We are going to be looking back and grading how Packers’ general manager Brian Gutekunst handled Aaron Rodgers and the Packers the last five years, and grading his moves every year.
2018. Brian Gutekunst was hired as the Packers new general manager, replacing longtime GM Ted Thompson, after a rocky 7-9 season that had Aaron Rodgers miss the final nine games due to a broken collar bone in 2017. His first year in the helm had occasional good moments, he drafted future star cornerback Jaire Alexander in the first round, and Aaron Rodgers had another very good year, including orchestrating three fourth quarter comebacks, most notably a wild 17 point fourth quarter comeback against the Bears week 1. But it was mainly a rough opening year for the newly minted GM, with a bottom third defense in the league, Aaron Rodgers being harassed taking 49 sacks, virtually no rookie contributors outside of Alexander, and the Packers stumbling to an even worse 6-9-1 year. With three games left in the season, Gutekunst fired long-time Packer’s head coach Mike McCarthy, the only head coach Aaron Rodgers had ever started under. This was the first time since 1990-91 that the Packers had back to back losing seasons, a year before Brett Favre’s arrival.
Grade: It was a solid first year, firing McCarthy was the right call for a team stuck in a rut, and drafting Jaire Alexander was a great move. But he didn’t make any other notable good moves in the offseason, signing Jimmy Graham to a big contract, while letting Jared Cook Jr. walk was a mistake. He also missed on most of the rest of the draft, and the Packers had a bad year with an all time great quarterback. Overall, C+.
2019. The team needed an overhaul and Gutekunst started quickly in his first full off season. For a team that historically has often sat out of free agency, Gutekunst made big swings, signing defensive ends Preston Smith and Za’Darious Smith to big contracts as well as a variety of other moves. With the talent influx on the team, it seemed he was doing a great job positioning the team for a bounce back year. But the first big decision was now on Gutekunst’s plate, who is he going to get to coach Aaron Rodgers? Eventually they landed on young, very unproven Matt LaFleur who only had a single year as the Tennessee Titan’s offensive coordinator where they finished in the bottom ten in yards and points per game. He was, however, a previous understudy and offensive coordinator for Sean McVay, whose new offensive techniques were all the rage in the NFL. This hire was controversial to be sure, there were many questions on if LaFleur could handle the tough to coach Aaron Rodgers and what the relationship between the two would actually look like. Most people thought it would have been more prudent to bring in an experienced head coach that Rodgers would be forced to respect, instead of a new head coach who has very little experience running offenses as well as handling players. In the draft, the Packers had two first round picks, the first being defensive end Rashan Gary. Who has turned into a quality player, but at the time was very redundant after signing two high priced defensive ends. The second first round pick was safety Darnell Savage, who has had an up and down career but never turned into a super high quality starter. With the rest of the draft, Gutekunst did a very good job finding offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins and Yosh Nijman. This year the Packers went 13-3 including 8-1 in one score games, with the much improved talent they advanced all the way to the NFC Championship game before they ran into a much more talented 49ers squad.
Grade: Brian Gutekunst had a hell of a first full off season, the free agents he brought in all matched or exceeded expectations. LaFleur proved that the offseason drama between him and Rodgers was all speculation and didn’t have much warrant. As LaFleur led the Packers to be much more effective on offense and more cohesive on defense. The rookies were a little bit of a mixed bag, drafting Darnel Savage directly over wide receivers like Marquise Brown and Deebo Samuel was a big mistake (more on lack of receivers later) and the pick of Rashan Gary could have gone to an actual position of need, but he turned into a good player. He also picked up good depth later in the draft. Overall, A (if he landed the top draft picks better it could have been an A+, getting Matt LeFleur has turned into a genius move).
