The torch of elite quarterback play seems to continue burning for the Green Bay Packers. With Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre passing it to Aaron Rodgers and Rodgers passing it on to Jordan Love, who had an impressive first season under center in 2023 for Green Bay.
Bryan Gutekunst has been there for nearly every step of the way, serving as a scout for Green Bay in 1999 and now entering his sixth season as the Packers general manager. And at this year’s NFL Combine, he was asked what the secret formula has been to maintaining elite play at the game’s most important position.
“We’ve always valued the quarterback position very highly, but so has every other team,” Gutekunst said. It’s such a hard position to play in the National Football League. I think if we’ve done anything right it’s that we’ve always kind of addressed it and drafted guys and brought them in, and then we’ve also allowed them time before they had to play. That’s one thing that we’ve done.”
“But there’s no magic formula,” Gutekunst admitted. “Quite frankly a lot of our scouts doing really good hard work and picking right players and coaches that really develop these guys. Put the time and effort into them.”
The Packers took a risk in 1992 when they traded for Favre, who had one lone disappointing season under his belt for the Atlanta Falcons and a concerning degenerative condition in his hip. But the gamble paid off with Favre leading Green Bay to two Super Bowl appearances, winning one, while also taking home three NFL MVP awards in his 16 seasons with the franchise.
Gutekunst said there’s no magic formula, but drafting an heir apparent at the position early to develop behind a starer has surely worked wonders for the Packers. With Rogers spending three seasons behind Favre before becoming the starter (also winning Green Bay a Super Bowl and taking home four MVP awards) and Love spending three seasons behind Rodgers before being handed the reins last season.
“And the one thing we have had, and so did Kansas City, is a really good quarterback in house a player could come in and learn from and that’s unique. That doesn’t happen a lot,” Gutekunst said. “So again, I think it’s an exceptionally important position as everyone knows and sometimes you have to make some short-term sacrifices for long-term gain. I know that we’ve always believed in that.”
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes notably sat behind Alex Smith for a season before becoming a starter. Which clearly paid off as he’s fresh off of his third Super Bowl victory. As the Packers now hoping that Jordan Love’s time spent developing can pay off for them as well after he ranked second in the league in passing touchdowns and led the Packers to an unexpected playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys.
“Excited for Jordan and where he’s going, what he can do in his career,” Gutekunst said. “But I’ve been here over 25 years and kind of seen all through those transitions and I don’t think there’s any one particular thing. It’s multiple things.”
There’s no doubt that Love has big shoes to fill, as Super Bowl victories and MVP awards have become the standard in Green Bay over the last two decades. But with the Packers as a whole representing the youngest team in the NFL, they seem ahead of schedule and in a great place moving forward with their newest face of the franchise.
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