Acme Packing Company
Gutekunst has shown greater ability evaluating pros than college players. Just get the pros.
Brian Gutekunst is working through his eighth offseason of team building. While the Green Bay Packers have remained successful, some trends are emerging. Among these is how well Gutekunst has been at adding key free agents in the offseason. The inverse of that is how poor he has been at adding talent through the second day of the NFL Draft.
My proposal is simple: Trade the mid-round draft picks for talent. I would go so far as to say the first round should not be out of play.
After the examples of Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson, Gutekunst has been keyed into the value of draft picks. Thompson was notorious for letting players leave in free agency while grabbing the Compensatory picks. Building through the draft is a key aspect of any team building. This is especially true for teams with a lot of needs. It gives you lots of chances to add talent cheaply.
Gutekunst has done well to gather draft picks. In the seven prior drafts, he has twice had two first-round picks. He has also collected multiple second-round picks in each of the last two seasons. This has collected well-regarded young talent on the team while also keeping the salary cap manageable.
In the first three seasons, Gutekunst had four first-round picks: Jaire Alexander, Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage, and Jordan Love. Love took some time to show return, but the value of a Quarterback is different. While Gary nd Alexander have fallen off and dealt with injuries in the last couple years, both were Pro Bowl players. Savage was a starter, but did little more than that. That is a decent stretch of hitting when it matters. First-round choices are the most precious.
Still, the last four years have been rough. Gutekunst added Eric Stokes, Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt between 2021 and 2022. Wyatt has shown some splash in rotational role. Stokes and Walker have been consistent starters, but have not shown much improvement. The team is not significantly impaired without them. The last two first-rounders (Lukas Van Ness and Jordan Morgan) have barely seen the field.
Gutekunst is notoriously bad at third-round picks. While Sean Rhyan and Tucker Kraft have been wonderful additions, the misses have been devastating. Jaca Sternberger, Josiah DeGuara, Amari Rodgers, and Ty-Ron Hopper never provided anything. Deep picks took some time for Gutekunst as well. No one third-round or later in the 2019 draft really gave the Packers any production. Jordan Love and Jon Runyan Jr were the only two clear hits out of the nine picks in 2020 (A.J. Dillon a maybe, but not at second-round value). Nine more picks in 2021 and the best of the group are Josh Myers, T.J. Slaton and Isaiah McDuffie (two of whom the Packers let go this year in Free Agency without a word).
The last three...
