General manager Brian Gutekunst and the Green Bay Packers have done an outstanding job building through the NFL Draft in recent years, around emerging star quarterback Jordan Love.
However, the task of taking the next step with Love got a bit more difficult last offseason when the Packers signed the 26-year-old to a colossal $220 million extension.
And, while recent free agent signings such as running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney paid immediate dividends in Green Bay, Love’s significantly larger paycheck–and portion of the franchise’s salary cap make it incumbent that the Packers continue to string together solid draft classes full of key contributors and star caliber players.
Is Packers GM Brian Gutekunst on The Hot Seat?
Ahead of the draft, Bleacher Report NFL analyst Gary Davenport put together a list of how hot the seat is under every general manager across the NFL, including listing Gutekunst in one of the safest positions league-wide.
“Gutekunst has been running the show in Titletown since 2018,” Davenport points out for B/R. “And the Packers have enjoyed considerable success over that span—three NFC North titles and five trips to the playoffs. The team also made a pair of NFC Championship Games, although they haven’t advanced that far since 2020.
“For the most part, Gutekunst has handled free agency and the NFL draft well, including the selection of quarterback Jordan Love late in the first round in 2020. The Packers are one of the league’s more patient franchises, and so long as the team remains a playoff contender Gutekunst’s job should be safe.”
Davenport suggests that Gutekunst’s pressure is a “3/10,” and it is easy to see why Green Bay has given Gutekunst the latitude to build out the Packers’ roster his way, through the draft, because the franchise has had such a high-hit rate with homegrown talent.
However, with the Bears improving, the Lions also having tremendous success with players built through the draft, Gutekunst and the Packers better continue this trend in the coming years or else risk being bypassed by the other teams in their own division.
