NFL draft preview: Once thin up front, Packers build defensive line into a strength

GREEN BAY — Let’s be clear: The Green Bay Packers have not recreated the supergroup they had at the front of their No. 1-ranked defense back in 1996. No one is suggesting the current crew is the modern-day equivalent of Reggie White, Santana Dotson, Gilbert Brown and Sean Jones.

But that doesn’t mean that Brian Gutekunst — a 23-year-old UW-La Crosse student then, the Packers general manager now — doesn’t see the defensive line as crucial to a team’s success.

“I think it always is,” said Gutekunst, who interned for the Packers in the scouting department during the summer of 1997, while White, Dotson and Brown were still playing. “I think you want to be as well-rounded of a team as you can be,…