Gute's biggest failure

[Les Punting]

Gutekunst has been a solid GM. His major free agent signings and top draft picks have generally played to expectation. He's mostly been thorough and aggressive addressing personnel deficiencies. His relative success with the majority of the roster makes his apathetic approach to one particular position group all the more baffling. That group is, of course, wide receiver.

In '18, Gute inherited Adams on his newly-signed contract. He quickly blossomed into one of the games best. Over the subsequent four seasons, Gute has made almost no investment in the position. He's settled for decidedly mediocre WR personnel the whole way. At no point, not even for a short stretch, has Gute been able to get a quality WR2 on the field!

Gute has made notable efforts to add a second quality receiver. One of his first moves as GM was to offer a big contract to WR Robinson. His instincts to pair Rodgers with two high-quality targets were right on. Given how well he's played in CHI, Robinson likely makes GB a far more formidable offense over that span. There's quite possibly another SB appearance.

After missing out on Robinson, Gute committed a cringey scouting failure, paying elite money to the clearly no longer elite TE/WR Graham. He also added a trio of mid-round WR's to the pipeline. In '19, he stood pat, with no notable free agent or draft additions. In '20, apparently not sold on the development of his draft choices, he pursued two high-quality WRs (Cooper then Fuller), took a flyer on Funchess and was allegedly hot on some receivers in the draft, but ultimately made no selections. In '21, he spent a mid-3rd on Amari Rodgers, a specialty player with questionable upside, and made an in-season pursuit of OBJ, offering only a bare minimum deal for a guy clearly superior to any non-Adams receiver on the roster.

That's it. That's Gute's entire body of work at WR. All told, he's invested the bare minimum. His four draft picks were the draft point equivalent of a single high 3rd round pick, ~60% of that spent on Amari Rodgers. He's repeatedly rolled with undrafted-types, Allison, Lazard, Kumerow, Taylor, etc. His only plus move was MVS, an inconsistent and still under-developed deep threat who'll be fielding 1yr prove-it deals as a free agent. 

Gute inability to add WR talent has kept the offensive ceiling unnecessarily low. Synergy is a thing. A great QB paired with a great WR is dangerous, but can be dealt with. A great QB with two high-quality receivers is a different animal. Rodgers hasn't played with a pair of high-quality WR's since '16/early '17, a 23 game stretch where he threw 56 TD's.

With Rodgers and Adams performing at a high level, and with premium talent at RB, GB has been a quality WR2 away from being a true offensive juggernaut for years now. Only the chronic WR deficiencies and OL injuries have derailed it. Gute can't control injuries but he can control WR personnel. To have an all-time great thrower of the football and never give him more than one legitimate target borders on GM malpractice. Brady was making it look easy when he had a slew of targets. Rodgers would make it look easier with even two real targets.  

Currently, there's not one quality WR under contract. The blue-chip Gute inherited has earned a mega deal the team might not be able to afford. It's a mess. Gute's mess. 

Though he's succeeded in most areas, Gute has objectively failed at WR. It's a primary reason why an otherwise high-quality roster hasn't been able to get over the hump. 

[Packerraymond]

Forget crappy defense, ST and above average QB play out of an MVP QB, WR2 is what's been holding back this team in the playoffs. Got it.

[packfanfb]

2 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

Forget crappy defense, ST and above average QB play out of an MVP QB, WR2 is what's been holding back this team in the playoffs. Got it.

Has the defense been crappy? In the last 2 seasons, our defense has been lights out for 6 out of 8 quarters in two playoff losses. They were great against Tampa in the second half (gave up 10 points, with 7 coming from the 5-yard line post AJ fumble) and were dominant all night against SF. 

I would agree 12 has been average. He played fine I thought against Tampa and poorly against SF. 

OL has been a big problem with Bak getting injured last year and then being "too sore" to play against SF. MLF royally ****ed up the OL decisions both games (not putting Jenkins at LT last season and not playing Nijman this year). That decision alone maybe is as big of reason as any why we didn't go the SB both years. 

But yes, the lack of talent at WR has at least hurt us in those games. The SF followed the Tampa blueprint and locked down on Adams and this year, 12 didn't even have MVS who was the guy who at least made some plays against Tampa. Lazard flopped in both games. Also, not having Tonyan ended up being a bigger issue because Deguara was pathetic, Davis never caught on and Lewis runs like Rich Eisen. 

ST was the tipping point this year, but even with a blocked FG and blocked punt TD, Packers should have beaten SF easily with a better offensive performance. 

[NFLGURU]

He's needed a quality #2 WR for awhile,  Ive posted about it.  Its not the sole reason for his failures, but its part of the reason.    He reportedly wanted Justin Jefferson or Aiyuk in the 2019 draft,  reportedly made a pitch for Will Fuller at the trade deadline in 2020, and was reportedly interested in OBJ this past season at the deadline.   I think he knows what he needs, it just finding the right deal, at the right price, at the right time.   A #2 is pretty important, but theres going to be a hole here or there in the salary cap era on nearly every team.        

