GREEN BAY – Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst gave his annual pre-draft news conference Monday.
Here are five things we learned with the draft just a few days away now.
- Roster-wise, there’s nothing Gutekunst feels he absolutely has to do in this draft.
While plenty of talk has swirled about the Packers addressing the defensive line or receiver positions, among others, the GM likes the team he’s currently assembled. Which is a good spot to be in because it doesn’t force him to target anyone or anything in particular and risk compromising the value of any of the eight picks – fewer heading into a draft than recent years – Green Bay currently possesses.
“If we had to go play next week I feel really good about our roster,” Gutekunst said. “I feel like we could win and go compete. Really across the board.
“Hopefully as this draft unfolds we’re able to just sit back and select the best player that falls to us. I think that’s (a position) we prepare ourselves to be in.”
The combination of young, up-and-coming talent plus key additions in free agency on the offensive line (Aaron Banks) and at cornerback (Nate Hobbs) won’t require the Packers’ first-round pick to step in and play right away, necessarily, either.
“I think you’d love to (have him play right away),” Gutekunst said. “It’s great when they do, but that’s not always the case. The transition to the National Football League is tough. It’s not always easy. A lot of times it’s really determined by opportunity.”
- It’s mostly a waiting game at this point for Thursday night to arrive.
Gutekunst declared the Packers ready if the draft were to get underway at any moment, and the caution now is to not overcook the meal, or overanalyze the draft board at the last minute when it’s been months in the making.
“We always joke that (starting) last Friday, we should all take a five-day vacation and come back,” he said. “There’s more mistakes made in these next few days than anything else.”
One thing he complimented his personnel staff on during this year’s process was their collaboration. With the transfer portal such a prominent part of college football now, the college coaches and other sources who recruited the players and know their parents and confidants often aren’t the same coaches with whom they finish their college careers, so the regional scouts are regularly helping each other out on background work.
“Our scout maybe at Southern Cal is getting background information for a player that’s in Miami now, so (someone) who’s not even on (that) campus,” Gutekunst said, to state a made-up example. “They’ve adapted incredibly well to that, and I feel really strongly about what they’ve done to get us where we are right now.”
- Heading into his eighth draft in the big chair, Gutekunst knows not everything will go as planned, but it doesn’t make him nervous.
Picks and trades made by other teams will always surprise, but Gutekunst doesn’t lose any sleep fretting over how to react. He leans on the preparation his team has done and how the board has been built, allowing him to rest up until things get rolling.
“There’s many tests in high school I went into that test knowing I’m not prepared, and how that feels, and I know that feeling when I was prepared, and it’s just like that,” he said. “You feel really, really prepared, and you feel really good about it and you don’t worry too much about it.
“But again, it’s unpredictable.”
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