× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

GREEN BAY — Last week, Brian Gutekunst said the decisions he makes as the Green Bay Packers general manager are about performance first, not about sending messages to players.

“I don’t necessarily think there’s a message it sends to the locker room,” Gutekunst said after trading running back Ty Montgomery to the Baltimore Ravens and safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to the Washington Redskins. “I think the decisions that we make are always in the best interest of our team, not only in the short term but the long term.”

But it’s hard to look at two of the Packers’ most recent roster moves — trading Montgomery for a conditional 2020 seventh-round pick, and releasing safety Jermaine Whitehead on Tuesday — and not think that those players’ mental mistakes or undisciplined actions at least factored into their abrupt departures.

Surely there were other factors involved, but there’s little question their mistakes hurt each player’s standing on the roster.

“I think you take everything into consideration when you make these kind of decisions,” Gutekunst said last week. “But performance comes first. That’s always the major factor in these decisions. Everything’s taken into account, but it’s never usually just one thing.”