Brian Gutekunst has free reign to move around on Thursdays, according to Mark Murphy
On the Green Bay Packers’ virtual draft party, which is still being broadcast live as the writing of this article, Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy confirmed that he has given Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst the okay to either trade up or down from the 23rd overall pick, if it best serves “the interest” of the club. At the owners meetings, Gutekunst had stated that Murphy already gave him the green light, but now we’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth.
At this point in the process, with trips already booked and people already in town for the draft, it probably wouldn’t matter to fans if they had to wait another pick or not — but this was previously an issue with at least one other team hosting the draft, per league sources. As the story goes, the Kansas City Chiefs were prepared to trade away their first-round pick around the trade deadline the season before they were set to host the NFL draft in 2023. Ownership stepped in and let the front office know they weren’t allowed to trade out of the first round of that draft entirely. Kansas City ended up picking Kansas State pass rusher Felix Anudike-Uzomah, a Kansas City native, with that first-round pick.
Like most drafts, more teams are trying to trade down than trade up after the first 10 or so selections. So far, most projected trade-ups in mock drafts around the 23rd overall pick range usually revolve around a team trying to get back into the first round to select a quarterback — who in this class would probably be either Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart — or the Houston Texans, who are trying to lock in a franchise tackle following the trade of Laremy Tunsil this offseason.
For what it’s worth, the Texans are picking 25th in the draft, as it stands today. Reports claim that Houston is trying to leapfrog the Packers and Minnesota Vikings, who Houston believes could be in the tackle market in the first round.