Brian Gutekunst was on the defensive, and deservedly so, for the moves he made Thursday night in the first round of the NFL draft.
The second-year general manager of the Green Bay Packers stood pat with the 12th pick and selected Michigan’s Rashan Gary, an enigmatic defensive end in a 4-3 defense with a bad shoulder that now will be asked to play the new position of outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense.
Two hours later, Gutekunst decided he couldn’t stand firm at No. 30 and thus traded away his two choices (114, 118) in the upper half of the fourth round to Seattle and select undersized safety Darnell Savage of Maryland at No. 21.
On the trade-value chart widely in use by teams this draft the Packers came out negative-50 points for the transaction.
Savage, the first of two safeties drafted, finished seventh in my pre-draft poll of 13 personnel men. He had 13 points, trailing Johnathan Abram (56), Taylor Rapp (29), Nasir Adderley (22), Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (22), Juan Thornhill (18) and Deionte Thompson (17). Marquise Blair was eighth with nine points.