Tom Silverstein
GM Gutekunst building a potential powerhouse
General manager Brian Gutekunst has transformed the Packers into a potential powerhouse.
GREEN BAY - As much credit as firstyear coach Matt LaFleur gets for breathing life into the Green Bay Packers and taking them on a remarkable 14-3 march through the 2019 season, there's another explanation for why they are one game away from playing in Super Bowl LIV.
Talent.
Coaching matters, but players matter more and the credit for turning the Packers into a title contender lies as much with general manager Brian Gutekunst and his personnel staff as anyone else.
In just two years, Gutekunst has transformed the Packers from an aging, injured team with a dwindling number of impact players into a potential powerhouse, a team that is probably a wide receiver draft away from being complete.
In the four months after LaFleur replaced fired coach Mike McCarthy, Gutekunst signed four starters in what few can dispute was one of the best freeagent hauls in recent history.
Outside linebackers Za'Darius Smith (13.5) and Preston Smith (12) both set career highs in sacks and combined for more sacks (25.5), sack yardage (200.5) and total quarterback hits (60) than any pair of players in the NFL after signing with the Packers. They both started all 16 games and played 84% of the regularseason defensive snaps.
In addition, safety Adrian Amos played every snap after signing, was responsible for a half a touchdown and two passes of 40 or more yards allowed. He ranked third on the team with 84 tackles and had fewer misses than any other starting defensive back.
And guard Billy Turner played all but
two offensive snaps and while he gave up more sacks and pressures than anyone else on the offensive line, he held his own in the running game and filled a gaping hole at right guard that had existed for two years.
Then, in the draft, Gutekunst landed two starters – safety Darnell Savage (first round) and guard Elgton Jenkins (second round) – who both played more than 80% of the snaps and were voted Tuesday to the Pro Football Writers Association's all-rookie team. In addition, seventh-round pick Ty Summers played a team-leading 71.7% of the special teams snaps and tied for third in tackles with seven.
Adding a couple of starters in any year is good; adding two as good as the Smiths is rare; adding six who missed a combined total of two games due to injury is astounding.
"Brian and his staff have made some splashes obviously with Za'Darius and Preston and Anthony and Billy with the big numbers,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “But there's been a lot of really under-the-radar things that we've done that have really worked out.”
And that's the thing, Gutekunst's work has never stopped.
From May 6 through Tuesday, he added 29 players to the roster and a couple of them have turned out to be vital contributors.
Here are the key ones:
May 6 – Signed CB Chandon Sullivan. Aug. 8 – Signed S Ibraheim Campbell. Sept. 3 – Traded for ILB B.J. Goodson. Nov. 29 – Claimed OT Jared Veldheer off waivers.
Dec. 3 – Claimed RB/returner Tyler
Ervin off waivers.
All five of those players served in key roles in the Packers' 28 -23 victory over Seattle in the divisional playoff game Sunday at Lambeau Field, including Veldheer's first start since Dec. 30, 2018.
The way some of those additions came about are reflective of how well Gutekunst and his pro personnel staff that includes Milt Hendrickson, Jon-Eric Sullivan, John Wojciechowski, and Richmond Williams scour the league for talent.
Take Veldheer, for instance. Right tackle Bryan Bulaga injured his knee against San Francisco on Nov. 24 and backup left tackle Alex Light had been unable to hold up on the right side, so the pro personnel group was on the lookout for other options.
Veldeer had informed New England, with whom he had signed in the offseason and then told he was retiring, that he wanted to play again. The Patriots didn't need him and agreed to release him.
Three teams showed the most interest in Veldheer: Cleveland, Minnesota and Green Bay. All three were going to let him pass through waivers because if they claimed him they would be on the hook for the remaining portion of his $1.5 million base salary, or about $441,000.
Instead, they could sign him for the minimum after he cleared and wind up paying him much less.
Veldheer's agent, Ken Sarnoff, had permission to speak to teams and set up workouts with the Vikings on Nov. 29 and the Packers the next day.
The Vikings had called first and Sarnoff agreed to have Veldheer visit there first.
“What happened is they just claimed him,” Sarnoff said of the Packers. “The only thing they had to go on was that he played with Billy Turner in Denver last year. There was no coaching connection. It was a guy they just decided to take a flyer on.”
Because he was coming off the retired list, the Packers had two weeks to practice him under a roster exemption they received and only had to pay him minimum wage.
They soon found out he had something left and activated him.
In the season finale, Bulaga went out with a concussion and Veldheer wound up playing 35 snaps, bailing out the Packers, who eked out a victory over the Detroit Lions to clinch a first-round bye. Then on Sunday, Bulaga got sick before the divisional playoff game against Seattle and Veldheer had to start.
He held his own and the Packers advanced.
Another of Gutekunst's midseason pickups, Ervin, has been vitally important.
Stuck on a Jacksonville team that had stopped playing him, Ervin finally caught a break when the Jaguars needed his roster spot and waived him.
He had not caught a pass or carried the ball all season and had returned five kickoffs for 107 yards and five punts for 9 yards.
Nevertheless, Gutekunst claimed him on waivers and made him the team's returner.
Ervin has been just what the doctor ordered. The Packers were in negative yardage on punt returns when he joined the team. Since his debut Dec. 8, he has seven kickoff returns for 172 yards (24.6 average) and 12 punt returns for 112 yards (9.3).
Since the Minnesota game in Week 16, Ervin has started to play more on offense and has three carries for 35 yards and two catches for 11 yards.
In the secondary, two of Gutekunst's moves have been invaluable.
The draft was over when Philadelphia released Sullivan, who had played in five games with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2018. Sullivan wasn't a great fit in the Eagles' defense, but Packers scouts thought he would be a good fit for coordinator Mike Pettine's.
Several teams were going to work out Sullivan after he cleared waivers. Kansas City had shown considerable interest. His agents, Jason and Michael Katz, were preparing for a workout with the Chiefs when they were informed the Packers had claimed Sulllivan on waivers.
They were pleased because they thought Sullivan and the Packers were a great fit.
Sullivan immediately showed he was versatile and through his performance in camp showed the coaches he could be a valuable backup. As the season wore on, he has moved into the nickel and dime positions and finished the regular season tied for fourth in pass break-ups with eight.
The other move in the secondary was to wait for safety Ibraheim Campbell to recover from a torn ACL he had suffered in the Arizona game last year.
Raven Greene was filling the spot Campbell excelled in last year and Gutekunst could have moved on. But he signed Campbell and let him spend the first six weeks of the season rehabbing. As it turned out, Greene was lost for the season and Campbell has been playing every week as the nickel hybrid linebacker.
Not every move Gutekunst has made has turned out as well as Veldheer, Ervin, Sullivan, Campbell or the six starters he acquired in the offseason. But the ones he has made are a big reason the Packers are a game away from the Super Bowl.