Green Bay Packers fans know the script all too well. We all saw Brett Favre’s unceremonious exit from the squad many years ago as the Packers made room for the new up-and-coming quarterback. It’s as if they went through the exact same process the past few years, except this time, it’s Aaron Rodgers who made his way out in favor of Green Bay’s new QB1, Jordan Love.
Underneath all the drama, however, is a system that although a bit unsympathetic, has brought a lot of success to the Packers organization over the past few decades. Right now, the organization is banking on Jordan Love to carry the torch in the years to come.
Green Bay Packers GM Believes in Tradition
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In his mind, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst believes that he is merely following a blueprint that has been set before him by his predecessors. While they had Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, what he now has is Jordan Love:
“You talk about the continuum,” Gutekunst told Peter King of NBC Sports. “Going back to [GMs] Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson, I trained under them. There’s some things we believe in here—developing quarterbacks, and drafting quarterbacks to develop. We believe in allowing them to sit and learn a little bit before they have to play. It’s an organization thing. It’s the route. It’s trying to make the best decisions to win today but also understanding that there’s gonna be a tomorrow and not sacrificing that.”
It’s been three years since the Packers drafted Love as the 26th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. He’s been sitting and waiting over the past three seasons, which is the same amount of time Rodgers sat back behind Favre before he was handed over the keys in Green Bay.
Green Bay Packers GM Reflects on Brett Favre Transition
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Gutekunst has been with the Packers since 1998. He was a first-hand witness to both the Favre and Rodgers eras in Green Bay, and apart from relishing the success the team achieved through the years, Gutekunst also learned a thing or two on his way up.
Now with the benefit of hindsight, Gutekunst looked back on how the great Brett Favre parted ways with the Packers. While he did not say it directly, it is clear that the high-ranking executive holds a lot of regret from that ugly divorce many years ago:
“We went through the Brett Favre thing,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously I was a road scout at the time so I wasn’t here making those decisions. I always wondered: If we had a traditional owner, we would’ve been very close to Brett I’m sure, and what would we have done [in 2008]? But I do think this place, because of what we believe in and the stability of it, is a little bit different. This place, I think, is about what’s doing right for the team each and every day. Sometimes those are complicated decisions. But no one’s ever come to me and tried to make me compromise that.”
I know it’s way too early, but is Jordan Love in line for this same treatment by the Pakcers 15 or so years from now? He can only hope so because that would mean that he would have had a Hall of Fame career with Green Bay at that point.
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