You Know Who Had Excellent Year for Packers?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Not much went right for the Green Bay Packers in 2022. They went from consecutive seasons of 13-3 with a first-round bye, 13-3 with the No. 1 seed and 13-4 with the No. 1 seed to 8-9 and face-planting with a chance to sneak into the playoffs.
What went wrong? A lot of things, obviously. The team’s lousy record, however, overshadows what was a strong year – with one obvious asterisk – for general manager Brian Gutekunst.
The blockbuster trade of Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders wound up being too much to overcome.
Could Gutekunst have avoided the whole ordeal by making a stronger contract offer before Adams decided he wanted to move closer to home and play with Derek Carr? In hindsight, sure, but at what cost? The team already is battling a challenging salary cap and another monster contract would have exacerbated that reality.
“I don’t think I underestimated. I just think we had some injuries there,” Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “We knew that was going to be a challenge. I thought our defense early was going to be at a level that might give us some time for those guys to catch up.
“Certainly, Christian (Watson’s) injuries early set him back and it took him a while to get rolling. Once he got rolling, I thought we were a different team. I think teams played us differently once he was going. When you lose a Hall of Famer like Davante, there’s going to be some time before you get back to that level.”
Gutekunst rallied, though. Having gained first- and second-round picks in the Adams trade, he used his two second-round picks to move up to get Watson. Later, he used a fourth-round pick on Romeo Doubs. When Watson was banged up early in the season, Doubs helped carry the load. When Doubs was injured later in the season, Watson exploded onto the scene. They are the future of a position that had been ignored for far too long.
Did Gutekunst fumble his attempt to land a complementary veteran when his Hail Mary to Sammy Watkins, predictably, fell incomplete? In a vacuum, sure.
But this was, as a scout called it at the time, a “terrible” group of free-agent receivers. The law of supply and demand worked against a team without a giant stash of cap cash.
Christian Kirk’s contract with the Jaguars averaged $18 million per season. Allen Robinson’s $15 million average with the Rams was the second-richest. That was followed by Marquez Valdes-Scanting jumping from Green Bay to Kansas City and Russell Gage joining the Buccaneers for $10 million per year. Only Kirk – whose contract was ridiculed at the time – paid dividends.
The only values at receiver were Zay Jones, who jumped from the Raiders to the Jaguars at $8 million per season and caught 82 passes, and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who signed a one-year, incentive-laded contract with the Chiefs and caught 78 passes after back-to-back seasons of 8.6 yards per reception with the Steelers. (All those incentives that he hit are going to impact the Chiefs’ cap in 2023.)
“There’s obviously things you can do, right? We were losing a Hall of Fame player,” Gutekunst said. “It’s pretty difficult to replace a Hall of Fame player with another Hall of Fame-type player, especially unless you’re willing to give up the resources and salary cap money to do so. We ended up going the draft route and we’re really excited about the guys we drafted.”
The Packers started the 2022 league-year with about $15 million of cap space. By season’s end, they were down to $1.6 million.
Rather than a splash move, Gutekunst opted to make a handful of budget signings. And that’s where he excelled.
Signing defensive lineman Jarran Reed and cornerback Keisean Nixon didn’t move the needle in free agency but those moves paid big dividends.
Nixon, with almost no history at returner, replaced Amari Rodgers and changed the season. He earned first-team All-Pro honors as the kick returner. Nixon’s five kickoff returns of 50-plus yards led the NFL, including a 93-yarder vs. Miami in Week 16 and a 105-yard touchdown vs. Minnesota in Week 17. He provided a swagger the special teams badly needed.
Reed’s 52 tackles, which included 2.5 sacks and five for losses, provided an upgrade over Dean Lowry as Kenny Clark’s primary sidekick. Reed’s 14 quarterback hits were second on the team and second-most for his career. His strip and recovery at Miami might have saved the season.
Gutekunst added safety Dallin Leavitt just before the start of training camp and safety Rudy Ford after final cuts.
Leavitt, with his history with special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, was a natural. He wound up tying for the team lead in tackles while serving as an extension of Bisaccia. As the venerable coordinator stated: “When you get in the huddle with Aaron Rodgers on offense, I think the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you have to know what you’re doing.”
Ford provided impact as a gunner on the punt team before replacing Darnell Savage in the starting lineup on defense. In five seasons, Ford intercepted one pass and started six games. With Green Bay, he intercepted three passes and started six games.
Gutekunst’s predecessor, the late Ted Thompson, just didn’t make those types of moves. When there was a hole in the lineup, a young guy was asked to fill it. Maybe the Packers would have won another Super Bowl had he done as Gutekunst has done with De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas in 2021 and Nixon, Reed, Ford, Leavitt and even Eric Wilson, who was signed off the Saints’ practice squad and tied for the team lead in tackles on special teams, in 2022.
After a few suspect drafts, Gutekunst might have hit this one out of the park. First-round linebacker Quay Walker, the aforementioned duo of Watson and Doubs, and fourth-round lineman Zach Tom had tremendous rookie seasons.
Plus, first-round defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt came on down the stretch, fifth-round outside linebacker Kingsley Enagbare provided credible depth and seventh-round safety Tariq Carpenter emerged on special teams down the stretch.
Oddly, had the Packers been championship contenders again, Gutekunst probably would have been in the running for Executive of the Year. But the offense never got going, the defense underachieved, Aaron Rodgers’ contract looks like an albatross and 2022 went down as a colossal failure.
“There’s always misses in evaluations at times, but this particular year I don’t know if I would say that,” Gutekunst said. “I think that’s a very talented group, but we did not play like a very talented football at times.”
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