2020. Now it gets interesting, after a very successful season, Brian Gutekunst was tasked to take the team to the next level. A lot of it was going to have to be internal improvement, with the Packers’ spending spree during the last offseason, they were very thin on money to bring in additional free agents. With the most notable additions being middle linebacker Christian Kirksey and WR Devin Funchess (who ended up getting released before the year started). Which placed the biggest opportunity to improve the team, outside of internal improvements, in the NFL draft. Gutekunst would then make the biggest decision in his career, trading up in the draft to get quarterback Jordan Love, instead of WRs Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Tee Higgins, Brandon Aiyuk, or Michael Pittman (who were all drafted within 10 spots of Love). With Love virtually guaranteed to not play because Aaron Rodgers was still the starter, the second round pick will now be the first real opportunity to improve the team. Gutekunst made arguably, an even more questionable decision. Electing to draft a third string running back, AJ Dillon, to sit behind quality backs in Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. This was an especially curious decision considering Jones and Williams were drafted in the 5th and 4th round respectively, so the Packers of all teams should know they can find RBs later in the draft. Not surprisingly, he had no immediate benefit as, outside of one game, Dillon had less than 130 total and no touchdowns in 2020. The rest of the draft produced very little quality depth, with none of the players ever developing into a starter. Entering the season, questions abound on how Aaron Rodgers would play after being upset by Gutekunst’s decision to draft his replacement instead of getting him help. Aaron Rodgers and the Packers started off hot going 5-2, and leading up to the trade deadline with an offense that was best in the league averaging 31.3 points per game. But there were a few flaws: the Packers were extremely reliant on star receiver Davante Adams and their pass defense was a definite weakness. A trade at the deadline to shore up either spot might make this team unstoppable but Gutekunst held fast believing the team had enough. That looked to be the case, the Packers only lost once the entire second half of the regular season as the Packers finished with the league’s highest scoring offense. After reaching the NFC Championship game, the Buccaneers went after both weaknesses, taking away Adams to force any other receiver to make a play and going deep often to stretch the Packer’s shaky secondary. It worked too as Tom Brady and the Buccaneers won a close game 31-26. Aaron Rodgers, under his second year in the Matt LaFleur system, had arguably the best year of his career, winning MVP and posting the second highest season long passer rating of all time (only behind himself in 2011).
Grade: The Packers were set up great thanks to the year prior where Gutekunst added a lot of impactful players and a second year under LaFleur made a huge difference but this grade is only on how Gutekunst did in the 2020 offseason so past success does not help him. His draft grade will forever be linked to how Jordan Love does, if he turns into a super star it’s hard to hold that pick against him, but the rest of the draft was bad and when looking at all the super impactful players around Love it’s hard not to think there was a huge missed opportunity. Gutekunst didn’t have any super impactful free agents leave but he also didn’t add any. He also had a chance to upgrade the team to fix a glaring hole at the deadline, but decided to stand pat, which was ultimately exposed in the playoffs. With how good this team was, it is hard not to think that a move at the deadline or a better draft could have easily pushed this team to a championship. Overall F, a full offseason where all additions didn’t help the team toward a Superbowl, compounded by refusing to address any weaknesses at deadline. A golden opportunity to win it all slipped away.
