The Green Bay Packers turned a lot of heads on Thursday night when they not only traded up in the draft, but proceeded to select Utah State quarterback Jordan Love with the No. 26 pick.
Aaron Rodgers is clearly still the starter, but it left many wondering why they didn’t select a player who would help Rodgers immediately, like a wide receiver.
NBC Sports’ Peter King said in an interview with WEEI’s Dale and Keefe show that he believes Rodgers is likely “pissed”:
“I’ll tell you what he thinks, he’s pissed off. Wouldn’t you be? You realize that when the Green Bay Packers have been sitting there for the last four drafts and Aaron Rodgers said, ‘Give me a weapon, give me a weapon. Get me some receivers’ and the Packers have never—unless you consider Ty Montgomery, who was switched to running back after being a college receiver at Stanford—they have not picked a wide receiver in the top 100 picks in the last four drafts when they have had a significant need in the last two years. Now, they have pick 62 tonight and they will pick a receiver, I would guess.”
King was hardly to feel confused about what the Packers did:
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst went to explain the pick this way, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN:
“We’ve got the best quarterback in the National Football League, and we plan to have him for a while competing for championships. I can understand the fan base and people thinking, ‘Why would you do this at this time?’ But I just think the value of our board and the way it sat, it was the best for the Green Bay Packers, and we’re really excited to get Jordan here and get him in the door and learning our system.
“I know a lot of people will look at this as not a move for the immediate, and I understand that, but the balance of the immediate and the long term is something that I have to consider, and that’s why we did it.”
