Brian Gutekunst Deserves Credit for Packers’ Rapid Rebuild
GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Thanksgiving, the Green Bay Packers devoured the first-place Detroit Lions. In the press box, general manager Brian Gutekunst and the rest of the front office celebrated every big play as if a spot in the playoffs was at stake.
On Black Friday, the New York Jets lost. Again. The team Aaron Rodgers helped assemble is a lost cause without Rodgers there to make it work.
Allen Lazard, the most expensive receiver in free agency in terms of total money and guaranteed money, was inactive.
“It’s kind of a challenge to see if he can recapture the edge and who he is and the person we have a lot of faith in,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said.
Receiver Randall Cobb played seven snaps on offense. Instead of Lazard and Cobb, the punchless Jets gave 54 snaps to undrafted rookie Jason Brownlee, who entered the game with zero career catches.
Offensive lineman Billy Turner played two snaps on special teams, even though the Jets’ front wall was continually overrun by Miami’s defense.
Safety Adrian Amos played seven snaps on defense.
Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has no answers without Rodgers available to run the show like an orchestra conductor.
“A lot of people have been rewarded, quite frankly, because of his ability to go out there and play and play at such a high level,” coach Matt LaFleur said in March.
Sometimes, the best transactions are the ones that aren’t made. Gutekunst could have re-signed Lazard or Cobb to give Love that much-talked-about veteran receiver. He could have retained Robert Tonyan or Marcedes Lewis to help the rookie tight ends. He could have brought back Amos, a reliable starter the previous four seasons. He could have gone with Jarran Reed and/or Dean Lowry rather than going young on the defensive line.
Lazard (20) and Cobb (three) have 23 catches for the Jets; rookies Jayden Reed (36) and Dontayvion Wicks (20) have 56 for the Packers.
Tonyan (seven) and Lewis (two) have nine catches for the Bears; rookies Luke Musgrave (33) and Tucker Kraft (seven) have 40 for the Packers.
Amos has 23 tackles for the Jets; Rudy Ford (58) and Jonathan Owens (43), who were given one-year deals by the Packers, have combined for 101. Owens was one of the best players on the field against the Lions.
Would the Packers be better off with Jarran Reed, who has four sacks for Seattle? Or Mason Crosby? Perhaps, but if you’re going to go young, you might as well go young.
All of this is to say Gutekunst had one hell of an offseason for a team that needed one hell of an offseason.
Fair-minded people can agree to disagree on whether Gutekunst went all-in with Rodgers to maximize the championship window. What’s beyond dispute is Gutekunst’s aggressive approach put the Packers in, if not salary-cap hell, salary-cap purgatory. This past offseason, there was no money to go to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, so Gutekunst went to Ponderosa and had a perfectly fine dinner.
For $4 million, Gutekunst re-signed Keisean Nixon to man the slot and return kicks. Ford, Owens and linebacker Eric Wilson – at a combined value of less than $4 million – have provided a lot of good snaps on defense and special teams.
The draft has been an overwhelming success. Eleven of the 13 picks are on the 53-man roster, with most of them playing key roles. Musgrave and Reed look like foundational pieces on offense. It’s not an overstatement to suggest they could become the best tight end and slot receiver in franchise history.
Wicks (fifth round), defensive tackle Karl Brooks (sixth round) and cornerback Carrington Valentine (seventh round) look like the type of big-time steals that turn good drafts into great drafts. So long as outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness (first round) and Kraft (third round) keep trending, this has the makings of a draft class that can change the fortunes of the franchise.
Of course, as the Jets have painfully learned, nothing matters without the quarterback. Trading Rodgers allowed Gutekunst to hit the financial reset button and pick up a valuable draft pick (No. 39 overall presently) while handing the offense to his hand-picked successor.
For Green Bay, the story of the season has been the growth of Jordan Love.
“He just needs to play.” Gutekunst used a version of that phrase countless times. As it turns out, those weren’t just the words of a stubborn man so married to his convictions that he was prepared to drive his career off a cliff.
The more Love has played, the better he has played. Love was a bottom-of-the-barrel quarterback when the Packers lost four straight; he ranks among the best in the NFL with three wins in the last four games.
If his ceiling truly is somewhere in the top quartile of quarterbacks – and who knows at this point – the Packers are about to enter another golden age of being perennial championship contenders. Did Gutekunst make a colossal mistake in the 2020 draft by taking Love rather than an instant-impact contributor to give the team a final push to a Super Bowl? Nobody’s going to care if Love has the Packers playing for a Super Bowl or two this decade.
As LaFleur says frequently, including after Thursday’s win, the quarterback can’t do it alone. On the heels of strong drafts in 2022 and 2023, Gutekunst is slated to have five of the top 80 picks in 2024. Financial freedom is coming.
Make no mistake, Gutekunst has a lot of work to do to catch the likes of the Eagles and 49ers in the NFC. There’s a big difference between playoff-caliber and championship-worthy. But the rapid ascent of this team hints that the rebuild won’t be as long or as painful as it seemed just a month ago.
