Smart GMs Find Good QBs

Many fans don’t want to trade Aaron Rodgers because they’re deathly afraid of the Packers becoming one of those sad-sack franchises that can’t find a quarterback for decades. Hell, the Packers were one of those sad-sack franchises from the time Bart Starr retired in 1970 until Brett Favre arrived via a trade with the Falcons in 1992. But in reality, finding a signal-caller isn’t really that difficult. The key is simply having a smart general manager who knows what he’s doing.

The Packers didn’t go two decades without a quarterback because of a lack of opportunities. They went two decades without a quarterback because their decision-makers during that time were incompetent. While serving as both coach and GM, Starr overruled his top scout and chose running back Steve Atkins and nose tackle Charles Johnson over Joe Montana in 1979. A few years later, he thought Rich Campbell was better than Neil Lomax, who played in multiple Pro Bowls for the Cardinals. And just months before being fired in December 1983, he passed on both Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. Things got no better under Forrest Gregg, who failed to draft a quarterback prior to the third round even though his starters from 1984 through 1987 were a broken down Lynn Dickey, Randy Wright, Jim Zorn, and Don Majkowski.

The point is, teams with good GMs find quarterbacks. For example, Hall of Famer Ron Wolf took less than three months to do what Starr, Gregg, Dan Devine, and Tom Braatz couldn’t do in 20 years. People always point to the Bears as an example of a team that couldn’t find a QB for decades, but do you really think that would’ve been the case had Wolf been leading their front office instead of Bill Tobin, Rod Graves, Mark Hatley, Jerry Angelo, Phil Emery, and Ryan Pace?

Speaking of Wolf, not only did he trade for future Hall of Famer Favre, but he also drafted Mark Brunell, Matt Hasselbeck, and Aaron Brooks in later rounds. In Jacksonville, Brunell went to three Pro Bowls and played in 10 postseason games. Hasselbeck also went to three Pro Bowls and took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl in 2005. And while Brooks wasn’t quite that successful in New Orleans, he still threw for almost 20,000 yards and 123 TDs in six seasons.

The real question in Green Bay shouldn’t be whether the Packers can find a worthy successor to 4-time MVP and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers? The real question should be whether Brian Gutekunst is the right person to be doing the searching? The team’s fifth-year GM loved DeShone Kizer so much in the 2017 draft that he traded for him a year later. The former Notre Dame star was so unimpressive in two training camps that he was released in favor of undrafted free agent Tim Boyle in the summer of ’19. And while the jury remains out on Jordan Love, whom Gutekunst traded up to take in the first round in 2020, the early returns on the former Utah State star haven’t been all that encouraging.

But if Gutekunst is confident in his ability to scout the position, he shouldn’t be afraid to trade Rodgers in the next few weeks. He’d have a full season to judge Love, and if he’s not impressed with what he sees, the 2023 draft looks to be deep in talented prospects. Right now, Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are 1A and 1B, but Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, Boston College’s Phil Jurkovec, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, and Pittsburgh’s Kedon Slovis, and Florida’s Anthony Richardson are among those with the potential to rocket up the charts.


If Rodgers is traded, Gutekunst would be in a position to package those extra picks to move up in the 2023 draft and try again to find his quarterback of the future. And if Love plays poorly enough next season, Gutekunst might not need to package picks since the Packers could find themselves choosing in the top 10 for the first time since taking B.J. Raji in 2009.

Regardless of where the Packers are picking, the odds of transitioning to a third consecutive Hall of Fame quarterback are minuscule, but the successor to Rodgers doesn’t have to be a future gold jacket recipient. He just needs to be good. Of the 34 quarterbacks who’ve won a Super Bowl, over a third (14) were far from great. The Rams’ Matthew Stafford joined that particular group on Sunday night. There will be plenty of Staffords available for the Packers in the next few years.

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