Perfect Situation Allows Gutekunst to Deliver on His Promise

Brian Gutekunst took the podium shortly after the Green Bay Packers’ 2024 season ended, and made a bold proclamation.

"I think, for me, the thing that's been on my mind as we've concluded this season is we need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency. These opportunities don't come (very often). The life of a player in the National Football League is not very long. We've got a bunch of good guys in that locker room, got a bunch of talented guys in that locker room, and yeah, I think it's time that we start competing for championships,” Gutekunst said.

These comments were jarring considering they came on the heels of Gutekunst watching his team collapse with a three-game losing streak to close out the season.

A season where they went 1-5 in divisional play, and 0-6 against the NFC’s top teams.

As soon as Gutekunst said this, speculation began.

Were the Packers going to be in on a big time player in free agency or on the trade market? Will they make a bold move in the first round of April’s NFL Draft? They were hosting the event, after all.

After the Philadelphia Eagles were covered in Super Bowl confetti, it looked like the Packers were at least going to have some options to add an impact player to either side of the ball.

Wide receivers DK Metcalf and Davante Adams were both moving on from their respective teams.

On defense, Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, Pittsburgh’s TJ Watt, Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby, and Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson were all in some semblance of a contract dispute with their respective teams.

In the meantime, the Packers did go spend in free agency.

It just wasn’t at the positions, or the players most people expected.

Their first signing in free agency wasn’t a defensive end, receiver, or cornerback.

It was a guard.

Aaron Banks signed a 4-year $77 million deal in Green Bay on the first day of free agency.

Shortly thereafter, they did add another corner when Las Vegas’ Nate Hobbs got a 4-year $48 million deal.

Meanwhile, the pass rush, which Gutekunst lamented about not being able to control games more, went largely untouched.

Is that what urgency looked like?

Not to the innocent bystander.

Unfortunately for Gutekunst, if he was big-game hunting, all of the aforementioned players resolved their contract situations with their current clubs.

How much interest Gutekunst had in acquiring any of those players will never be known. All but one share a common factor.

All of those players were older guys. Garrett will be 30 in December.

Watt will be 31 in October.

Hendrickson will be 31 in September.

The only outlier was Crosby, who just turned 28 in August, but he was the first to have his contract situation resolved of the big four defensive ends.

You can only acquire players that are truly available, and as it turns out, none of them were.

Gutekunst made note of this on Friday.

“And in fairness, I’ve been through a bunch of these that no one’s ever heard of that that’s how it goes. You talk, you talk and then you really realize it’s really not an opportunity. So, when the opportunity opened a little bit and you really thought that this could happen, it was exciting and we kept in it,” Gutekunst said.

After the big four defensive ends re-signed with their teams, one more name came available.

It was Micah Parsons.

The superstar of the Dallas Cowboys, who is one of two men to have more than 12 sacks in the first four seasons of his career.

It would have been easy to dismiss the idea that Parsons could head to Green Bay, or anywhere.

Usually these contract disputes are resolved by hitting the player over the head with a big bag of cash.

As time went on, however, there was no resolution to the drama between Parsons and Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones.

The question of urgency was raised once again.

The Packers’ organization raised its sense of urgency in the offseason.

Matt LaFleur was noticeably different during training camp.

The players were chippy and physical, bordering on the line of too physical.

Could Brian Gutekunst really say that his team needed to up the sense of urgency, but be an innocent bystander with the chance to acquire a generational player?

The answer was a resounding ‘no’.

Gutekunst would not get into details, but he admitted that his team was in on a potential trade for Parsons early in the process.

“I think for me and it was a little different and I think what I learned from that experience is you’ve got to be in it early,” Gutekunst said.

“I think you can’t with Khalil (Mack) it was kind of one of those where I felt like after that went by that we were in that a little bit late. I don’t think it would’ve changed the outcome of that back then but I felt like if you’re going to be on something like this, you’re going to have to be in early.”

Being in early paid off in the end.

So what made Parsons different than some of the players that have been rumored targets of Green Bay in year’s past?

Parsons is a unique player, as Gutekunst said seven times during his media availability to introduce Parsons to Green Bay.

He’s young, having just turned 26, and entering the prime of his career.

Gutekunst is right, that’s a perfect situation. Players like that simply do not come available that often.

Gutekunst, or any General Manager would have been a fool to simply sit on the sidelines in a situation like this.

As it turns out, Gutekunst did not site on the sideline, he took the ball and ran with it.

Thursday afternoon NFL media exploded with a bombshell.

The Packers were no longer the bridesmaid; they were the bride.

Micah Parsons was acquired for two first-round picks, and defensive tackle Kenny Clark.

If there were ever a move that signaled a pushing of the chips to the center of the table, Gutekunst made it.

Gutekunst talked about needing to be more urgent.

His team did their job in the offseason, then the right situation rose for him to do his.