Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst (Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Plenty at Stake for Packers’ Big 3 in 2023

The Green Bay Packers are entering a transition year. That doesn't mean Brian Gutekunst, Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love don't have plenty to prove. This could be a defining year for all three.

Author:
Jacob Westendorf
Publish date:
Jul 25, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

The NFL is a results-based business.

That’s not exactly breaking news to anyone that’s followed the league for more than a couple seconds.

2023 is no different in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Before Super Bowl XLV, a video was played in which actor Sam Elliott talked about expectations in Green Bay.

He stated, “In a city named Titletown, odds are they’re pretty high.”

If you were able to get an honest moment out of the prominent members of the organization, they’d likely tell you it’s unrealistic to expect a Super Bowl in 2023.

That’s the reality of changing quarterbacks. General manager Brian Gutekunst admitted as much at the NFL Scouting Combine in February.

“I think the one thing you see in this league, it’s very rarely are guys shot out of a cannon winning-wise," Gutekunst said. "There is some great play, there’s instances you see flashes, but I think it takes most of these quarterbacks a little bit of time to learn how to win.

“It’s one thing to play well and make throws and make plays, but it’s another thing to lead your team to wins. I think that takes time. You don’t get a lot of that in this league, but, certainly, with any new quarterback that’s playing for the first time, you’re going to need some of that.”

Maybe Jordan Love won’t be shot out of a cannon winning-wise, to use the general manager’s terms, but that does not mean the team gets a pass in 2023.

The big three members of any football organization are the general manager, head coach and quarterback. (Sometimes that includes the owner, but that is not part of the hierarchy in Green Bay.)

The Packers are coming off a season in which they missed the playoffs, finishing a disappointing 8-9 after being touted as a preseason Super Bowl contender.

They changed one of the members of their Big 3, causing a season of change.

Despite being in a transition year, all three men have something on the line in 2023

Brian Gutekunst

Simply put, this is Gutekunst’s legacy. Much like Ron Wolf when he traded for Brett Favre or Ted Thompson when he selected Aaron Rodgers, Gutekunst’s fate is tied to Jordan Love.

Perhaps there was a world that existed in Gutekunst’s mind where Love never became the preferred starting quarterback of the Packers.

Gutekunst has said on multiple occasions the team felt the contract that Rodgers signed last offseason was a multiyear commitment. If that were true, it seems likely Love would have asked to play elsewhere as early as 2023.

That world is gone. The Packers moved on from Rodgers, helping fulfill a plan that was partially set in motion the night that Love was drafted.

If Love is good, Gutekunst will be revered as the man who brought the next great quarterback to Green Bay.

While there are no guarantees, a good quarterback puts a team on the short list of Super Bowl contenders every year.

If Love isn’t good, any piece of criticism of the Love selection will be proven valid. Gutekunst will be seen as the man that ran a Hall of Fame quarterback out of town for a guy who could not play.

All the good Gutekunst has done will be undone in one pick. The team would likely bottom out in that scenario, and Gutekunst would be looking for a different place of employment.

That scenario could play out as soon as 2023.

If Rodgers has a renaissance season and looks reborn in New York while the Packers stumble to one of the worst records in football, Gutekunst’s seat could reach a boiling point.

Of the three men mentioned, Gutekunst has the most on the line in 2023.

Matt LaFleur

LaFleur might feel like an innocent bystander in all of this quarterback drama.

He could have plausible deniability. However, LaFleur was seen on the NFL Draft broadcast pumping his fist after the team drafted Love.

Gutekunst was early in his tenure as general manager. Surely, he wouldn’t pick a quarterback his coach didn’t want, right?

It appears Rodgers also thinks that was the case.

Rodgers told Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, “I had friends who said, ‘Hey, Matt looked super-excited when they made the draft pick.' And I said, ‘I don’t care, honestly.’ Like, they made the pick. They all signed off on it.”

According to Schneidman, the Packers told Rodgers that the decision to draft Love was Gutekunst’s alone. Clearly that doesn’t matter to Rodgers. It won’t matter to the general public, either, if Love isn’t successful.

All LaFleur has done since he’s come to Green Bay is win. The team won 13 games each of his first three seasons, something never done in NFL history, before a hiccup last year.

The obvious caveat for the early success was Rodgers was healthy and playing at an MVP level. LaFleur couldn't win without Davante Adams. Can he win without Rodgers?

One of the downsides to coaching great players is the coach rarely gets the credit when things go well but gets all of the blame when things go bad.

LaFleur will be under a more intense microscope this season now that Rodgers is gone.

While some think that could be positive and we’ll see a more true version of LaFleur’s offense, the questions that surround LaFleur are fair for now.

What if Rodgers covered up a lot of warts with his great play from 2019 through 2021? What if the controversial audibles consistently got them out of bad plays and into better ones?

What if LaFleur was just lifted up by a great quarterback?

Whether that’s a fair lens to judge LaFleur or not, it’s a reality that will follow him wherever he goes.

Jordan Love

Love didn’t ask for any of this. He didn’t ask to be drafted by the Packers and sit behind a volatile situation between the organization and the incumbent quarterback.

He’s said all the right things since he got to Green Bay. He could have complained as he continued to sit, but has not, at least publicly.

Nothing about Love’s career to date has been a fair situation to him.

One of the happiest days of his life set into motion a bunch of things beyond Love’s control.

Love’s first season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant no offseason workouts, no preseason, nothing. Instead, Love had to take as many mental reps as possible as he was a healthy scratch for every game of his rookie season.

His first true offseason was wrapped up in the drama that was the summer of 2021. Rodgers didn’t want to return. The organization and its MVP quarterback were in a very public standoff. All the while, Love was preparing to start for a team that may not hand him the reins that season.

His third full season was surrounded by questions as to whether he’d ever get a chance to play after Rodgers signed a long-term extension.

Now, he enters his first full season as a starter in what could be a make-or-break year.

Maybe that isn’t fair, but it’s reality. The Packers were 8-9 last year. Losing isn’t something that’s easily tolerated in the NFL. Patience is often preached, but never practiced.

If the Packers stumble, the two men who picked Love will be under immense pressure.

If the team fumbles its way to one of the worst records in football, the men who picked Love could find themselves on their way out of Green Bay sooner than later.

Typically a new regime wants to pick a new quarterback.

Even if there isn’t a new regime, can the team really afford to pass on USC’s Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye and the flexibility a quarterback on a rookie deal provides for a quarterback that in this situation just finished with the worst record in football?

If that happens, Love’s career could be over almost before it started.

That’s not fair, but life in the NFL isn’t fair.

It might be a transition year in Green Bay. They may not be Super Bowl contenders anymore, but a second year in a row of missing the playoffs, might cause more transition going into 2024.