GREEN BAY, Wis. – “Regrets, I had a few,” Frank Sinanta sang in My Way.
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has no regrets about his way of conducting the 2020 NFL Draft.
Infamously with his team coming off a surprise trip to the NFC Championship Game, Gutekunst used his fourth-round pick to trade up in the first round to land quarterback Jordan Love. Instead of a receiver or linebacker to fill a priority need or any other position that could have provided immediate help, Gutekunst drafted a quarterback who would wind up being a gameday inactive in all 18 games.
And with Rodgers set to win his third MVP award and the team essentially renewing its vows to him on Monday, there would be no regrets from the general manager.
“No, don’t look at it that way. Really no regrets looking back at the draft last year,” Gutekunst said in turning a question about Love into an answer about his draft class as a whole. “In the opportunities they were given, I thought they performed well.”
Probably the more appropriate answer was delivered before Gutekunst had Love on the roster. On Feb. 21, just before departing for last year’s Scouting Combine, Gutekunst told reporters that, if the right opportunity was there, he might select a quarterback in the first round of the upcoming draft.
At the time, it seemed like a preposterous statement and a weak attempt at draft subterfuge. Why waste a pick on a quarterback who might never play a meaningful snap with the team?
“I think it’s such an important part of what makes this thing go. It’s quarterbacks,” Gutekunst said at the time. “I know what you’re saying. Aaron didn’t play for three years and for three years people were probably saying, well, that was a total waste. I just don’t think developing a young quarterback is a waste.”
That was Gutekunst’s take on Love on Monday, as well. While all the world assumed Love was drafted to be Rodgers’ successor – and that very well might have been the thinking with Rodgers coming off three consecutive so-so seasons – Love will be merely a developmental prospect.
No different than Matt Hasselbeck in 1998, Matt Flynn in 2008 and DeShone Kizer in 2018.
Even at the incredibly high price of the first-round pick used to draft him and the fourth-round pick expended to get in position to select him.
“I think coming out strong will back people off for the meantime but, at some point, either trading up wasn’t the ideal thing to do or A-Rod isn’t going to be there much longer,” said a source, a high-ranking personnel executive from another team. “That’s expensive insurance on an older car that still drives well. The math doesn’t add up. They must have a plan.”
For now, the plan is to ride Rodgers, whose contract runs through 2023. Maybe Love will have a strong preseason or two to make himself a hot commodity. That worked with Hasselbeck. In a trade with Seattle before the 2001 draft, the Packers moved up seven spots in the first round and acquired a third-round pick. Or maybe something will happen to Rodgers and Love will impress. That was the case with Jimmy Garoppolo, who started four games for suspended Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in 2016. At the 2017 trade deadline, the Patriots sent him to the 49ers for a second-round pick.
Can the Packers ever get enough return on investment to break even in a trade? Who knows? Certainly not today, with Love spending an entire season as the No. 3 behind Tim Boyle.
“This probably won’t be the first time we draft quarterback and try to develop him because we just think it’s such an important part of the game,” Gutekunst said. “You look at the two teams that are playing for the championship this year and the four teams that were in the final four, so to speak, I think you can understand the importance of developing quarterbacks. We’re going to put a lot of stock into that.
“We’re going to use resources to acquire and develop quarterbacks just because it’s what we believe in. I’m really excited about the limited development that Jordan has been able to do in the short period of time that we’ve had him. There was some unforeseen challenges as far as offseason and no preseason games and things like that, so we’re excited to continue down that road and get him in some preseason games, at the same time while we’re competing for championships with Aaron.”
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