[Packerraymond]

1 minute ago, packfanfb said:

Has the defense been crappy? In the last 2 seasons, our defense has been lights out for 6 out of 8 quarters in two playoff losses. They were great against Tampa in the second half (gave up 10 points, with 7 coming from the 5-yard line post AJ fumble) and were dominant all night against SF. 

I would agree 12 has been average. He played fine I thought against Tampa and poorly against SF. 

OL has been a big problem with Bak getting injured last year and then being "too sore" to play against SF. MLF royally ****ed up the OL decisions both games (not putting Jenkins at LT last season and not playing Nijman this year). That decision alone maybe is as big of reason as any why we didn't go the SB both years. 

But yes, the lack of talent at WR has at least hurt us in those games. The SF followed the Tampa blueprint and locked down on Adams and this year, 12 didn't even have MVS who was the guy who at least made some plays against Tampa. Lazard flopped in both games. Also, not having Tonyan ended up being a bigger issue because Deguara was pathetic, Davis never caught on and Lewis runs like Rich Eisen. 

ST was the tipping point this year, but even with a blocked FG and blocked punt TD, Packers should have beaten SF easily with a better offensive performance. 

When you have wide open WRs on critical downs (Lazard wide open in the EZ vs Tampa, Lazard and EQ open on 3rd down vs SF) it's just narrative preaching to blame anything on the WRs. Lazard and MVS were probably our two best offensive players in the 2020 playoffs.

[packfanfb]

14 minutes ago, Packerraymond said:

When you have wide open WRs on critical downs (Lazard wide open in the EZ vs Tampa, Lazard and EQ open on 3rd down vs SF) it's just narrative preaching to blame anything on the WRs. Lazard and MVS were probably our two best offensive players in the 2020 playoffs.

We all know 12 missed Lazard on a few plays, we've seen it blasted on Twitter for the last week. I'm talking about larger scale changes. You have a better WR 2 who defenses actually have to respect, the whole game changes. Adams isn't doubled all game, the field opens up, we aren't just talking about a play here and there. You just saw this play out in LA. Not a chance in hell the Rams are going to the SB right now without OBJ after they lost Woods. Completely changed them down the stretch. 

[{Family Ghost}]

Gute is actually going to have to acquire some top talent at WR if we are going from Rodgers to Love.  It will need to be a huge priority for once.

[incognito_man]

If you tell me the biggest failure of a GM is getting an elite #2 WR for a HOF QB I'll say: "You just described the best GM in the league".

[MacReady]

His biggest failure has not been aggressive in-season.

And he has zero excuse. That one corner who was a huge help in Jaire’s first or second year, Douglas…

He sees the impact these in-season additions have, and yet he gets cold feet each time. For zero reason.

Will Fuller last year, OBJ this year, both of those players get us further than where we left. He still didn’t pull the trigger.

You can be a draft and develop team in this league and win Super Bowls, but not if you don’t take the in-season opportunities that come up.

[incognito_man]

3 minutes ago, Outpost31 said:

His biggest failure has not been aggressive in-season.

And he has zero excuse. That one corner who was a huge help in Jaire’s first or second year, Douglas…

He sees the impact these in-season additions have, and yet he gets cold feet each time. For zero reason.

Will Fuller last year, OBJ this year, both of those players get us further than where we left. He still didn’t pull the trigger.

You can be a draft and develop team in this league and win Super Bowls, but not if you don’t take the in-season opportunities that come up.

OBJ wanted to go to LA the entire time. He was just using us for leverage.

This season Gute did a great job of in-season signings IMO.

Gutes (actual) biggest failure is DL.

[Leader]

Gute's biggest failure is not firing all you bitching fans

[Leader]

1 minute ago, incognito_man said:

OBJ wanted to go to LA the entire time. He was just using us for leverage.

I think this as well.

[Sasquatch]

I don’t know man, it takes cap space and a desire to play in GB if you’re a talented player with options.  Gute can’t print more money or move the team to some large, desirable metropolis.  I think he’s done fine for the most part.  If you’re looking for perfection, yeah, you’ll be disappointed……with any franchise GM.

[skibrett15]

WR2 is a serious issue that doesn't just boil down to Rodgers looked off lazard when he shouldn't have.

If there was a legitimate WR2 on the team, Rodgers would trust him to win and he would win, and they would pay for putting true doubles on the WR1.

 

That being said, Gute tried a few times to find this WR2, Rodgers simply demanded that it be Randall Cobb this season.  So Gute was too slow and Rodgers was a terrible GM

[Refugee]

14 minutes ago, {Family Ghost} said:

Gute is actually going to have to acquire some top talent at WR if we are going from Rodgers to Love.  It will need to be a huge priority for once.

I’m not sure if it would become the top priority. SF, who runs a close version of our offense, built up their lines and had the running game going with multiple backs and TEs to begin Shanahan’s tenure. Not until later did they spend high picks to get Deebo and Ayuik. It would be great to have top notch receivers but a strong OLine and TE group might be the foundation of the offense we will see if 10 is behind center next year.