Signs of change in Green Bay include paying up to trade for Parsons after finally taking a WR in the first round.
— Drafting a receiver in the first round. Trading defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round draft picks for Micah Parsons and then breaking the bank to give him a four-year, $188 million contract.
Who is running the Green Bay Packers personnel department and what happened to general manager Brian Gutekunst?
Drafting Matthew Golden at No. 23 overall, and in the process breaking a 21-year streak of passing on Round 1 receivers, is one thing. But this — acquiring the All-Pro edge rusher from the Dallas Cowboys — signals a new line of thinking for the Packers.
Those two moves were unlike any Gutekunst had made since he was hired in 2018.
The Packers have had their share of success since then.
Consider:
They went to back-to-back NFC championships games in 2019 and 2020.
They’ve made the playoffs in five of Gutenkunst’s seven seasons as GM.
They have the fourth-highest winning percentage (.634) in that span.
Yet one number stands above them all: zero. As in the number of Super Bowl appearances.
The moves this offseason, including signing free agents Aaron Banks (four years, $77 million) and Nate Hobbs (four years, $48 million), could mean a couple of things: Gutekunst thinks this team is as close as ever to a Super Bowl or he feels a heightened sense of urgency to get there for the first time on his watch.
Gutekunst and coach Matt LaFleur have a new boss. Ed Policy replaced Mark Murphy as team president/CEO in July. And while both the coach and general manager are under contract through the 2026 season, Policy sent a clear message when he said earlier this year that extensions would have to wait. He also said he doesn’t believe in lame duck coaches and GMs. What was left unsaid was he is using this season, at least in part, to determine their futures.
