\u201cIt\u2019s always tough to move off of a player that you feel is as good as Dontayvion was for us,\u201d Gutekunst said of his 2023 fifth-round pick. \u201cI think he\u2019s got a really bright career ahead of him. The situation we were in with the amount of players that we had in that room, what we\u2019re probably going to do in the future, him being in the last year of his contract, it just made a little bit of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the Packers weren\u2019t going to extend Wicks after this coming season and you can\u2019t blame them. Christian Watson and Jayden Reed are both entering contract years, and they take priority over Wicks, a talented route-runner but a player who was banged up last season and never came close to replicating his standout performance on Thanksgiving in Detroit.<\/p>\n
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\n Christian Watson and Jayden Reed clearly sit atop the Packers\u2019 wide receiver depth chart along with last year\u2019s first-round pick Matthew Golden after the departures of Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks. (Tork Mason \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cComing out of the \u201922 draft class, I think we were lucky enough to retain a bunch of those guys (Devonte Wyatt on his fifth-year option, Watson on a short-term extension, Sean Rhyan and Zach Tom on long-term extensions), but a bunch of those guys signed elsewhere this year, too,\u201d Gutekunst said, referring to Quay Walker, Romeo Doubs, Kingsley Enagbare and Rasheed Walker leaving in free agency. \u201cAnd we\u2019re probably going to get compensatory picks for those players. I don\u2019t know for sure if we\u2019re going to be able to do that moving forward next year and the year after, so the ability to get two picks for a player (Wicks) that we weren\u2019t sure exactly how it was going to fit into our future plans, it just made a lot of sense. I do think it was good for us and I think it\u2019s going to be good for Dontayvion, too, because he\u2019ll see his opportunities increase there, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking of trades<\/p>\n
Doing my best to read between the lines, it doesn\u2019t sound like Gutekunst will trade into the first round. He\u2019d need to jump at least 20 spots from No. 52 in the second round to do so, so this comes as no surprise given the draft capital it would take. The Packers would\u2019ve picked at No. 20, but the Dallas Cowboys own that selection from the Micah Parsons trade.<\/p>\n
So will Gutekunst and his personnel staff kick their feet up and have a pizza party in the war room on Thursday night? Not quite, even if they don\u2019t plan on picking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about that, joked about it a little bit, but I think we\u2019re going to do our normal process,\u201d Gutekunst said. \u201cThe phones won\u2019t be as busy. That\u2019s for sure. But we\u2019re going to kind of keep our ears open and we put a lot of work into this with the players that are going to be picked in that round, and this year it\u2019ll be a little bit more fun just because it\u2019s going to be less chaotic \u2026 we\u2019ll be talking through things, whether that\u2019s with the individual scouts, whether it\u2019s with Matt (LaFleur), whether it\u2019s with our medical people and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always interesting how it falls, how it affects every team that picks, the trades that are involved, so we\u2019ll follow that process. What happens on Thursday will affect Friday and Saturday, so we\u2019ll be in tune with it. And again, like I said, it\u2019ll probably be a little different, but I do think it\u2019s important \u2014 we put a lot of work into these guys that you kind of look at this, OK, hey, how do we see this shaking out? What would we do here if it was us? Things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for trading up into the 40s within the second round, Gutekunst sounded far more open to that possibility, even if the Packers currently hold only eight picks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe compensatory formula, we won\u2019t know exactly what we have for next year, but we feel pretty good about the amount of picks we\u2019re going to have next year,\u201d Gutekunst said (the Packers are projected by Over The Cap to have 11, including four compensatory picks). \u201cSo I do feel like if the right player were there that we would be able to go get him \u2026 if we end up waiting 51 picks before we pick, that\u2019ll be a long time and hopefully I have the patience and the discipline to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Help on the way<\/p>\n
Gutekunst didn\u2019t quite agree with fans who think the cornerback room needs an overhaul, but he did acknowledge that it\u2019s the position group needing the most reinforcements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to add numbers there,\u201d Gutekunst said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably our group \u2026 we\u2019re going to need to add the most numbers, so we\u2019ll see how that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Packers return Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine as their top two cornerbacks, but both are entering contract years. They signed veteran free agent Benjamin St-Juste, who has played 3,230 career defensive snaps. Gutekunst said he \u201cfeels good\u201d about all three getting playing time.<\/p>\n
But behind those three are Kamal Hadden, coming off a major leg injury, Shemar Bartholomew and Jaylin Simpson. Simpson and Bartholomew only played in the meaningless regular-season finale in Minnesota. Bo Melton is still listed as a cornerback and not a wide receiver, but he didn\u2019t play a single defensive snap last season.<\/p>\n
Beefing up?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s interesting to compare Gutekunst\u2019s answers to separate questions about his cornerback room and his offensive line depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to add numbers there,\u201d and \u201cI feel really good about it,\u201d the latter his answer to a question about what he has behind his starting five up front, are vastly different. Could that mean he drafts multiple cornerbacks and no offensive linemen? Perhaps, but he could also draft multiple offensive linemen and one or no cornerbacks. He never specified whether those cornerbacks will be added on Day 2, Day 3 or after the draft via rookie free agency or veteran additions. He also never said his confidence in his reserve offensive linemen means he won\u2019t address the position as early as Friday. See what I mean when I say it\u2019s hard to deduce what he\u2019s actually going to do in the draft from these press conferences?<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we\u2019ve got a couple guys coming off injuries. Zach is coming off an injury. Jacob (Monk) is coming off an injury, but I really like our starting five and I thought Jacob did a really good job in that last game at center, so I feel really good about his ability,\u201d Gutekunst said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get (Travis) Glover back, as well, (Donovan) Jennings and (Darian) Kinnard \u2026 so I feel really good about our whole group and the competition that\u2019s in that room. We\u2019re always going to try to add to the offensive line. There\u2019s only so many big guys in the world that can play at a high level, but I feel good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gutekunst has drafted multiple offensive linemen in five of the last six years and this weekend might make it six of seven after the Packers released Elgton Jenkins and let Walker leave in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY, Wis. \u2014 Getting anything of substance out of Brian Gutekunst at his annual pre-draft press conference…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-871380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444381161849883","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}