Green Bay Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst wrapped up his third season on the job with a 30 minute question and answer session today at Lambeau Field. Running football operations in 2019 with a first year Head Coach in Matt LaFleur, Gutekunst hit big on four unrestricted free agent acquisitions last spring, drafted two players who wound up on the Pro Football Writers of America all NFL Rookie Team, had a pair of veterans elected to the Pro Bowl and three more join the NFC team as alternates.
The Packers won 13 games to capture the NFC North Division title for the first time in four years, returned to the playoffs for the first time in three, defeated the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round at home and then had the wheels come off in the NFC Championship game loss to the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday.
A pretty eventful twelve months:
(Audio: Brian Gutekunst)
Gutekunst covered a host of topics during the Q&A, touching on several players and position groups.
Starting with the quarterback. He said Aaron Rodgers had a “really, really good year, adapting to a new system.” At times he was asked to carry the team and he responded. While working under Ted Thompson 15 years ago, the Packers had another accomplished quarterback well on the plus side of 30 years of age and they drafted Rodgers as the heir apparent to Brett Favre. Rodgers played the understudy for three more seasons before taking over. Is it nearing the time to think about the next quarterback of the future? Gutekunst said if there's a quarterback out there who can play, start and win in the NFL, we'll never pass him up but he believes Rodgers can give the organization excellent play for some time.
Davante Adams had another steller season, making his second straight Pro Bowl, despite missing four games with a turf toe injury. But the wide receiver group after Adams never gave Rodgers a second serious option. Gutekunst admitted as much saying different guys stepped up at moments in different games like Allen Lazard, but no one consistently stepped up and it will be a position they'll look to address this coming off-season.
Gutekunst admitted the only position group he might have neglected leading into the 2019 season was at receiver, looking to add another explosive offensive player to the mix. He said there just weren't that many options available that could convince him to pull the trigger on a signing or a trade.
The tight end group featured two seasoned veterans and a lot of youth but Gutekunst said he was very happy with Jimmy Graham and Mercedes Lewis leading youngsters like Robert Tonyan and rookie Jace Sternberger who overcame an injury to get on the field late this year, catching a touchdown pass in the NFC title game. Gutekunst said we're excited about Sternberger's future. He hasn't spoken with Graham about possibly retiring or coming back to finish the final year of his three year contract.
At the beginning of the season, Rodgers said the Packers have a defense they now can win with and Gutekunst agreed. He felt Mike Pettine, who will be retained by LaFleur, did an incredible job with a lot of new faces on defense, most notably Za'Darius Smith and Preston Smith, who exceeded his expectations in both on-field production and locker room leadership when they were brought on board last March.
Last year's number one draft choice, Rashan Gary, got limited snaps most of the season playing behind the Smiths but Gutekunst is confident he will become a significant contributor on defense in coming seasons.
Now that the off-season has arrived, Gutekunst has a very large collection of players who will have contracts expiring in March. 15 unrestricted free agents, five exclusive rights free agents and one restricted.
Three names in particular have played a lot of football for the Packers, Mason Crosby, Bryan Bulaga and Tramon Williams:
(Audio: Brian Gutekunst)
The rest of the UFA list includes Blake Martinez, who earned $613,000.00 in the final year of his rookie deal but according to the Over The Cap website, may have a market value of over 16 million dollars. Gutekunst will have to decide what his market value will be to the Packers moving forward.
The other UFA's include Geronimo Allison, Mercedes Lewis, Kyler Fackrell, B.J. Goodson, Ibraheim Campbell, Jared Veldheer, Ryan Grant, Tyler Ervin, Danny Vitale, Will Redmond, Ryan Grant and Jason Spriggs.
The exclusive rights free agents are Robert Tonyan, Jake Kumerow, Tyler Lancaster, Allen Lazard and Chandon Sullivan.
The only restricted free agent is tight end Malcolm Johnson.
Gutekunst will have the 30th choice in the first round of the draft when that comes around April 23-25 from Las Vegas.
He knows the gap between the Packers and the NFC Champion 49ers looked pretty significant a week ago and it's time to roll up his sleeves and find ways to narrow that gap between now and the 2020 season, which will include another trip to San Francisco in the regular season. Other road games for the Packers outside of the division next year will be to NFC South champion New Orleans, along with Tampa Bay, Houston and Indianapolis.
The home dates for the Packers inlcude their black and blue rivals along with Philadelphia, Atlanta, Carolina, Jacksonville and AFC runner-up Tennessee.
Let the off-season begin.
