Packers GM Brian Gutekunst’s Genius Shows This Week

General manager Brian Gutekunst has made the right moves in retooling the Green Bay Packers on the fly. The same can’t be said for two other noteworthy teams.

Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst is shown before their game against the Houston Texans. / Mark Hoffman/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On Sunday, Jordan Love shook off a couple big mistakes and, when faced with a do-or-die 2-minute drill, he made the key plays in driving the Green Bay Packers to victory over the Texans.

On Sunday night, former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers led the New York Jets to a 15-6 lead at the Steelers. The Jets failed to score again and lost 37-15. To be sure, star receiver Garrett Wilson’s drop-and-interception didn’t help matters, but Rodgers looked every bit the 40-year-old quarterback chasing a goal that seems almost impossibly out of reach.

On Tuesday, the New Orleans Saints handed running back Alvin Kamara a two-year contract extension. The deal created $18 million in savings on the 2025 salary cap. It was typical Saints cap management, with a huge signing bonus and void years to kick the salary-cap can down the road.

Added together, it was a great week for Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst.

Gutekunst traded the legendary Rodgers to the Jets before the 2023 NFL Draft. Yes, even with Rodgers’ torn Achilles taking a first-round pick off the board, the Packers made a killing in the trade, which netted the 13th overall pick in a first-round pick swap in 2023, No. 42 of the second round in 2023, No. 207 of the sixth round in 2023 and a second-round pick, No. 41, in the second round in 2024.

Thanks to other trades involving this year’s second-round pick, this became the haul for Rodgers:

- Lukas Van Ness with the first-round pick swap in 2023.

- Tight end Luke Musgrave in the second round in 2023.

- Kicker Anders Carlson in the sixth round in 2023.

- Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper after trading back in the second round in 2024.

- Safety Evan Williams in the fourth round in 2024 (made possible by one of the picks acquired in the second-round trade).

- Offensive lineman Jacob Monk in the fifth round in 2024 (a pick acquired in the second-round trade).

It’s not just the players the Packers received. Or the cap relief the Packers received by getting Rodgers’ unwieldy contract off the books. Although those, obviously, are two enormous components.

It was moving on from Rodgers and his favorite veterans and handing the baton to Jordan Love and going incredibly young at receiver and tight end.

With the kiddie-corps passing game, the Packers got within a whisker of reaching the NFC Championship Game last year. They are 5-2 this year headed into Sunday’s game at the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“There’s definitely a lot of love, that whole group, the receivers, the tight ends, everybody on offense,” Love told Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer after the Houston game. “There’s a lot of love and trust in that group. We’re all younger guys that worked our way into this position of being here. We’ve done a great job of sticking together, building that chemistry and trust. I think we’ve got a really great group that can build and grow together. I’m excited about the guys we have.

“We’ve very deep in the receiver room and the tight end room with playmakers that just go out there and make plays when the ball comes their way.”

Perhaps most importantly, trading Rodgers allowed Gutekunst to hit the financial reset button.

With Rodgers, there was an understandable win-now pressure. That meant paying for Rodgers and a bunch of veterans. Without Rodgers, Gutekunst could start over.

There has been no reboot in New Orleans. Following the retirement of Drew Brees, the Saints could have hit the reset button, too. Instead, they kept going all-in. They’ve continued to load up on veterans and push salary-cap dollars into the future.

For what?

Without a great quarterback, there is really no chance to win. Their latest attempt was a Hail Mary on Derek Carr, who the Raiders deemed not good enough to win with but the Saints somehow expected a different result.

After a 2-0 start to this season, the Saints are 2-5. They are coming off back-to-back home losses to the Buccaneers and Broncos by 24 and 23 points.

While the Packers are enjoying smooth sailing because they’re built for long-term success, the Saints have crashed into the rocks.

The Saints are right at this year’s salary cap. According to Spotrac, they are $73.4 million over the cap in 2025 even with Kamara’s cap-saving extension.

The credit-card approach to cap management is doomed to failure if there’s not a Super Bowl-worthy quarterback serving as chief financial officer. This coming offseason, the Saints will take the Visa to pay off the MasterCard, which was used to pay off last year’s American Express bill. The following offseason, they’ll take the Discover to pay off the Visa.

It's like a bored dog chasing its tail. It will eventually catch it – get under the cap, in this case – but then what? It will let go and chase it again in a never-ending cycle of stupidity.

Not in Green Bay, though. It’s hard to say what’s been more impressive. That Gutekunst paid off the credit card? Or that he built a championship-contending team on the fly?

Success depended, first and foremost, on being right on the quarterback. It also demanded Gutekunst retool the receiver corps (after trading Davante Adams before the 2022 draft and letting Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb go after the 2022 season) and tight end group (after moving on from Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis) to give Love a chance to succeed.

Gutekunst was right at quarterback. Who knows if Love will ever challenge Rodgers’ sustained run of dominance, but Love is 15 years younger with a complete skill-set. Even if Love is good but not MVP great, he will give the Packers a chance to win every week and a chance to win big every season.

Gutekunst was right on the supporting cast, too. Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Tucker Kraft and Musgrave give Love a group of young, hungry targets.

The Jets, their season going nowhere, traded for Adams. Having already gone in, they took out a HELOC to buy more chips to push to the middle of the table. Because, with a 2-5 record, why not?

The Saints, their season going nowhere and having mortgaged the future, seem destined for at least a few seasons of living in a fixer-upper on the wrong side of the tracks.

The Packers? Gutekunst obviously hasn’t been perfect but they are winning, they are young and they are in good shape with the salary cap. They’ve got a real chance to win a Super Bowl or two while the Jets and Saints seemingly have no chance at all to win it all anytime soon.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, he does before the Nov. 5 trade deadline, but Gutekunst has done his part. He has put together a team that is built to last.

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