Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst acknowledged that the team showed improvement over the course of the season. However, he also recognized that losing in the opening round of the playoffs wasn’t enough for a team with high expectations.
Even though Gutekunst believes the team is moving in the right direction, he challenged the players, especially since the Packers lost all six of their games this season against the top teams in the NFC, including the Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, and Minnesota Vikings.
“We need to continue to ramp up our sense of urgency,” Gutekunst said during a season-ending news conference on Thursday afternoon. “The life of a player in the National Football League is not very long. We’ve got a bunch of good guys in that locker room, we’ve got a bunch of talented guys in that locker room, and I think it’s time we started competing for championships.”
“I think they’re ready,” he added.
Green Bay’s 22-10 loss to the Eagles in the NFC wild-card round marked the end of the Packers’ season. This came after a 34-29 loss to the Eagles in their regular-season opener in São Paulo, Brazil. In between, the Packers lost twice to the Lions and twice to the Vikings, finishing third in the NFC North and securing the seventh and final playoff spot in the conference.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has had a successful run, leading the team to a 67-33 record over six seasons (3-5 in the postseason), including trips to the NFC championship games in 2019 and 2020. However, Green Bay’s most recent Super Bowl appearance was in the 2010 season, when the Packers won the title under head coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“I think everybody’s gutted,” LaFleur said during his season wrap-up with reporters earlier in the week. “If you go out there and you play at your best and you come up short, there’s a different feeling.”
As the Packers look ahead to the offseason, they face the possibility of losing 11 players who are set to become unrestricted free agents. Among them are three starters: center Josh Myers, linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, and defensive tackle T.J. Slaton.
The team may also part ways with two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaire Alexander, who has struggled with injuries, missing 10 games in each of the past two seasons and serving a one-game suspension in 2023. Alexander did not speak to reporters during the locker clean-out day, stating he didn’t “have anything good to say.”
When asked if there was a disconnect between the organization and Alexander, Gutekunst responded, “No, no, no. I mean, there’s frustration, I think, on both sides, from the fact that he can’t get out there. I feel for him, because he wants to be out there and he wants to play. But no disconnect.”
The Packers can free up about $6 million in salary cap space if they part ways with Alexander, which would bring their total projected cap space to $57 million for the offseason (not counting the cost of signing their draft class).
After signing All-Pro safety Xavier McKinney and Pro Bowl running back Josh Jacobs last year, Gutekunst will have the financial flexibility to make more moves in free agency if he chooses. Along with the continued growth of a roster that was the youngest in the NFL for the second straight year, Gutekunst feels optimistic about the team’s future.
“The decisions we’ve made over the past few years have put us in the situation where we’re in pretty good shape,” Gutekunst said. “I feel really good about our ability to go do what we need to do to field a championship-level team.”
He added, “The opportunities that are going to be out there are unknown right now. We’ll see how that goes. But we’re in a better situation than we have been.”
