Packers Morning Buzz: Brian Gutekunst foiled in efforts to move up for top receivers

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

We'll start with Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst telling Peter King of NBC Sports that he was eyeing two highly regarded receivers in the second round of the NFL draft Friday and made several attempts to move up for them, without success.

King writes:

Gutekunst said the Packers had two receivers they were targeting in early and middle part of the second round. They tried to move up with several teams, he said, until the second receiver they preferred got picked, and then they stopped. Seven wideouts went in the first 27 picks of the second round; Green Bay, with the 62nd overall pick, took running back AJ Dillon. Not good. As much as the draft pick itself, the price for Love included not addressing that big need at receiver. We’ll see if that comes back to haunt the team this year or next.

You can read King's entire "Football Morning in America" column (which includes Gutekunst talking about Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers) here:

Gutekunst told SI.com's Albert Breer that he has been itching for years to draft quarterbacks, and when the opportunity to draft Love unexpectedly fell into his lap, he pounced.

Breer writes of Gutekunst:

He was the Packers’ Southeast area scout back when Rodgers was drafted as Favre’s replacement and hasn’t forgotten all the good, and the bad from that pick. And as easy as it is to compare this to that, philosophically he sees this as an extension of what Ron Wolf used to do—basically drafting a quarterback every year.

“We haven’t been able to do that the last few years, it just hasn’t fallen for us the right way,” he said. “And it’s not like we haven't wanted to, it’s just the value of the player and where we thought they were and where we could take them at the time, it just didn't happen. I think it's always kind of been in my DNA that anywhere in the draft, if you have an opportunity to take a quarterback you really think can play, you need to consider it.

“That's really what this move is. I know people may look at it differently from outside, but it was kind of one of those things where he was a guy we really think can play somewhere down the road. And he happened to be available to us. And it was really pretty much that simple. I think it's a little different than the Favre/Aaron thing because there were some different dynamics going on there at the time. But I think we’ve got an elite quarterback that's going to lead our team for, hopefully, a long time. And now I feel really good about a couple of the guys that we got behind him if anything should ever happen.”

It’s hard to say now whether Love will grow to be more than that. But by going to Green Bay and sitting—he was seen as plenty raw coming out—he may get the best shot to do that.

And we all know how that worked out for the last guy.

You can read Breer's entire column here:

Tom Silverstein writes about a new reality for Aaron Rodgers:

Silverstein and Jim Owczarski delve deeper into the draft in their Green 19 podcast:

Former Packers executive Andrew Brandt looking ahead at the Rodgers-Love dynamic: "It's going to be difficult":

An opportunity for the Packers to fill holes that were neglected in the drafted in the draft:

Three Packers officially back in the fold:

And one departing:

It's hard to imagine Packers games at Lambeau Field without fans. Richard Ryman looks at the potential economic impact:

Zach Kruse of the Packers Wire looks at the Packers' failure to invest high draft choices in the receiver position:

First up: Packers coach Matt LaFleur and family:

But Bill Belichick's dog stole the show:

Here are the jersey numbers of Packers draftees, and those who wore them before:

To no one's surprise, there are no Packers on this list:

This helps explain why the Patriots signed former Packers fullback Danny Vitale:

And finally:

Contact Stu Courtney at (920) 431-8377 or scourtney@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stucourt