4 Packers who will take the blame if season ends without Super Bowl
By Todd Welter
Packers GM Brian Gutekunst will probably take the biggest share of the blame based on this offseason.
The Packers’ general manager had an active offseason. He traded Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders for a couple high draft picks.
He used the money that would have gone to Adams to bring back All-Pro’s De’Vondre Campbell and Rasual Douglas. Getting Douglas back in Green Bay’s secondary immediately makes that unit one of the best in the NFL.
Gutekunst cut Za’Darius Smith to clear up some salary-cap space as well.
He also made an under-the-radar move to bolster the special teams unit by signing punter Pat O’Donnell away from the Chicago Bears. O’Donnell is as solid as they come when it comes to punters.
He let wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and starting guard Lucas Patrick walk away in free agency. He did bring in veteran receiver Sammy Watkins to replace MVS.
The Green Bay Packers still have an impressive depth chart. Even more impressive was Gutekunst had to navigate a tight salary cap situation and still found a way to keep the Packers as Super Bowl contenders.
There are a few moves that Gutekunst did not make that could leave the Packers open to not making the Super Bowl. Namely, Gutenkunst sat out the run of top wide receivers in this year’s draft.
The six best wide receivers came off the board in the first 20 picks. Gutekunst did not make a move to go up and get one of them despite having the draft capital to move up and nab one of these talented playmakers. He also stood by and watched A.J. Brown and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown get traded to other teams. Those established top-notch pass-catchers could have helped replace the loss of Adams.
Instead, Gutekunst drafted inside linebacker Quay Walker out of Georgia. Walker is a talented player but the Packers already have an All-Pro inside linebacker. While the Packers do play a base 3-4 front, it is rare these days that teams are in their base defense. Instead, they are playing a lot of nickel with usually one inside linebacker.
He did upgrade the defensive line by drafting Devonte Wyatt with the other first-round pick. Still, the hope was the Packers would draft a wide receiver talented enough to replace Adams.
Although, Gutenkunst did use his second-round pick on wide receiver Christian Watson. He is a great combination of size and speed but he is going from catching passes at North Dakota State to trying to get open for Aaron Rodgers. He might need some time to develop.
Essentially, Gutenkunst traded away Davante Adams and let MVS walk, and left the wide receiver room statistically worse than the Chicago Bears.
The Bears’ top-three wide receivers on their current depth chart produced 132 catches for 1721 yards and nine scores in 2021. The Packers’ wide receivers enter 2022 with 109 catches for 1399 yards and 14 touchdowns from the 2021 season.
If the passing game has some struggles and that costs the Packers a playoff win, you can be sure Gutenkust will get plenty of blame for not replacing Adams better–or not being able to re-sign him even if it turned out to be a long shot.