GREEN BAY – The Packers’ two heads of football operations, general manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur, spoke to the media Wednesday about the initial 53-man roster and all the changes made in recent days.
Here are five things we learned:
- The decision to sign a new kicker is based on the Packers’ role as championship contenders.
Gutekunst admitted he’s not patient enough with specialists, but he’s not interested in being patient when he has a team with legitimate title aspirations, especially after last season’s playoffs ended in part because of a crucial missed field goal. So he parted ways with Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph after uninspiring preseasons and signed undrafted rookie Brayden Narveson from Tennessee.
“I’m very confident about this team and our ability to perform, so I want to make sure we give this team every chance to win,” Gutekunst said. “So there’s going to be a certain standard that we want to reach.”
“We wanted to try to get better there, and whether that was Anders or someone from outside didn’t matter. But we had to get better.”
He later added: “The boys have to perform. If they don’t, they’ll be kept on a short leash.”
Narveson played at three different colleges and finished his career at North Carolina State. He had two preseason highlights with the Titans – a 59-yard scoring run and a 46-yard walk-off winner. He missed a 58-yard field goal in the preseason. He couldn’t outrun the experienced Nick Folk and win the job.
With this move, the Packers enter their Week 1 game in Brazil with a kicker who has never kicked in a game for Green Bay, which LaFleur called “uncharted territory.” But the goal is clear.
“You just have to come in and perform,” LaFleur said. “I don’t know how else to put it. But it’s definitely a unique situation.”
