Packers’ Gutekunst Expecting ‘Boring’ Draft

Drama? Not in the Green Bay Packers' draft room. The work is done. Now it's time to make the picks.

Author:
Bill Huber
Apr 23, 2024

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NFL Draft

Green Bay Packers

Packers draft

Brian Gutekunst

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are ready for the 2024 NFL Draft.

“We’ll probably have one more meeting this evening and lock it up really ‘til Thursday,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Monday morning. “As far as guys changing on the board, I wouldn’t expect that.”

What’s practically a year-long process will culminate this week, with the first round on Thursday, the next two rounds on Friday and the final four rounds on Saturday. Gutekunst started his news conference by thanking the scouts, who are on the road for months, whether it’s visiting a school’s practice on a Thursday or watching the game on Saturday during the season or attending 30-or-so pro days in the weeks before the draft.

It’s their behind-the-scenes work that makes everything possible.

From there, a player’s film, testing results and medical report go into putting together the final draft board.

“It’s all important,” Gutekunst said. “At the end of the day, and this goes back for as long as I’ve done this, you go back to the tape and how they play the game. I think whenever there’s discrepancies, whenever you’re not sure, you go back to the tape and that’s going to be your best predictor of future success is what they’ve done on tape. That’s kind of what we live by.

“Again, it’s all important, it all factors in, but, at the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to play this game.”

Just like a student taking a math test, all the work done in advance makes the exam easy. When the Packers are on the clock with the 25th pick of the first round on Thursday, No. 255 of the seventh round on Saturday and all spots in between, it will be a matter of Gutekunst looking at the draft board and grabbing the best player.

Thus, the feeling will be excitement about the opportunity, not nervousness in the moment.

“Most of this work’s, it’s all been done, so the decision is fairly clear when you’re on the clock,” Gutekunst said. “I think the things that might ramp your heart rate up a little bit are just if you’re involved in some trade talks or opportunities to move backwards or those kinds of things, because there’s a timeframe to it. But I think our group has been together for a while now and, so we have a pretty good way we work together. So, I think it’s pretty boring, to be honest with you.”

Boring from a drama level but not boring to add 11 players – give or take, depending on any trades – to an ascending team that reached the divisional playoffs in 2023.

Gutekunst doesn’t subscribe to the theory that the team is just a player or two away from getting over the top. Rather, the goal will be as it always is – to add as many quality players as possible.

“When you put as much time into it as we all do, it’s an exciting time because you have an opportunity to make your football team better,” Gutekunst said. “And I think that’s the exciting part about it. I think there’s a perception out there that there’s conversations and debates and stuff while the draft is going on. For us, that’s never really been part of it. I mean, those things have happened, but prior. It’s really just more about seeing how it’s falling, and what’s expected, what’s unexpected and what the choices are going to be when it’s your time to pick. So, the work’s been done.

“It’s always interesting how it falls. You never really can predict it,” he continued. “The opportunity to make your football team better is always exciting. And this is an exciting time of year. We got our players back in the building last week and the energy just ramps of tremendously when those guys are in the building – particularly our group that just really likes to be around each other. So, it’s just an exciting time probably for all 32 teams but, certainly, for us.”