Packers admit communication problems around drafting QB Jordan Love
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Sometimes, the first step to fixing a problem in a relationship is admitting a wrong.
The Green Bay Packers have been willing to publicly admit an internal mistake that has likely contributed to the current situation with MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
General manager Brian Gutekunst conceded the team made communication blunders surrounding the selection of quarterback Jordan Love during the 2020 draft, a likely point of conflict in the ongoing rift with Rodgers.
“I certainly look back to last year’s draft, and some of the communication issues we could have done better, no doubt about it,” Gutekunst said after the first round last Thursday night. “The draft is an interesting thing, it can unfold differently than you think it will unfold, and it happens pretty fast. Certainly, looking back on it, certainly, where we sit today, there could have been some communication things we did better.”
The point of contention here: the Packers either didn’t communicate – or communicated poorly – to Rodgers that selecting Love in the first round of the 2020 draft was a real possibility. So when Gutekunst traded up to No. 26 overall a year ago, Rodgers was mostly blindsided when commissioner Roger Goodell announced Love’s name as the Packers’ pick.
Rodgers is the team’s quarterback, and Gutekunst is the roster builder, but a franchise leader, multi-year MVP and future Hall of Famer – especially one under contract on a lucrative deal – probably deserves the right to know the team’s thinking before a massive, franchise-altering decision like trading up to draft a quarterback happens. And the Packers clearly botched the communication side of the pick, leaving Rodgers to find out the Love pick just like everyone else watching the draft from home.
Gutekunst mentioned the speed of the draft process, and it’s clear the Packers didn’t anticipate a situation where moving up to draft Love would actually happen. So between making the trade up and then signing off on the decision to take Love at No. 26 overall, there’s little doubt that the process unfolded rapidly and probably left little time to inform Rodgers.
But it needed to happen.
A general manager’s job isn’t just picking players. It’s managing current players, especially very important players, and Gutekunst and the Packers missed an opportunity to clearly communicate a major situation with the franchise’s most important player.
A year later, the Packers are dealing with the consequences.
A report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network earlier this week adds more perspective. Rapoport reported that the Packers releasing Jake Kumerow early last September was something of a last straw for Rodgers, who had publicly praised Kumerow a day earlier and had expected the receiver to make the team. Instead, Gutekunst and the Packers cut Kumerow, once again blindsiding Rodgers and making his comments a day earlier look somewhat foolish.
The Packers don’t need to hand over personnel decisions to a 37-year-old quarterback, even though Gutekunst said he’d now welcome input from Rodgers. But providing a line of clear communication with a star player about decisions that directly him as a player and leader on the team is a reasonable request for a player of Rodgers’ stature and importance.
Great teams and organizations and businesses must communicate internally, especially among leaders. The Packers mishandled the communication side of a major transaction, leaving a star player out of the loop and helping create the drama unfolding today.
