Green Bay Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst is ready for add more talent to his roster. The GM is days away from his 4th draft at the helm and today, conducted his annual pre-draft session with the media. It’s the second year in a row he’s conducted the press conference via zoom but unlike last year when he orchestrated the draft from his basement, he along with the rest of his scouting department, Head Coach Matt Lafleur, Vice President of Football Operations Russ Ball and the team’s medical staff will work in the spacious Lambeau Field draft room again.
Gutekunst said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has impacted the scouting and information aquiring routine this spring. For some college football teams, there was a truncated and in some cases, no season. Many players on the draft board opted out because of covid and the annual NFL scouting combine was cancelled. The GM talked about the unusual draft preparations this year and how it impacted the incoming class of 2021.
The Packers hold the 29th overall choice in round one Thursday night and have a robust 1o choices overall, gaining three additional compensatory choices because of free agent departures last year. Gutekunst said he’ll consider using that compliment to move up in the first round if a player they covet makes the deal worthwhile. He said you have to be careful not to fall too “in love” with a player so as not to derail the rest of the draft, then again, he has found ways to move up in each of his first three drafts as GM.
As for the draft board, Gutekunst said it’s all set, there might be a few more tweaks before the picking begins from Cleveland, Ohio Thursday night.
A couple of other off-season topics were touched on including the status of Aaron Rodgers and the fact the team still has not restructed his contract or given him more guarantees beyond the 2021 or 22 seasons. Gutekunst reiterated his stance that Rodgers is our quarterback.
“We’re real excited about the future of Aaron Rodgers”, he said, “he’s going to be our quarterback for the forseable future. Every year there are different things you go through to get to the season and we’re going through those right now whether it be contracturaly or working with our players on other things and that’s where we are.”
Gutekunst was asked if the Packers have or will exercise the 5th year contract option for former numbrer one pick Jaire Alexander. He said they haven’t yet but expect to before the deadline which will cost the Packers in the neighborhood of 14 million dollars in 2022.
As for left tackle David Bakhtiari, recovering from off-season ACL surgery, Gutekunst said he hasn’t personally visited with the All Pro but expects he’ll be attacking his rehabilitation like he always works and the reports have been positive and his status should not impact this weekend’s draft and it wouldn’t shock him is Bakhtiari is back to near 100 percent by the start of the season, three months ahead of schedule.
