No Gutes, No Glory
I‘ve never hidden my admiration for Seahawks general manager John Schneider. That’s why I wanted Mark Murphy to do everything humanely possible to bring the Wisconsin native home after Ted Thompson was relieved of his duties in 2018. I’ve also never hidden my disregard for Brian Gutekunst. That’s why I opined in the spring of 2020 that he’d run the Packers into the ground by 2025. (The way things are looking, that extremely harsh assessment might’ve been too kind).
What I’ve always respected about Schneider is his willingness to take risks. In that way, he’s a lot like his mentor, Ron Wolf. And while some of his bold moves haven’t worked out – trading two first-round picks to the Jets for safety Jamal Adams is one example – he’s always looking for an opportunity to make his team better, to make his team capable of winning the Super Bowl. But Schneider is also a realist, and that’s why he traded quarterback Russell Wilson in the offseason.
The Wilson trade gave Schneider the ability to start rebuilding a roster that had maxed out and was no longer capable of getting to the Super Bowl. With all the players, draft picks, and cap space he accumulated for an aging player who had shown signs of slipping, he was able to quickly retool the roster. The Seahawks are currently 4-3 and leading their division, and they’re doing it with journeyman Geno Smith at quarterback. The future is suddenly looking very bright in Seattle.
The future is looking anything but bright in Green Bay, where the Packers are 3-4 and in serious danger of missing the playoffs for only the eighth time since 1993. That’s obviously not what Gutekunst had in mind when, unlike Schneider, he spurned offers for his own superstar quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) in the offseason. The truth is, general managers have to be like professional gamblers – they have to “know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” Unfortunately, Gutekunst thought he had a royal flush; in reality, he had a 2-7 offsuit.
Gutekunst, who also learned under Wolf, is the polar opposite of Schneider when it comes to taking risks. Aside from dealing All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams to the Raiders – which he was forced into doing – his biggest trade came in March 2018 when he sent one disappointment (corner Damarious Randall) to Cleveland for another disappointment (quarterback DeShone Kizer). The easiest way to avoid criticism is to play it safe, but it’s difficult to win a Super Bowl that way. If Gutekunst were half as bold as Schneider, he would’ve made a significant deadline trade in either of the past two seasons. Instead, he did nothing and watched as more aggressive teams passed Green Bay by when it really mattered.
All general managers make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Schneider hasn’t drafted significantly better than Gutekunst, especially in recent years. But what separates the best from the rest is a willingness to take chances. Wolf wouldn’t be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he didn’t have the guts to trade a first-round pick for Brett Favre in 1992. Schneider wouldn’t have won it all in 2013 if he didn’t commit to Wilson as his quarterback a year earlier, even though he had just signed free agent Matt Flynn to a big contract. And Thompson, who was far from bold, wouldn’t have seen the confetti in 2010 if he didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to move on from the still popular Favre in the tumultuous summer of 2008.
Gutekunst’s play-it-safe style has won a lot of regular season games with a generational quarterback inherited from Thompson. What it hasn’t done is get the Packers to the Super Bowl, and that window – which was always open just a crack – looks to have finally closed. Armed with a new long-term contract, maybe Gutekunst will finally start showing some guts. Quoting the legendary Kenny Rogers again, “if you’re gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right.”
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