MVP2110 wrote:
Zero disagreement on holding onto Rodgers a year too long. Tbh that's probably Gute's biggest mistake to date imo. Missing on a couple day 2 picks isn't that egregious because basically every GM does it. I'm not even sure the process has changed much with Gute. Take the Amari pick for example, Jayden Reed was a very similar process in the concept that the Packers "reached" for a slot WR who fell below their typical athletic thresholds. The 2nd time though it led to much better results. The Dillon & Deguara picks I agree with you that the instant they were taken they were pretty obviously bad picks, but I really think that's the only 2 picks he's made his entire tenure that stick out in that way. Josh Jackson for example I think was good process(a highly ranked CB at a position of need that fell to us) but didn't turn out, that's going to happen sometimes. The Love pick will almost assuredly determine how we view the 2021 draft which is why I graded it as average for now because I agree with you that we need a larger sample size to truly determine if Love is a top end QB, but I can't place it as a bad draft either given what we've seen from Love to this point. When you compare Gute's drafting resume to that of most GMs I truly think the 2021 draft is his only true "bad" class.
Plus if we're talking GM rankings as opposed to just drafting rankings then Gute jumps up more given his propensity to find good players through avenues other than the draft.
I don't mean to harp on those bad picks, but top-5 GM is a really high standard. I guess I would say that I'm 50/50 on putting him that high, mainly because the Rodgers contract and non-trade still irk me but also because of the failure to build a decent defense despite investing so much in it. Maybe I shouldn't have even mentioned any of the bad picks, as they're just the seasoning on the main dishes that keep him out of the elite category for now.
That said, it's not like I've dissected the work of other GM's enough to say exactly who should be ahead of him, but top-5 is still probably just a smidge too high for me.
