The Green Bay Packers had the worst draft of any team this year, and general manager Brian Gutekunst, as well as the rest of the coaching staff, has a lot of explaining to do.
Green Bay has one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time under center in Aaron Rodgers, and the organization owes him for all his years of loyalty. And, most importantly, Rodgers led the Packers to a Super Bowl win back in 2011, so the Packers should be doing right by him.
Instead, they did exactly the opposite.
It was believed that the Packers would draft a talented wide receiver that could start right away, given that he has the stud Davante Adams to throw to, but the rest of the targets in the passing game are unproven. Journeyman Devin Funchess has barely even played like a No. 3 receiver, and the Packers brought him in to be the team’s second option. Not only that, Rodgers still lacks a dynamic tight end to torch opposing defenses up the seam.
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Jan 19, 2020; Santa Clara, California, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) reacts against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half in the NFC Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
This has been a topic of great interest and debate in the sportsbook community, leaving a lot of fans with bad information, strange odds, and some inconsistency with projections. Very few sites are running all the scenarios and many of them are showing a complete lack of knowledge on how the game of football works. There are rare exception, bettingtips.net being one group that has their stuff together, but by in large it’s as if the big boys aren’t paying attention to the fact that the Packers are didn’t draft anyone for Rogers to be throwing to during the three-day event, despite having nine picks. And, what’s really been turning heads is how they spent their first pick.
There was so much elite talent available in the first round of this extremely-deep draft, and yet, for some reason, the Packers drafted a quarterback, in Jordan Love. The Utah State product surely won’t be backing Rodgers up anytime soon, as he’s a project, and has major issues in his accuracy and decision making. He’s not ready to even see the field, and the team hopes he’ll be mentored by Rodgers. That sounds great on paper, but we all know that Rodgers simply isn’t that type of player. He’s a leader, but does so by example, and by making big throws — not by being a “father figure.”
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Feb 25, 2020; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; Utah State quarterback Jordan Love speaks to the media during the NFL Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
Yet, for some reason, the Packers drafted Love, and now they must face the inevitable blowback that will likely result in the future. It’s hard not to envision some sort of power struggle, given that Rodgers is 36 years old, and he won’t be thrilled about having a young signal-caller breathe down his back. The Packers brass will need to put that fire out, but good luck to them, as head coach Matt LaFleur is only 40, and general manager Brian Gutekunst is 46. This has locker-room fiasco written all over it and certainly isn’t going to be the case for other teams in their division.
And the Packers really should’ve thought better of it. The team did, after all, play in the NFC title game last season. It made more sense for the Packers to bring in an offensive weapon or two this offseason, to try to make another deep playoff run, rather than focusing on life after Rodgers. Not only did they fail to improve their offense, given that they didn’t add any skill-position players for Rodgers to work with, but they also have now introduced what could be a major distraction down the road, and it was completely unnecessary to do so.