The Green Bay Packers have done it again at the quarterback position, as three different general managers have found franchise quarterbacks to build around. Ron Wolf acquired Brett Favre, Ted Thompson drafted Aaron Rodgers, and Brian Gutekunst went for it with Jordan Love.
Wolf’s son, Eliot — a former Packers personnel exec and now the general manager of the New England Patriots — jokingly attributed the Packers’ string of success to “luck” at the 2024 NFL Combine on Tuesday morning. But while there’s some truth in that comment, there’s far more to it, and the Packers’ willingness to let quarterbacks sit and grow is surely one big piece of the puzzle.
Gutekunst was one of the first executives to head out to a podium at the Combine on Tuesday, and an early question came about regarding how to find and develop a quarterback:
“It’s probably the toughest position in all of pro sports to play,” Gutekunst said. “The amount of information he has to process in a limited amount of time, all the leadership stuff and intangible stuff that goes along with it, it’s just an exceptionally hard position to play. There’s a certain amount of athletic gifts and talent you have to have and then there’s so much more beyond that. The thing I think is lost at times is how much of it has to be developed over time. And you never really know until you have that time to try to develop a guy whether he’s going to be able to do it at a high level or not. It’s a tough leap to excel at that position for sure.”
In particular, Jordan Love had a tremendous finish to the 2023 season, and Gutekunst was pleased that his first three years — tough years sitting behind Rodgers — saw some excellent early returns. “Really proud of him. The work that he put in, he was very much rewarded for all the work. He was put in some tough situations throughout his career. Had lack of opportunity early, with COVID and not having preseason games and things.”
That adversity was hardly limited to the time before Love took the reins, however. Gutekunst noted that the offense went through a particularly rough period during the month of October, but complimented his quarterback for his steadiness: “To lead our team week in and week out and see the rewards at the end of the season, I was very excited for him and our football team. For as good as he played, there’s so much more in front of him.”
In recent years, the quarterback position has been the primary subject of a great deal of additional scrutiny in terms of cognitive testing. The S2 test, in particular, became a major storyline last season after a poor testing result for C.J. Stroud leaked. That led to extra attention on testing techniques and results, but ultimately it appears that the Packers use these types of tests not as benchmarks or filters to remove players from their draft board, but rather as guidelines for how to help a player succeed if they do bring them into the organization.
“It’s not as much of an evaluation tool on whether we’re going to choose a player or not,” Gutekunst commented, “it’s more about if we do choose a player, what are the best ways we’re gonna support that player once we get him in the building?”
“If we do happen to have those guys who don’t take our cognitive tests — or the league’s cognitive tests, because there’s multiple — we’ll probably test them when they get in once we bring them into Green Bay. It’s really more about how do we support that player, what are their strengths or weaknesses, how do they learn best? It’s more about that than a tool to decide whether or not you’re going to choose a player.”
Two players that the Packers did choose in last year’s NFL Draft had very different trajectories in their first professional seasons. Tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft both made major contributions in 2023, with Musgrave starting the season as the team’s top option at the position and Kraft emerging over the final two months.
Gutekunst beamed at the podium when talking about these two players, noting that Matt LaFleur’s offense asks tight ends to be impactful in all facets of the game. “I think those guys are very well-rounded tight ends, they can do everything that we’re asking.” Gutekunst also alluded to the fact that there were limited opportunities for the two to contribute at the same time, but that it’s coming in 2024: “Tucker really came on once Luke had the injury. The confidence and the level that both those guys are at now, it’s going to be really fun to see both of those guys on the field at the same time.”
As those two players competed for playing time early in their rookie season, the Packers also fostered a high level of competition at other positions on offense, particularly wide receiver. That strategy paid off, as the team’s young corps of talented receivers all found ways to contribute. Some of that was due to LaFleur’s ability to scheme to his players’ strengths, and it’s something that Gutekunst is hoping to repeat on the other side of the football in 2024.
Some of those parallels are a result of the arrival of new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley. Gutekunst echoed comments from LaFleur, complimenting Hafley’s energy, leadership style, and expectation level, but he noted that creating competition will be a priority this offseason: “I think we’ve got a really good nucleus of players coming back. We need to fill each room with enough competition that those guys feel that and can grow kind of like our offense did this past year, and that will be on us (front office) to do that.”
As for how much input Hafley will have on that player acquisition piece? It sounds like that will be fairly small, as the team will stick to its approach. “The foundation for what we’re looking for in players isn’t going to change, that’s process is pretty entrenched,” Gutekunst said. “I think one of the things where the conversation will continue is kind of some of the things he’s going to want to do. And in the final decisions of player acquisition that might factor in a little bit, how he wants to play.”
Still, Gutekunst and Hafley appear to already be in sync on one key trait for young players: versatility. Don’t expect the Packers to bring in players who are limited to a single narrow role, based on these comments: “I know for a fact, and we’ve always done this: (Hafley is) looking for versatile guys who can do a lot of things. You have to be careful when you build a team, of having too many guys who don’t have a robust skill set, because when injuries hit, they’ve got to be able to do different things.”
The process of finding those versatile players is well underway, and the rest of this week will be the next step in that process. For Gutekunst and his staff, the next several days will be filled with player interviews and observing over 300 players participating in drills as the team’s draft board begins to really take shape.
If the Packers can put together a draft class in 2024 that can even approach the impact of the 2023 class, they should be in very good shape to be major contenders for the Super Bowl next February. From top to bottom in the organization, that is the expectation.
Because after all, as Gutekunst noted, “around here we’ve never hung banners for division championships. We’re looking for bigger things.”
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5hY21lcGFja2luZ2NvbXBhbnkuY29tLzIwMjQvMi8yNy8yNDA4NDYyNy9wYWNrZXJzLWdtLWJyaWFuLWd1dGVrdW5zdC0yMDI0LWNvbWJpbmUtcHJlc3Nlci1qb3JkYW4tbG92ZS1qZWZmLWhhZmxleS1kZWZlbnNlLWNvZ25pdGl2ZS10ZXN0c9IBAA?oc=5
2024-02-27 17:20:00Z
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