Packers Have Championship Stability at Three Most Important Positions
GREEN BAY, Wis. – To win a Super Bowl requires a really good quarterback, a head coach capable of calling the right plays and pushing the right buttons, and a general manager with an eye for talent and the guts to make tough decisions.
With Jordan Love, Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst, the Green Bay Packers have all three, which is why they are set to embark on another extended run of being championship contenders.
The Packers rebounded from a 2-5 start and disappointing back-to-back losses in December to grab an unlikely spot in the playoffs. Not just content to be in the postseason, the Packers crushed the Cowboys in the wild-card round and were on the brink of an upset of the 49ers in the divisional round.
“As disappointing as the loss was, I still think the overall season was a success,” Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said in his monthly Murphy Takes 5 column at Packers.com.
Murphy noted that Love, the first-year starting quarterback, was surrounded by the youngest roster in the NFL. After an inconsistent first half of the season, Love finished the year “playing at a very high level.” His eighth 100-plus passer rating performance in nine games against Dallas made the Packers the youngest team to win a playoff game since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.
“We feel confident that Jordan is our quarterback of the future,” Murphy said, echoing what Gutekunst said during his season-ending news conference.
And for good reason. During the first nine games, Love was second-to-last in completion percentage, last in interceptions and 29th in passer rating. During the final eight games, Love was second in completion percentage, first in interceptions and second in rating.
What changed?
“I think part of it is just the reps,” Gutekunst said. “We’ve talked about it through the last couple of years just how much he needed to play. Obviously, we had a lot of other players that needed to play, as well, and I think the more that they played, the more comfortable they got.
“I think there was a little bit of a shift somewhere in the middle there that we just started focusing on getting better and maybe not focusing on the results quite as much as maybe we were, and just said, ‘Hey, let’s get better from day to day and week to week.’ When I started to see that, I saw the results coming.”
It was Gutekunst who nailed it with Love. The Packers didn’t need a quarterback in 2020, not with Aaron Rodgers having just led the team to an NFC Championship Game appearance. But it was Gutekunst who made the hard decision, the unpopular decision.
It could have been career suicide, but it appears he nailed the projection by acquiring another franchise quarterback.
“To be honest with you, I don’t put a lot into that,” Gutekunst said when asked if he felt any vindication. “You guys know my background. We did this before. It’s what we believe in. It does not make things easier, going through some of those things, but it’s always about what’s best for the Green Bay Packers, what’s best for the football team. The satisfaction just goes into our team improving and getting better.”
LaFleur nailed it with Love, as well. To state the obvious, Love wasn’t a finished product coming out of Utah State. Love had obvious arm talent and athletic ability, but plenty of quarterback prospects have had all the physical tools but fallen on their collective face. LaFleur and quarterbacks coach Tom Clements built on Love’s strengths and fixed his weaknesses. By midseason, Love was as polished and as poised as almost any quarterback in the league.
It’s not just the quarterback, though that’s the obvious starting point for any team.
Gutekunst had a couple dismal drafts – Love single-handedly saving 2020 – but has been on quite a run. His 2023 draft class, in particular, looks fabulous with several immediate difference-makers. Giving Rodgers a contract extension was a mistake, in retrospect, but he pivoted expertly by trading Rodgers to the Jets, nailing the draft and navigating through an ugly salary cap.
He’s rebuilt the team on the fly faster than anyone could have imagined.
And then there’s LaFleur, whose success in 2019, 2020 and 2021 was tied to the presence of Rodgers. Could he coach a championship-caliber team without Rodgers at quarterback and Davante Adams at receiver?
Yes. With a healthy Aaron Jones to set up the Love-led passing game, the offense became “very dangerous,” as Gutekunst put it.
“It was exciting to see our team come together as the season progressed,” Murphy wrote. “It is a real tribute to our coaches and players that we were able to turn our season around. I think Matt LaFleur did his best job coaching this year. While nothing is guaranteed, I do think the team learned a lot from our playoff experience this year, and that the future is bright.”
Of course, there are things to prove. Can Love do it for a full season? And then a bunch of seasons? Can LaFleur beat Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers in a playoff game? Can Gutekunst put the finishing touches on the roster this time?
Those are real questions. But, with the three most important parts of the franchise in place – the quarterback, coach and general manager – the Packers are in position to do what they failed to do with Brett Favre and Rodgers.
Win big. Repeatedly.
