Gutekunst Details Reason He Picked Love

Brian Gutekunst goes into his blockbuster decision in an interview with SI.com's Albert Breer.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The last first-round pick the Green Bay Packers used on an offensive skill-position player?

That would be Aaron Rodgers in 2005.

The long drought ended on Thursday, but not with a receiver – keeping an amazing trend going. It ended with a quarterback, Utah State’s Jordan Love. It was perhaps a career-defining decision for general manager Brian Gutekunst, who elected to not use his first pick to fortify a roster that had reached the NFC Championship Game.

“Playing quarterback in the National Football League is probably the hardest position in all of sports,” Gutekunst said that night. “I think whenever you have the ability to take a player, whether it’s in the first round, second round, third round, that you think has a chance to play, you have to consider it. It really wasn’t about this year. This was not something we set out to do. It just happened that a guy that we liked fell to us, and we thought it was the best decision.”

In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, Gutekunst went further into his decision to draft a quarterback. As he said on Thursday night (actually, just after midnight on Friday), he didn’t go into the draft with a plan to draft a quarterback. Instead, all the other players he had pegged for No. 30 had been selected.

“As those players got picked, it was kind of like, With the way our board was, there really wasn't anyone else at that level that we felt comfortable taking.” Gutekunst said.

He added: “I know people may look at it differently from outside, but it was kind of one of those things where he was a guy we really think can play somewhere down the road. And he happened to be available to us. 

CLICK HERE for the full story as well as notes on the other first-round quarterbacks.