Monday, January 08, 2018

Packers Promote Brian Gutekunst to GM

When the news first broke that Ted Thompson was out as GM of the Green Bay Packers, team President Mark Murphy said he would hire a consultant to search for varied candidates outside of the organization. Instead the new GM is moving in from across the hall.
There were reports that they tried to interview Seattle's GM John Schneider and Oakland's GM Reggie McKenzie but the Packers were denied the request. The Vikings also denied a request to interview assistant GM George Paton. The only outside candidate they did appear to interview was former Buffalo GM Doug Whaley. If they could have gotten their foot in the door with either Schneider or McKenzie, they probably would have been hired barring a disastrous interview or compensation issue. I wouldn't have been crazy about Whaley. It looks like the Packers tried to look elsewhere but it wasn't meant to be. And they didn't want to leave the top job vacant for too long.

Gutekunst's background is in scouting though almost entirely all of his experience is with the Packers organization. He was strongly considered last year for the open GM position in San Francisco though the way the 49ers switched completely around from originally focusing on a true scout like Gutekunst to a splashy hire in former NFL player/broadcaster John Lynch makes me wonder whether he ever really had a chance.

Scouting might be the most common background for a GM but the job is so much more than scouting including management, public relations, and hiring/firing coaches. I could never make an informed decision on whether someone might make a good GM. Former Packer great LeRoy Butler thinks Gutekunst is a great guy and that has to do it for me.
Posted by at
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment