are kind of the contact person for each team (and) they’re constantly talking to those teams about whether they’re thinking about moving up, whether they’re thinking about moving back, and trying to have as much of that information so we can make the best decisions for us.”

Gutekunst mentioned vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan, director of player personnel John Wojciechowski, director of football operations Milt Hendricks and executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball among those who are manning the phones.

“They’re feeding me information,” Gutekunst continued. “‘So and so might want to come up. So and so is looking to move back.’ So, we’re kind of constantly monitoring that as we go through the draft. If it ever makes sense, that’s why I think we’re never afraid to move around. Where we sit right now with five picks in the first 91, 11 total, I think we’re in a pretty good space to move or just sit and pick.”

Gutekunst has traded up and back during the first round and, really, every round since taking over as general manager in 2018. In 2018, he famously traded from No. 14 to No. 27 and back up to No. 18 to select Jaire Alexander (while gaining a 2019 first-round pick that became Darnell Savage).

In 2023, Gutekunst traded from No. 45 to No. 48 to No. 50, where he selected receiver Jayden Reed and gained additional picks that became receiver Dontayvion Wicks and defensive tackle Karl Brooks.

It was brilliant maneuvering by Gutekunst, who grabbed what would become the team’s leading receiver (Reed) and two more instant-impact rookies.

Of course, all that maneuvering ran the risk of losing Reed. That’s where Gutekunst has to have trust in his draft board.

“Whenever you trade back, you have to expect to lose the players that are on the board that you might be willing to pick at that spot. That’s part of it,” Gutekunst said. “It’s why we work so hard at getting the value right of the players on the board, so that you can read it. If you feel that it’s strong and you can move back and still get someone you have the same kind of value on, you do.

“I think you’ve got to be very careful to not fall in love with individual players. You’ve got to be careful of that. You have to think of these things not emotionally, but, ‘Hey, we do a lot of work to try to get this value right.’ If the board is telling us we can move back, then we will.”