On Thursday night, Green Bay Packers General Manager made it crystal clear, he wasn’t going to trade Aaron Rodgers.
On Friday night, Gutekunst made a trade FOR a Rodgers, giving up the 92nd overall choice in the third round plus the 135th pick in round four to the Tennessee Titans to climb up seven spots to take Clemson wide receiver Amari Rodgers at pick number 85.
He was one of the most productive receivers in college football catching passes from the overall number one pick Trevor Lawrence with the Tigers. The 5-9 1/2, 210 pound slot receiver played 55 games in his four year career, catching 181 passes for 2144 yards and 15 touchdowns, hauling in 77 receptions for over a thousand yards and 7 scores in his senior season.
While he falls slightly below the Packer threshold of 5-10 for receivers, Gutekunst says he plays much bigger because he packs a few more pounds that traditional slot receivers. Rodgers played running back in high school and it allowed him to lead the nation in yards after the catch last year and rank among the best receivers in breaking tackles.
In a conference call late Friday night, Rodgers said it’s crazy, but family and friends had been telling him for weeks he would be headed to Green Bay. Amari admitted Davante Adams is his favorite NFL receiver. He follows him closely and he can’t wait to learn from the All-Pro. Rodgers also has a personal relationship with the last, 5-10 slot receiver drafted the Packers in 2011, Randall Cobb. Amari’s father, Tee Martin, the former Tennessee quarterback who had a brief NFL career, just happened to be an assistant coach at Kentucky and Cobb was one of his pupils.
Rodgers also has a relationship with the Pack’s first round pick, Eric Stokes. The two trained together in Miami during the off-season and during the condensed scouting combine medical clearinghouse in Indianapolis earlier this month, they rode on the same bus together and chatted about how fun it might be if they were picked by the same team. Once Stokes was tabbed by Green Bay in round one, Rodgers figured it was a done deal.
But Gutekunst had to sweat out that deal. He said both Ohio State center Josh Myers, and Rodgers were on their board for the second round and they went with Myers hoping to work out a deal to move up for the receiver. There were no takers with a lot of phone calls until the middle of the third when they finally found a partner in the Titans.
Gutekunst believes Rodgers will be an excellent fit for Head Coach Matt LaFleur’s offense, filling that slot and jet sweep role given to Tyler Ervin at times. Gutekunst says Amari also excels as a punt returner giving him added value.
With every single receiver on the current roster playing on an expired contract in 2021, adding another weapon was a priority for the team but Gutekunst said it wasn’t necessarily to appease his for the moment, very unhappy MVP quarterback with the same surname:
Gutekunst said he hasn’t spoke to Aaron Rodgers today and would not address questions on whether the two will try and mend differences in the coming days. The GM has one more day of drafting to with six more picks at his disposal on Saturday.
