GREEN BAY, Wis. — Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur had plenty of time between their playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and the start of the 2025 NFL draft to ponder what happened in that wild-card game on Jan. 12 that made them a one-and-done in the postseason.
One hundred two days to be exact.
In the NFL equivalent of a presidential term’s first 100 days, it became clear what the coach and general manager thought prevented the Green Bay Packers from making a Super Bowl run last season.
It wasn’t a lack of pass rush, although that was never good enough on a consistent basis.
It wasn’t coverage miscues in the secondary, despite not having enough depth at cornerback.
It was that they managed a measly 10 points in that unsightly loss to the Eagles partly because they got blown up in the trenches and lacked explosive targets for quarterback Jordan Love.
Losing deep-threat receiver Christian Watson to a torn right ACL the previous week didn’t help a receiving corps that either couldn’t get open or didn’t have enough time to do so because of pressure on Love. Running back Josh Jacobs was about the only bright spot (121 total yards, one TD) on offense.
So when Gutekunst assessed his team, he didn’t look at how he could reshape their roster to beat Philadelphia, but rather what the loss to the Eagles told him about the limitations of the Packers, who have a 1-2 record two playoff seasons since Love took over for Aaron Rodgers.
“I think you don’t try to be too much of a prisoner of the moment on those things,” Gutekunst said during the draft. “You’re evaluating your team through the entire year, you’re evaluating it against the National Football League and yourselves.”
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Savion Williams’ NFL draft profile
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To be sure, Gutekunst has never been accused of forcing a need up his draft board, so he most likely would have gone in a different direction if the right player wasn’t available, especially with his early draft picks. But what started with the signing of guard Aaron Banks in free agency continued with a pair of receivers — speedy first-round pick Matthew Golden of Texas and versatile third-rounder of TCU — sandwiched around another mammoth offensive lineman, Anthony Belton.
“I didn’t think I’d be up here talking about taking two receivers,” said Gutekunst after taking Williams at No. 87 overall.
LaFleur surely didn’t mind having a couple of new additions to his offense as he begins his seventh season as head coach. In this case, two receivers with different body types yet similar skill sets and speed. The 5-foot-11 Golden ran a 4.29 40-yard dash at the combine, and LaFleur thinks the 6-4 Williams is faster than his 4.48 time.
“Obviously Golden ran what he ran. Anytime a guy is breaking sub-4.3s, you know he’s legitimately fast,” LaFleur said. “I think what’s so attractive about a guy like Golden is not only is he fast, but he’s got, I’d say elite hands. And then Savion, I can’t remember exactly, mid-4.4s, 4.47 or something like that, but he did that three weeks after coming off an injury or three weeks of training. What his true speed is, I don’t think we truly know.”
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Anthony Belton’s NFL draft profile
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The Packers also added power when they signed the 6-5, 325-pound Banks and the 6-6, 336-pound Belton. Both weigh more than any of Green Bay’s starting offensive linemen from last season. Banks has been slotted in at left guard, which means Elgton Jenkins will move to center to replace the departed Josh Myers. Last year’s first-round pick, Jordan Morgan, is expected to compete for both the left tackle and left guard spot. Belton, a left tackle in college, likely will being there but will also train at guard.
“I think if you look at some of the teams — whether you’re talking about the NFC North or you’re just talking about the NFC in general as you get into the playoffs — some of the defensive fronts that you face, I think you’ve got to have guys that can hold up,” Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan said.
“We look for guys that can play big-man ball and sustain versus power and do those kinds of things. If you don’t have that, eventually you’re going to succumb to … powerful, big fronts, especially the deeper you go into the playoffs. You’ve got to be able to handle that.”
That’s what made Belton so intriguing at No. 54.
“It’s the old phrase ‘big doesn’t get small,’ especially when you play here in the NFC North,” Sullivan said. “We play in the cold and you can wear people down as the season goes along and the elements change. It’s kinda the way we were raised in this thing up here. We want to be big across the front, we want to be physical, we want to be able to overwhelm with size and physicality. That’s what attracted us to him. He’s a good football player, and he happens to be a huge man as well.”
The Packers didn’t address one of their defensive weak spots, pass rusher, until the fourth round with Texas’ Barryn Sorrell. And they didn’t address their other major concern, cornerback, until the seventh round with Tulane’s Micah Robinson. But perhaps those weaknesses weren’t shared by Gutekunst and those inside the building.
“I felt really good about our football team coming into this draft,” Gutekunst said. “We did some things in free agency, and just where our team was in general, that I felt really, really good about it. Certainly we increased the competition in a lot of spots.
“I think we were able to add — particularly these three days and even in free agency — pretty good culture fits, you know, guys that are going to fit into our locker room and be assets to us that way.”
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