Rival executive offers blunt assessment of Packers GM Brian Gutekunst

The days of doubting Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst are mostly over. With head coach Matt LaFleur consolidated and the successful completion of the quarterback transition from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love, Gutekunst is now universally seen as a top executive in the NFL.

The Athletic surveyed 40 executives and coaches around the league to evaluate which the best front offices in the NFL are. The Packers, with the leading group of president Mark Murphy, GM Brian Gutekunst, and head coach Matt LaFleur are in sixth place.

But more important than the rankings themselves are the nuances about it. And a rival unidentified executive shared a really interesting perspective about Gutekunst's work as a general manager.

"Gutekunst's humility and authenticity and being a smart football guy really shows up," the executive said. "He's very process-driven. There's no panic there. They've made good decisions in free agency. They know their roster. They know their head coach. It's more of a methodical, process-driven deal where they don’t rush to make a quick fix. They trust their process."

Brian Gutekunst replaced Ted Thompson as the Packers general manager in 2018. As a member of the Ron Wolf scouting tree, Gutekunst treats the draft as the main avenue to build the roster.

Nonetheless, he has made some intriguing and important top-level free agent additions in 2019 (Za'Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos) and this year ( Xavier McKinney , Josh Jacobs ). He doesn't tend to add mid-level veterans, using developmental pieces to fill out the roster.

Gutekunst's biggest decision as the Packers leader has been the draft of Jordan Love in 2020. The move was heavily scrutinized because it was in the middle of the final Super Bowl window with Aaron Rodgers, and Green Bay fell short of the title.

But with Love immediately playing at a high level after the Aaron Rodgers' trade , it's hard to argue with the developmental process. And it was a similar process (even though at a different league reality) than the one his predecessor Ted Thompson had in 2005 drafting Rodgers to eventually replace Brett Favre.

At the same time, Gutekunst is more willing than Thompson to explore other avenues to build the roster — free agency, waivers, and even signing players from other teams' practice squads.

Since the Packers released left tackle David Bakhtiari and running back Aaron Jones earlier this year, defensive tackle Kenny Clark is the only player left on the Packers’ roster who was not acquired by Gutekunst.

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