GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers hold the 23rd overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, but general manager Brian Gutekunst has more to think about than just the player he wants to take.
Including, with the city of Green Bay hosting the event, how he’s going to get to his Lambeau Field office each day.
Although he didn’t have any issues on Monday.
“I rode my bike,” Gutekunst joked as he kicked off his annual pre-draft press conference.
Gutekunst downplayed any logistical challenges he and the rest of the Packers staff might be facing amid the carnival-like atmosphere in the area surrounding the iconic stadium, with the league expecting 250,000 fans to attend the three-day draft.
He also insisted that whomever the Packers pick in the first round won’t necessarily have to contribute immediately to a team that has made the playoffs the past two years with limited contributions from defensive end Lukas Van Ness and offensive lineman Jordan Morgan. The Packers took Van Ness with the 13th overall pick in 2023 and acquired Morgan with the 25th overall selection last year.
“It’s great when they do (contribute), but that’s not always the case,” said Gutekunst, who enters the draft with eight total selections — one in each of the first six rounds, plus two seventh-round choices. “The transition to the National Football League is tough. It’s not always easy. … Most of the time, a guy’s impact in his rookie year comes down to the opportunities that he had, more than anything.”
With needs at wide receiver, on the defensive line and at cornerback, there could be opportunities at those spots sooner rather than later. That said, Gutekunst also expressed confidence in the team he’s already assembled.
“I feel really good about our roster right now. That doesn’t happen every year (heading into the draft),” Gutekunst said. “But if we had to go play next week, I feel really good about our roster. I feel like we could win and go compete — really, across the board.”
Gutekunst does have a few roster situations to deal with, however.
For starters, there’s two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander’s unresolved situation. Gutekunst acknowledged last month that he is actively seeking to trade Alexander.
“We invested a lot in Jaire and want to make sure — if he’s not going to be on our football team helping us win games — that we get something back for that investment,” Gutekunst said at the NFL owners meetings.
Alexander, who has two years remaining on his existing contract, has played in just seven regular-season games each of the last two years. During that stretch, he has missed 19 total regular-season games because of injury and one for a 2023 suspension because of conduct detrimental to the team.
A knee injury forced him to miss 10 of the Packers’ final 11 games last season, including their 22-10 playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Asked if he would simply keep Alexander this season if he can’t trade him before or during the draft, Gutekunst replied, “We’ll work through that. I don’t really have any updates on Jaire. He’s obviously on our roster right now. We’ll see how the draft goes and then see where we are at that point.”
Meanwhile, Gutekunst wouldn’t say whether he would extend the fifth-year options to the team’s two 2022 first-round draft picks — linebacker Quay Walker and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt — before the league’s May 1 deadline.
But, he emphasized that he wants both on the team long-term.
“I think for both those guys, whatever mechanism we use, we’d like to keep those guys around for ’26 and beyond,” Gutekunst said. “So whether that’s through doing the fifth-year option on these guys or extending them one way or the other, we’re planning to do that. We’d like to do that.”
