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Rob Demovsky
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Drafting a receiver in the first round. Trading defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round draft picks for Micah Parsons, then breaking the bank to give the former Cowboy a four-year, $188 million contract.
Who is running the Green Bay Packers’ personnel department, and what happened to general manager Brian Gutekunst?
Drafting Matthew Golden at No. 23, and in the process breaking a 21-year streak of passing on Round 1 receivers, is one thing. But this — acquiring the All-Pro edge rusher from the Dallas Cowboys — signals a new line of thinking for the Packers.
Those two moves were unlike any Gutekunst had made since he was hired in 2018.
The Packers have had their share of success since then.
Consider:
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They went to back-to-back NFC Championship Games in 2019 and 2020.
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They’ve made the playoffs in five of Gutekunst’s seven seasons as GM.
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They have the fourth-highest winning percentage (.634) in that span.
Yet one number stands above them all: zero. As in the number of Super Bowl appearances.
The moves this offseason, including signing free agents Aaron Banks (four years, $77 million) and Nate Hobbs (four years, $48 million), could mean a couple of things: Gutekunst thinks this team is as close as ever to a Super Bowl, or he feels a heightened sense of urgency to get there for the first time on his watch.
Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur have a new boss. Ed Policy replaced Mark Murphy as team president/CEO in July. And although both the coach and general manager are under contract through the 2026 season, Policy sent a clear message when he said earlier this year that extensions would have to wait. He also said he doesn’t believe in lame-duck coaches and GMs. What was left unsaid was that he is using this season, at least in part, to determine their futures.
It’s also possible that none of that played a part, and that Parsons was simply too good not to pursue. In previous offseasons and trade deadlines, Gutekunst has said football isn’t a sport where one player can often make the difference between a good team and a great team.
“You’re never one player away, right?” Gutekunst reiterated after this year’s final roster cuts. “I never believed that.”
This also is not the first time Gutekunst has swung big on a pass rusher. This time, however, he connected. Almost exactly seven years ago, Gutekunst tried to trade for Khalil Mack but was barely outbid by the Bears. In fact, Murphy said the Packers made the same offer as the Bears, but the Raiders took Chicago’s proposal because they thought the draft picks — a pair of first-rounders, a third and sixth — would be higher within each round.
Before that, there was Julius Peppers. When the Packers signed Peppers in 2014, Gutekunst wasn’t in charge; he was the Packers’ director of college scouting. But he witnessed the impact Peppers made, not only as an individual with 25 sacks in three seasons, but also as a leader who helped the Packers to two NFC title game appearances in those three seasons.
Without Parsons, who has had at least 12 sacks in each of his four seasons, the Packers’ pass rush was one of the biggest questions about this team. The only major additions to the group came on Day 3 of the draft, with fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell and fifth-rounder Collin Oliver. But both are hurt to start the season, Sorrell with a knee injury and Oliver on the physically unable to perform list because of a hamstring injury.
LaFleur did his part to try to improve a pass rush that ranked just 22nd in pressure percentage last season, according to ESPN Research. It was one of the few weak spots in an otherwise impressive defensive season under first-year coordinator Jeff Hafley. So LaFleur changed defensive line coaches, bringing in DeMarcus Covington, whom Packers players have raved about. LaFleur said he has seen improvements already.
“We’ve done a better job just with a lot of our games up front, just being a little bit tighter, not allowing loose pockets where a quarterback can get loose and carve you up with his legs,” LaFleur said. “Condensing the pocket, there’s nothing that quarterbacks hate more. It’s not comfortable for them when that pocket starts to get engulfed around them, and I think our guys have done a really nice job of understanding just how to keep that rush lane integrity.”
But nothing has been as bold as this.
“What someone might consider a bold move, someone else might not,” Gutekunst said several days before the Parsons trade. “Like, we signed a practice squad guy today. I might consider that a bold move. Somebody else might not. But I think every opportunity that’s out there to help your football team, we’ve always taken a look to see how it affects us right now, how does it affect us in the future, and make the best decision we can. Sometimes we’ve been right; sometimes we’re wrong. Sometimes we’ve taken risks that really worked out for us. Sometimes it didn’t.
“Sometimes the best deals you make are the ones you don’t, you know. … I think you weigh everything, and you weigh what is in the moment and what is in the future as well.”