How does Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst stack up with his peers? Pro Football Focus provided some interesting perspective.

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Nobody is buying a ticket to see the general manager, but that man – Brian Gutekunst in the case of the Green Bay Packers – is the most important part of any NFL organization.

Without a good general manager, an NFL team has no chance for sustained success. Even for teams with a great quarterback, it’s up to the general manager to find the right supporting pieces. To strike the right balance with the salary cap. To pinpoint the good players who they can’t afford to lose and the good players they can’t afford to keep. To navigate the inevitable injuries. To be aggressive but not reckless.

Brad Spielberger ranked the NFL’s 32 general managers for Pro Football Focus. He put them into four groups. Tier 1 general managers have a clear vision and the ability to manage short- and long-term interests, Tier 2 GMs have a clear vision but “sometimes” are too focused on windows and Tier 3 GMs have a “questionable process.” The list is rounded out by the seven who haven’t been on the job long enough to render judgement.


Spielberger placed Gutekunst toward the bottom of the Tier 2 group.

Hired in 2018, Gutekunst has taken a much more aggressive approach than his predecessor and mentor, Ted Thompson.

Gutekunst hasn’t shied away from free agency, though the bulk of that spending was done in 2019, when he signed Preston Smith, Za’Darius Smith, Adrian Amos and Billy Turner.

When there were holes on the roster, Thompson almost always went young by pulling from his practice squad. Gutekunst, on the other hand, signed De’Vondre Campbell, Jarran Reed and Rasul Douglas, among others.


Gutekunst has attacked the draft. During his first draft in 2018, he traded back and then up to net Jaire Alexander and an additional first-round pick. The 2019 draft class was headlined by Rashan Gary and Elgton Jenkins, a pair of second-contract players who rank among the best at their positions.

The 2020 draft was a disappointment – though it can be saved by Jordan Love – and the 2021 draft looks like a series of missed opportunities.

However, the 2022 draft landed a handful of starters (Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker), and the 2023 draft class, headlined by instant-impact starters Luke Musgrave and Jayden Reed, could be just as good.


Gutekunst hasn’t been hesitant to wheel and deal in the draft, especially in the early rounds. In total, he’s traded up six times and traded back on four occasions. PFF’s trade-value chart assigns point values for each pick. The Packers are one of the big “losers” from a points perspective.

But games are won by players and not hypothetical points. The Packers were fleeced, from a points perspective, when they sent No. 27 and No. 76 to the Seattle Seahawks to move up to No. 18 in 2018 to grab Alexander, a two-time second-team All-Pro. They also lost big on points when they dealt No. 53 and No. 59 to the Minnesota Vikings in 2022 to move up to No. 34 for receiver Christian Watson. Watson is having a disappointing season but has game-changing talent. If Watson reaches his potential, the points, again, will be irrelevant.

Blessed to inherit a team led by Aaron Rodgers, Gutekunst helped put the pieces in place to reach the NFC Championship Game in 2019 and 2020. They became the first team in NFL history with three consecutive seasons of 13-plus regular-season wins.

However, the championship team crumbled in 2022, which led to the trade of Rodgers, and there have been a lot of growing pains in 2023 with Love stepping in at quarterback. Heavy investments on defense have not paid off.

Ultimately, Spielberger correctly says, Gutekunst’s tenure will be judged by whether he’s found or can find a quarterback capable of living up to the “impossibly high standard” set by Rodgers. For now, that player is Love, the player Gutekunst traded up to get instead of adding an immediate contributor to a championship contender. For better or worse, that one decision will forever be Gutekunst’s legacy.

Brian Gutekunst Deserves Credit for Packers’ Rapid Rebuild
The Green Bay Packers are on the rise because of a series of decisions made by GM Brian Gutekunst and the ascending play of the quarterback he chose to replace Aaron Rodgers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Thanksgiving, the Green Bay Packers devoured the first-place Detroit Lions. In the press box, general manager Brian Gutekunst and the rest of the front office celebrated every big play as if a spot in the playoffs was at stake.

On Black Friday, the New York Jets lost. Again. The team Aaron Rodgers helped assemble is a lost cause without Rodgers there to make it work.

Allen Lazard, the most expensive receiver in free agency in terms of total money and guaranteed money, was inactive.

“It’s kind of a challenge to see if he can recapture the edge and who he is and the person we have a lot of faith in,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said.

