GREEN BAY, Wis. -- In the wake of Malik Willis ' second straight win in place of the injured Jordan Love on Sunday, a longtime NFL scout shared this observation: "Makes you wonder why you pay a quarterback $50 million," the AFC team scout said. Maybe Packers coach Matt LaFleur should be the one to get a raise given the improbable task of winning two straight games with a quarterback he admittedly knew little about before GM Brian Gutekunst traded a seventh-round pick for him 12 days before the regular-season opener.
"LaFleur is a god for a quarterback," the scout said. And then there's Gutekunst, who, as it turned out, essentially traded one of the last picks of next year's draft for two wins. A month ago, Gutekunst had to defend himself not just about the trade for Willis -- who had experienced little or no success after the Tennessee Titans made him a third-round pick in 2022 -- but also that he deemed the past two quarterbacks that he drafted, Sean Clifford (fifth round in 2023) and Michael Pratt (seventh round in 2024), unworthy of the backup job.
At the same time, LaFleur had hoped to have a full year to work with Wills to try to extract the talent that many saw coming out of Liberty University. It explains why LaFleur said after Sunday's 30-14 win over the Titans that "people can't fathom it ..
. what he's been able to do, I've never seen something like this." Those who witnessed it from the inside say it was a combination of the gratitude Willis had because Gutekunst wa.