2021. After the year 2020 where the regular season was a smashing success but the playoffs ended disappointingly, one game short of the Super Bowl. Now Gutekunst was tasked with the unenviable task of keeping the team together while making enough improvements to get the Packers over the hump. The first decision was letting last year’s free agent Christian Kirksey leave and replacing him with Cardinal’s veteran linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. This turned out to be a huge success as Campbell had, by far, his best season of his career earning first team All-pro honors. Gutekunst also added backup offensive tackle Dennis Kelly and some cornerback depth Rasul Douglas. Douglas especially turned into a very high quality and important piece with Jaire Alexander missing all except four games. But the offseason for the third year in a row quickly turned into more quarterback drama. Aaron Rodgers asked for a trade stating that it wasn’t about Jordan Love but more about a philosophy and character and culture. Now this is pretty broad, so the fact that Gutekunst didn’t even tell Rodgers that they were planning on acquiring Love or the fact that the Packers have not drafted one offensive skill position in the first round since he took over (until they pick his replacement in Love) could still be strong factors. There was even speculation that Rodgers was doing this to apply pressure on the Packers organization to get him more help in this year’s draft. During the draft, if Gutekunst felt pressured to get Rodgers more help he did not show it, drafting another defender in cornerback Eric Stokes, who after a good rookie season took a step back in year two. In the second round he drafted lineman Josh Myers who played sparingly as a rookie and was an average starter the next year. Finally, in the third round Gutekunst selected WR Amari Rodgers who had a disastrous year and a half with nearly as many fumbles (7) as catches (8) before getting released. Soon after the draft Aaron Rodgers reiterated his desire to be traded, leading to a stalemate between Rodgers threatening to retire and the Packers not wanting to trade their reigning MVP quarterback who just led the team to the NFC Championship game. Ultimately, Rodgers came back, with the Packers playing nice by trading a 6th round pick to bring Randall Cobb back to the Packers (one of Rodgers’ past favorite receivers and good friend).
For the third year in a row the Packer got off to a great first half of the season sitting at 7-1. But different from last year, the defense was playing at a higher level with the additions of Campbell, Douglas, and Stokes. The offense was as heavily reliant on Davante Adams as ever, with defenses getting better at forcing any other receiver to beat them, the offense slid from the best in the NFL to the 10th best in ppg. With the Packer’s need for a second quality receiver being as evident as ever, a huge opportunity opened up, when the Browns released Odell Beckham. Now the Packers didn’t even need to trade future pieces to help Rodgers, they could simply sign Beckham if they wanted too. Alas, even with Rodgers in the midst of his age 37 season and a team positioned to win a championship, Gutekunst could not pull the trigger to make an all in move to improve the team. Odell Beckham reported that he was offered a “lowball” offer from the Packers, and decided to sign with the Rams, and the Packers made no other moves to get Aaron Rodgers any more help. The team still had a very good second half of the regular season, with Aaron Rodgers collecting his second straight MVP. But in the playoffs, the Packers lack of receiving options outside of Davante Adams was exposed for the second straight year, and a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, led the Packers to getting upset by the 49ers in the divisional round.
Grade: Brian Gutekunst added a lot of good talent which made the defense better. De’Vondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas were huge additions who made plays the entire year. The rookies were solid, fourth rounder OT Royce Newman and Josh Myers added needed depth and solid play, Eric Stokes showed potential but did take a step back in 2022. The biggest misstep is failing to address arguably the teams biggest need in a WR2. Even after it became clear at the deadline that the Packers could really use another weapon, Gutekunst failed to even make one move that might qualify as going “all-in” to try to win a championship. The lack of moves is even more stark when compared to the Super Bowl winning Rams who made many “all-in” moves like: beating out the Packers for Odell Beckham and trading for star pass rusher Von Miller. Overall C-, he gave the Packers a chance with some savvy signings and a solid but unspectacular draft, but he had another fantastic opportunity to win it all and didn’t even try to improve with any win-now moves to get the team over the hump.
