GREEN BAY — Making a convincing argument for why the Green Bay Packers should have held onto the two veterans they moved on from on Monday — defensive end Rashan Gary and left guard-turned-center Elgton Jenkins — would be an awfully difficult task given the circumstances.

Both players got second contracts from the Packers and qualify as having been good-to-very-good players during their seven-season tenures in Green Bay.

But cutting ties with them before they played out those extensions — Gary by being traded to the Dallas Cowboys for a surprisingly high fourth-round draft pick, and Jenkins by being outright released after the Packers couldn’t find a trade partner — cleared roughly $30 million off the team’s salary-cap, and neither player had a good enough season in 2025 to merit retaining at their existing salaries.

So the fact that the Packers cut ties with each of them on the first day of the NFL’s free-agent negotiating window did not in any way qualify as a surprise.

All that said, on a team that has had the NFL’s youngest opening-day roster for each of the past three seasons, Jenkins’ and Gary’s departures underscored yet again Gutekunst’s firm belief that youth ultimately wins in today’s NFL.

That’s why letting go of the team’s two longest-tenured players — and the last vestiges of the Packers’ 2019 draft class — was on brand for the ninth-year GM.

Gutekunst has spoken ad nauseam about how leaguewide, 1.6 players per draft class are re-signed or extended by the team that drafts them, although he apparently had new data during last month’s annual NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he updated that number to 1.5.

With Gary and Jenkins gone — the team announced Jenkins’ release but must wait until the new league year begins later this week to make the Gary trade official — quarterback Jordan Love enters his fourth season as the starter as the team’s longest-tenured player.

He’s also the only player who remains from the 28 players Gutekunst selected in his first three drafts as GM.

And with linebacker Quay Walker agreeing to a three-year, $40.5 million free-agent deal with the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday, Love is one of only five of Gutekunst’s 10 first-rounders still around.

Gone are cornerback Jaire Alexander (2018), Gary (2019), safety Darnell Savage (2019), cornerback Eric Stokes (2021) and Walker (2022). Love, defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (2022), defensive end Lukas Van Ness (2023), left tackle Jordan Morgan (2024) and wide receiver Matthew Golden (2025) are the ones who remain.

Of Gutekunst’s first four drafts, only Love and linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, a sixth-round pick in 2021, are the two players of Gutekunst’s 35 picks still with the team.

On top of that, from the 2022 draft class, Walker and defensive end Kingsley Engabare (who agreed to a one-year, $10 million deal with the New York Jets) found new homes on Monday and left tackle Rasheed Walker and wide receiver Romeo Doubs are expected to depart as well, despite not getting deals done on Day 1.

From that 11-player class, only right tackle Zach Tom (a four-year, $88 million extension last July) and center Sean Rhyan (a three-year, $33 million extension on Sunday) have gotten multi-year second contracts.

Wyatt is under contract for 2026 with the fifth-year option on his rookie deal and wide receiver Christian Watson, a second-round pick that year, signed a one-year, $11 million extension while he was still on the physically unable to perform list during the first half of last season.

With Gutekunst doling out fewer and fewer second contracts, this is all consistent with his modus operandi. Whereas plenty of good-not-great players got extensions under Super Bowl-winning GMs Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson, Gutekunst’s philosophy is more targeted in nature because he believes that money can be better spent elsewhere in many cases.

“We’re always going to be a little bit of a draft-and-develop team. That’s always going to be the bread-and-butter,” Gutekunst said at the combine. “I think the system is set up that way with the salary cap. That’s the most advantageous way to build a football team. But every avenue’s going to be exhausted to try to make our football team the best we can be. So we look at every situation and how that affects our team.

“If it makes sense to [extend players], we’re going to do that. As far as the retention thing, the salary cap kind of limits you. I’ve talked a lot about how I think league-wide, teams sign about 1 1/2 players from each draft class [to a second contract]. That’s usually the guys you retain. I think the numbers just bear that out.

“But at the same time, your team’s constantly evolving, and I think the biggest thing is, you have to be honest with yourself on where your team is and what you need to do to move forward — because every year’s a different year.”

That mentality also underscores why Gutekunst’s trade last week to acquire linebacker Zaire Franklin from the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for defensive tackle Colby Wooden was the exception that proves the rule with him. Franklin will turn 30 in July, but knowing that he wasn’t going to pay the exorbitant price the Raiders did to sign Quay Walker, Gutekunst knew he needed a less expensive alternative at the position.

Franklin, a 2024 second-team All-Pro who led the league in tackles that year but fell off slightly in 2025 fits the bill with a $6.2 million base salary for 2026.

“I’ve never been closed to it,” Gutekunst said of the idea of adding a 30-year-old player — weeks before the trade for Franklin happened. “I think really for me, it’s just positionally — where your position group is at, where your room’s at.

“Ideally, you’d love to get those guys in that [younger] window because that’s usually the best football they’re ever going to play, is in that 26-29 range. And, they’re going to be the healthiest. That’s what everything’s telling you.

“You’d love to do that, but at the same time, sometimes there’s not those players available. The free agency market is a much smaller market than people think, and there’s only so many guys that are that age that ever even hit the market and so when they do, we’ve taken a long look at those guys, whether it be ‘X’ (All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney), whether it be [running back] Josh [Jacobs]. The trade for [All-Pro edge rusher] Micah [Parsons] was the same.

“These guys were in those windows, so we do like that. But at the same time if one of our position groups needed something and the best avenue was to sign an older player for a short period of time, I’d have no problem with that.”