Receiver Randall Cobb played seven snaps on offense. Instead of Lazard and Cobb, the punchless Jets gave 54 snaps to undrafted rookie Jason Brownlee, who entered the game with zero career catches.

Offensive lineman Billy Turner played two snaps on special teams, even though the Jets’ front wall was continually overrun by Miami’s defense.

Safety Adrian Amos played seven snaps on defense.

Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has no answers without Rodgers available to run the show like an orchestra conductor.

“A lot of people have been rewarded, quite frankly, because of his ability to go out there and play and play at such a high level,” coach Matt LaFleur said in March.

Sometimes, the best transactions are the ones that aren’t made. Gutekunst could have re-signed Lazard or Cobb to give Love that much-talked-about veteran receiver. He could have retained Robert Tonyan or Marcedes Lewis to help the rookie tight ends. He could have brought back Amos, a reliable starter the previous four seasons. He could have gone with Jarran Reed and/or Dean Lowry rather than going young on the defensive line.

Tonyan (seven) and Lewis (two) have nine catches for the Bears; rookies Luke Musgrave (33) and Tucker Kraft (seven) have 40 for the Packers.

Amos has 23 tackles for the Jets; Rudy Ford (58) and Jonathan Owens (43), who were given one-year deals by the Packers, have combined for 101. Owens was one of the best players on the field against the Lions.

Would the Packers be better off with Jarran Reed, who has four sacks for Seattle? Or Mason Crosby? Perhaps, but if you’re going to go young, you might as well go young.

All of this is to say Gutekunst had one hell of an offseason for a team that needed one hell of an offseason.

Fair-minded people can agree to disagree on whether Gutekunst went all-in with Rodgers to maximize the championship window. What’s beyond dispute is Gutekunst’s aggressive approach put the Packers in, if not salary-cap hell, salary-cap purgatory. This past offseason, there was no money to go to Ruth’s Chris Steak House, so Gutekunst went to Ponderosa and had a perfectly fine dinner.

For $4 million, Gutekunst re-signed Keisean Nixon to man the slot and return kicks. Ford, Owens and linebacker Eric Wilson – at a combined value of less than $4 million – have provided a lot of good snaps on defense and special teams.

The draft has been an overwhelming success. Eleven of the 13 picks are on the 53-man roster, with most of them playing key roles. Musgrave and Reed look like foundational pieces on offense. It’s not an overstatement to suggest they could become the best tight end and slot receiver in franchise history.

Wicks (fifth round), defensive tackle Karl Brooks (sixth round) and cornerback Carrington Valentine (seventh round) look like the type of big-time steals that turn good drafts into great drafts. So long as outside linebacker Lukas Van Ness (first round) and Kraft (third round) keep trending, this has the makings of a draft class that can change the fortunes of the franchise.

Of course, as the Jets have painfully learned, nothing matters without the quarterback. Trading Rodgers allowed Gutekunst to hit the financial reset button and pick up a valuable draft pick (No. 39 overall presently) while handing the offense to his hand-picked successor.

For Green Bay, the story of the season has been the growth of Jordan Love.

“He just needs to play.” Gutekunst used a version of that phrase countless times. As it turns out, those weren’t just the words of a stubborn man so married to his convictions that he was prepared to drive his career off a cliff.

The more Love has played, the better he has played. Love was a bottom-of-the-barrel quarterback when the Packers lost four straight; he ranks among the best in the NFL with three wins in the last four games.

If his ceiling truly is somewhere in the top quartile of quarterbacks – and who knows at this point – the Packers are about to enter another golden age of being perennial championship contenders. Did Gutekunst make a colossal mistake in the 2020 draft by taking Love rather than an instant-impact contributor to give the team a final push to a Super Bowl? Nobody’s going to care if Love has the Packers playing for a Super Bowl or two this decade.

As LaFleur says frequently, including after Thursday’s win, the quarterback can’t do it alone. On the heels of strong drafts in 2022 and 2023, Gutekunst is slated to have five of the top 80 picks in 2024. Financial freedom is coming.

Make no mistake, Gutekunst has a lot of work to do to catch the likes of the Eagles and 49ers in the NFC. There’s a big difference between playoff-caliber and championship-worthy. But the rapid ascent of this team hints that the rebuild won’t be as long or as painful as it seemed just a month ago.