2019 Draft Thoughts

[JaireAlex]

1 hour ago, OneTwoSixFive said:

Don't count out ESB either. He's a much bigger dude than the usual slot guy, but he has terrific athleticism and good speed - that size could be a nightmare to defenders. I rather like the idea of a big slot guy IF they have enough athleticism and good adjustment skills.

Indeed

I forgot Moore too, who is the best fit. He will have it figured out. Watch out for him this year.

 five  solid receivers if Allison comes back from injury.

[deathstar]

1 hour ago, Pugger said:

Because Tramon is getting long in the tooth and they aren't happy with Josh Jones' development so far?

I guess I was pointing out that I didn’t understand Chili’s logic.

[Chili]

[mikemike778]

2 hours ago, Chili said:

Just watching LaFleur video he just didn't sound very excited. Of course the OL was a priority and he certainly got that but i'm sure at the back of his mind he would've liked a top WR or RB to play with. Its possible he was emotionally invested in bringing in his own QB to develop for when the Rodgers train ended.

If I was LaFleur I would've been banging on the table for an offensive skill player with our 5th round pick and i'm sure he was disappointed not to come away with one but to be honest looking at the draft board there weren't many offensive players taken after that pick. The defence already had P'Smith, Z'Smith, Gary and now Keke. This is a serious investment on our pass rush, maybe LaFleur felt Keke was one too many and that pick would've been better used on offence.

With our #12 pick his offensive options were Lindstrom, Bradbury, Harry, Dillard, M.Brown, Jacobs, McGary. It's tough for me to choose...maybe Dillard.

At the trade up spot his options were Harry, Dillard. M.Brown, Jacobs and McGary.  It would've been either Dillard, Brown or Harry for me.

Had we not traded up then at #30 his options were Harry, McGary and possibly Lock. Harry would've been my pick here.

According to Packers Report Bill Hubner he was fairly certain that the Packers weren't interested in Marquise Brown. I think Lock would've only been in play had we stayed at #30 or traded down. That trade up killed any chance of us getting Lock. The trade up also killed our chances of getting an offensive skill position player in the 4th round missing out on the likes of Gary Jennings, Benny Snell and Reily Ridley.

 

If LaFleur was disappointed then it will be with the 1st round. Historically a 5th round pick isn't likely to make a significant impact. Offensively it looks a dangerous draft for the Packers. We don't have an obvious replacement for Bulaga who realistically has a high chance of going down injured at some point. Hopefully they didn't target a RT because they are confident Spriggs can handle it. At receiver, we are very much gambling that the likes of MVS, Moore and EQB kick on, as things stand we don't have anyone I'm particularly confident in calling our number 2 WR. 

With receiver for me it was early or not at all. We have been drafting late round projects for years with end result we have loads of receivers we want to squeeze onto the roster (hence we have carried 7 of them at times) but a lack of high-end talent. Drafting a weapon for Rodgers early would have been great but wouldn't be too interested in yet another 5th/6th rounder there who would just create more of a logjam there.

I don't see any value in drafting a QB. Realistically if Rodgers goes down then we are probably in the conversation for 32nd offence in the league so a backup isn't really going to help much. Rodgers new contract probably means the window for drafting his replacement isn't open yet. If he wanted to develop someone not really worth investing more than a late round pick.

Its time for the defence to start pulling its weight now. With everything that has been invested on that side of the ball, it needs to be the identity. We need the defence to win games for us and Rodgers and the offence to do enough not to lose them rather than vice versa. No excuses - most of the young talent is on one side of the ball so it has to stand up.

 

 

[jleisher]

3 hours ago, Pugger said:

But if we stayed at #30 and Savage was gone was the next S on the board a good value there?  Without knowing the draft boards of any of the teams this is all just conjecture.  Gute wanted this kid and didn't want to risk it.  Savage has the one thing you can't teach = speed.  It will be fun to see all of these new draft picks and FAs play this summer.

Fair.

[HyponGrey]

He cynic in me cannot, and will not expect anything from these rookies. They never do anything on this damn team, especially on defense. 

[incognito_man]

6 minutes ago, mikemike778 said:

Drafting a weapon for Rodgers early would have been great

We did use a top 75 pick on a weapon for Rodgers. 

I do agree with your stance on either an early option at WR or none at all. The value was just better elsewhere early this year.

Rodgers should be able to get it done with a group of Adams/Graham/MVS/Allison/ESB/Sternberger/Tonyan/Moore

There are some nice pieces there. But I did see room for a twitch guy as well. Value just never lined up in the draft.

