With Roster Cuts Looming, Gutekunst Loves Draft Picks

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst has kept most of his draft picks over the last five years. There's little doubt that will happen again when he picks his roster on Tuesday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Other than his family, there’s nothing that Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst loves more than his draft picks.

In 2022, all 11 draft picks made the 53-man roster. Seventh-round defensive tackle Jonathan Ford was the only player to not get into at least one game.

In 2021, eight of nine made the roster. The exception, sixth-round offensive lineman Cole Van Lanen, signed to the practice squad and played in one game as a rookie. He was traded to Jacksonville at the end of camp last summer.

In 2020, seven of nine made the roster. The exceptions: sixth-round center/guard Jake Hanson, who signed to the practice squad and played in 11 games in 2021 and 2022, and sixth-round guard Simon Stepaniak, who spent most of his rookie year on injured reserve before retiring in 2021.

In 2019, all eight made the roster.

In 2018, Gutekunst’s first year as the GM, eight of the 11 made the roster. The exceptions: fifth-round guard Cole Madison, who sat out his rookie year while grappling with the suicide of a college teammate and returned in 2019, only to suffer a torn ACL, seventh-round defensive tackle James Looney, who signed to the practice squad and played in three games as a rookie, and seventh-round outside linebacker Kendall Donnerson, who signed to the practice squad, didn’t play as a rookie and was waived/injured midway through training camp in 2019.

Added together, in his first five drafts, Gutekunst has kept all 48 of his draft picks on the team in some form or fashion for at least 15 months. Stepaniak (retired), Madison (injury) and Donnerson (injury) were the only players to never play for the Packers. From that group, only Donnerson was released for purely performance issues.

Brian Gutekunst (Photo by Mark Hoffman/USA Today Sports Images)

Gutekunst added 13 players in this year’s draft. History suggests most, if not all, of those players will survive Tuesday’s roster cutdown.

However, for as much as Gutekunst wants to see his draft picks grow and develop and might give a player a free pass, most of those players have earned their way on the 53-man roster based on merit.

“I think they’ve done a really nice job,” he said recently. “There’s been more opportunities this year than there has been maybe in some years but, when those opportunities have been presented to them, they’ve taken advantage of them and that’s good to see.”

The first 10 picks – outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness in the first round, tight end Luke Musgrave and receiver Jayden Reed in the second round, tight end Tucker Kraft in the third round, defensive end Colby Wooden in the fourth round, quarterback Sean Clifford and receiver Dontayvion Wicks in the fifth round, defensive lineman Karl Brooks and kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round and cornerback Carrington Valentine in the seventh round – are locks.

Running back Lew Nichols, the 11th draft pick, got off to a so-so start to training camp and has been sidelined with a shoulder injury. Of the 13 draft picks, he’s the long shot to make the roster that the team will carry into Week 1 at the Bears.

Safety Anthony Johnson, the 12th pick, finished training camp and the preseason on a strong note. He’s put himself in a good spot to make the roster in a crowded but undistinguished position group.

Receiver Grant DuBose, the last of the team’s 13 picks and the fourth-to-last selection overall, might be a coin flip to make the team due to a back injury that sidelined him for the start of camp and the rise of undrafted rookie Malik Heath.

“I feel like I’ve had a great last few weeks of practice,” DuBose said last week. “There’s always some things that you can clean up. But, for the most part, I feel like I’m playing fast. I’m doing a pretty decent job with the playbook and all of that. It’s still an uphill battle.”

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