Five years ago, we were already looking into Brian Gutekunst’s tendency toward grabbing elite athletes in the NFL Draft. In the intervening half decade, little has changed. The pattern is clear: Gutekunst loves elite testers at just about every position.
And the plan makes sense. The whole point of professional sports is competition among the very best of the best, so if you’re going to find an edge, getting athletes that stand out even among their peers — fellow professional athletes — is one way to do it.
The trick is finding ways to mold those elite testing performers into elite football players, and that’s where Gutekunst’s strategy has sometimes, maybe even frequently, fallen flat, especially in the last few seasons.