2022. After a disappointing end to the season in which Aaron Rodgers had won his second straight MVP but the Packers were knocked out of the divisional round of the playoffs. Gutekunst had to make a lot of decisions on high priced players. First, was giving a huge four year extension to Aaron Rodgers. The next was re-signing Jaire Alexander and guard Elgton Jenkins, who are both top players at their respective positions. He then chose to re-sign Preston Smith over Za’Darius Smith due to Za’Darius missing all of the previous year from a back injury. While Za’Darius was a little more productive in 2022, both players played well. So, looking back, while keeping Za’Darius would probably have been prudent, it’s not a terrible decision. Brian Gutekunst’s biggest decision, by far, was to franchise tag and then trade superstar wide receiver Davante Adams to the Raiders for a first and second round pick. Rumors swirled on a potential Rodgers trade but with the recent extension already signed, no trade demand came and all eyes quickly shifted to the NFL draft and how the Packers would replace Aaron Rodgers’ favorite weapon. With two first round picks and many receivers projected to go in the first round it seemed like the Packers would have every chance to draft Adam’s replacement. The Packers drafted linebacker Quay Walker who had a good rookie season and defensive end Devante Wyatt who had very little impact in his rookie season. In the second and fourth rounds, Gutekunst and the Packers finally picked WRs Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs to replace Davante Adams and deep threat veteran Marquese Valdes-Scantling (who also left in free agency). After the draft and leading up to the season there were rumors that the Packers might look to add a veteran receiver, like Julio Jones, Odell Beckham, or Jarvis Landry but ultimately nothing came about. When the season started, it was clear the Packers offense was struggling without superstar Davante Adams and their former wide receiver two MVS, especially when both rookies and remaining veterans Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb all missed multiple games due to injuries. With a dearth of wide receivers the Packers limped into the trade deadline at 3-5, in desperate need for help at receiver. For the third year in a row Brian Gutekunst sat on his hands, willing to ride with the team he had constructed in the offseason. While the Packers improved the second half of the year, with the emergence of rookie Christian Watson looking like he could potentially be a future star, it was too little too late as the Packers missed the playoffs.
Grade: Trading Davante Adams, when the receiving core was already shaky, turned the unit into a downright bad position for much of the year. While Christian Watson had a huge second half of the year, he couldn’t fix the entire weakness himself. Failing to adequately replace Adams and to a smaller extent MVS, caused the Packers to become drastically less dangerous on offense. Turning the Packers from a Super Bowl favorite, into missing the playoffs. The idea to focus the draft on the defensive end, turned into a solid contribution (Quay Walker) and virtually no contribution (Devante Wyatt). Extending Rodgers was a good move at the time, but trading his best receiver, letting his deep threat walk, and replacing them with middle round rookies is questionable at best. Overall D+, Christian Watson drags it up from a F, failing to make a move at the deadline when the team so clearly has one huge weakness, seems like a move from a GM solely focused on the future. When you have Aaron Rodgers, that is the wrong perspective to take.
Summary. Brian Gutekunst has done an admiral job building this team every year, through the draft and free agency. He also hired Matt Lafleur who has turned into one of the better young coaches in the league. Where he has fallen short is making any moves to take the team over the top. In 2019, you can understand, the team was so young and with a rookie head coach it is easily arguable that trading future assets to boost an unproven team is reckless. In 2020, the Packers were clearly one of the best teams in the league, a trade for an extra cornerback, or wide receiver makes lots of sense; to fill one of the only holes on the team and try to win a Super Bowl. In 2021, the Packers again looked like maybe the best team in the league, with the same weakness at WR2 but even more glaring, with defenses getting better at taking away Davante Adams. Again Gutekunst refused to trade future assets to try to win a Super Bowl. In 2022, the Packers absolutely needed more help at receiver after the Adams trade, there was optimism that even if Gutekunst was unwilling to make a trade to take the team over the top, he would at least make a trade to try to save the team. Alas for the third year in a row, no trade was made to improve the team in the interim. Whether he truly thought all the teams were good enough as currently constructed, or he just didn’t want to compromise any future assets, even for a better chance at winning the title, ultimately his teams fell short of getting Aaron Rodgers another Super Bowl. With Rodgers’ time with the Packers looking like it might be up, it’s hard not to wonder how things would have played out with a more aggressive general manager. Overall Grade: C-, Brian Gutekunst built a winning team around Aaron Rodgers, but doing that around one of the best quarterbacks of all time is not the biggest of accomplishments. He also has been unspectacular and up and down with his drafting throughout his tenure, but failing to go “All-In” on multiple Super Bowl caliber teams, is the real failure which drags his grade down. The Packers didn’t fail Rodgers completely, but they were also unable to surround him with enough support to win it all.