Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt that Gutsy was safeguarding the QB position for the post-Rodgers era. You could make a case that he dove in a year too early (I doubt he drafted Love as a 3-year project/investment), but I can understand and respect that if he looked at Love in 2020 and genuinely saw the quarterback that the rest of us finally saw in 2023, he felt it was the best strategic use of that pick. I don't think there was a single, solitary one of us that agreed at the time (I mean, 3 years???), but he planted his flag, stuck his neck out, and took the shot, and here we are today.
I do (and proably always will) wonder if it would have turned out as well if he'd traded Rodgers a year earlier, the spring after the damned fool blew up the NFCCG against the Niners in January 21. I wanted him gone then (completely, thoroughly, really most sincerely gone to Denver), but that obviously didn't happen, and I guess we'll never know how it would have turned out if we'd switched horses to Love for the 2022 season.
In all honesty, I doubt it would have gone so well - partly because Jordan would not have been quite as ready, and partly because we did not yet have as many pieces in place to support him, but we'll never know. All we can say today is that when the time finally came, Jordan and the rest of the team were ready, and Gutekunst looks ike a football Einstein.
Which I guess is good enough for me. There is not a single team in the NFL with whom I would trade places today, period. I don't think there is a single team who is better positioned for success over the next ~3 year window, and 90% of that comes down to a high level of confidence in Jordan Love and the man who drafted him and then built a team around the quarterback he expected Love to become.