[Hands]

There are very few things that I can say about this draft or any draft for that matter. We don't know how Gutsy had his board and don't know which players were picked for potential or for their grade at the point they were drafted.

That said...you know after the draft that the Packers really like the WRs they have on the roster. Second thing we know is that the RB position is pretty well set if they only took one and he was a late round pick.

I think the Packer's like their TEs as well since they only selected one.

I also think they are tired of the lack of depth in both lines and worked w/ FA and the draft to find possible solutions. 

It appears that Pettine is going to stop the run and make his opponents find match-ups in the passing game. That will be hard to do if the secondary stays relatively healthy.

 

We all will find out soon how successful this strategy will be.

[Chili]

1 hour ago, incognito_man said:

But I did see room for a twitch guy as well. Value just never lined up in the draft.

These kind of guys NEVER lines with our value which is why we never draft those types. It's our own draft philosophy which is directly hampering us getting those type of players. The best playmakers often goes in the first couple of rounds but we heavily prioritise the DL, CB and OT. By the time we actively look at RB, TE, WR the best players are mostly gone.

Its the same for inside linebackers. We always end up picking the player with a higher positional value instead of the much better player at ILB.  We would never draft a guy like Darius Leonard under our current system in a million years. It seems this is continuing under Gute's tenure.

We wouldn't draft Hopkins over Jones. We even had to trade down before we even considered taking Nelson. It's just simply our philosophy.

The twitchy guys who can run rings around players tend to be below our height/size threshold so we are already marginalising them when it comes to our early picks.

Sometimes from time to time you just have to go F*** it and break our habits and actively seek out skill position players early in the draft. We need to start showing flexibility instead of rigidly sticking to our philosophy. If the value pick busts then the whole team is weak as we are not drafting better players in other lesser value positions. We saw it with our team over the past few years.

Edited April 28, 2019 by Chili

[PossibleCabbage]

I really think the plan on offense for this year and the next is like the plan on defense for last year and this one: identify the positions you absolutely need to fill to even run the scheme you want, get those, then evaluate the pieces you have in hand for a year, then aggressively pursue whatever you find yourself missing. 

[JaireAlex]

1 hour ago, incognito_man said:

We did use a top 75 pick on a weapon for Rodgers. YES!!

 

...But I did see room for a twitch guy as well. ...

Twitch like Butler?

But, seriously, this draft had little top end talent at WR or RB. We did draft more day one and two offense than the last three years combined

Next year I see another focus on offense, but this is two years in a row where they went BPA imo. TT was diverging from that a bit in his last years.

[Scoremore]

Yes next year RT will be high on the list.  Too early to speculate about other needs really depends on how the rooks develop.  They could be eyeing a QB next year too.  RB's are good, WR's are good, TE good, IOL all good.  Not a lot of needs on this side of the ball.  Defense  ILB and a back up S.  Gute sure did a good job filling holes  the last few years.  To sum up going into next year RT, ILB, S, and QB.

[coachbuns]

4 hours ago, SAM said:

My take;  Gary is High, risk and return. An  injured, athletic, Tweener who had poor production in college and will need to learn a new possition. Gute was high on him so...

                 Savage was a position of need, a bit of a reach and is a little small, however is fast, played all over the secondary and had good production in college. He has a  chanch to                         start.

                 Jenkins; seems like a solid pick. Played all OL spots, chance to start.

                  Sternberger; a bit slow, cant block, however had good production in college, all be it one year. In a deep class of TE, 3d round was a bit of a reach fo him. might make the roster.

                 My two cents,. Grade C+        

Each to their own ... all kinds of thoughts.  However, lots of scouts/pro men like what the Packers did and are very high on their draft.

[Scoremore]

Just watched a special on NFLN about kids preparing for the combine.  Greedy, AJ, and Rashan.  Got to say Rashan is a real nice kid.  I'll be pulling for him.  Probably should have gone top 10.  Hated the pick because well I don't know crap.  After studying up makes a lot of sense.  Think at he'll at least be a solid player that's his floor.  Perfect fit for Pettine sounds like.  Fack will get his snaps reduced but hey it's a contract year wouldn't mind bringing him back.  Kid does have good bend and can be that situational pass rusher on the D.

[Scoremore]

BTW think Savage will be the best player from this class.  He'll have a big time impact.  Can't wait to see him on the field.  He's like a blend of Nick Collins, Sam Shields, and Jaire Alexander all in one.