Green Bay Packers Draft Grade

[gopackgo972]

14 minutes ago, FAH1223 said:

Rodgers checked out isn't gonna have the year Favre had in 2005. 

We need a classic season from Rodgers. Like Favre and his Vicodin induced 96 season. The NFL banned him from drinking booze lol.

[beekay414]

Incomplete

As everyone should give drafts before they step on the field. 

[mikemike778]

6 hours ago, James Lofton said:

Best case scenario is Rodgers plays at a high level and Love shows potential so in a few years we can recoup our lost picks. 

I was hoping we’d draft a OT that could be our RT for a decade. A run stuffing DT. A fast/quick WR. A ILB good in coverage. A CB that could cover the slot. 
I didn’t get to tick off any of those 🤔

It feels like we reached for most the players and chewed up an extra pick for Love. QBs are always a crap shoot, especially in the first round. So not pleased we used two picks including our first on him. Second round we got our third string RB. Hope it’s more than just protecting us from Jones leaving after next year. Then a short, kind of slow, TE.

this doesn’t strike me as a good draft 

 

 

 

In a few years time, Rodgers is pushing 40 and will almost certainly have accumulated more niggling injuries, if Love is showing potential then you probably aren't going to want to trade him regardless of Rodgers form . This is a draft that is setting up the next gen offence so really we probably should be moving towards that in the next few years. 

The best case scenario is that Rodgers has two very good years, wins the super-bowl and retires on his own terms on a high instead of being pushed out. Maybe the chip on the shoulder from the first draft comes back and he proves everyone wrong again.

With the possible exception of his arch-nemesis AG20, I don't think anyone wants a messy transition period and this is probably the only way to avoid it. 

 

[Golfman]

8 hours ago, James Lofton said:

Best case scenario is Rodgers plays at a high level and Love shows potential so in a few years we can recoup our lost picks. 

I was hoping we’d draft a OT that could be our RT for a decade. A run stuffing DT. A fast/quick WR. A ILB good in coverage. A CB that could cover the slot. 
I didn’t get to tick off any of those 🤔

It feels like we reached for most the players and chewed up an extra pick for Love. QBs are always a crap shoot, especially in the first round. So not pleased we used two picks including our first on him. Second round we got our third string RB. Hope it’s more than just protecting us from Jones leaving after next year. Then a short, kind of slow, TE.

this doesn’t strike me as a good draft 

 

 

There isn't anybody on this board with enough knowledge of Jordan Love to make this statement. You have no idea if the kid can become a franchise QB. The NFL gets it wrong all the time on QB's both picking too high and allowing to slide down. 

The ceiling for Jordan Love is franchise QB. The floor is a bust. Probably the reason he lasted until pick 26 there is too wide of a gap for teams who are risk adverse. I give Gute credit because it took a lot of guts to make this pick. 

[Golfman]

7 hours ago, Howler said:

Sharpe and Bayless think Rodgers is out mentally after these daggers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxQbMJX1rnQ

Why would you quote the biggest Rodgers hater on the planet in Skip Clueless? How the hell does he or Sharpe have a clue what Rodgers is thinking. You don'r reach the pinnacle of your profession by throwing in the towel when things don't go exactly your way. 

 

[Uffdaswede]

Once again, this was a very entertaining draft. There was a lot of loud dissonance between frustrated fans and a team executing a far different plan than what the fans and media imagined it to be. I had fun howling with the crew here. I didn’t see what they were doing until after the smoke cleared after the draft.

 I gave the draft a provisional B because, on the plus side, a 13-3 team got a rare shot at a franchise quarterback and acquired important pieces for transitioning the team to a ball control offense; and, on the negative side, I feel like dinging Gute for not maneuvering more to recoup the 4th round pick they gave up.

I think the whole draft hinges on two very differently timed elements. In the near term, will the second and third pick immediately become an effective part of a strategy to force another defender into the box, allowing Rodgers to exploit through the passing game rather than force the offense through the passing game. And, obviously, in the long term will Love be the guy in 2022 or 2023.

I am giving the draft a high grade for now because I believe Gute and MLF did, mostly, what they set out to do. The more important grade is the the grade this draft gets in three years. 

[hitnhope]

I think the team is extremely thin at OT.   If I thought any of the 3 late OL picks could play tackle it would be a better draft.   I don't think any of them can, and I don't think Turner is a viable option either.    If either Bakhtiari or Wagner get hurt the offense has big problems.

I think the team did too little to solve the run defense issues.  Kirksey isn't really an upgrade on Martinez, even if he can stay healthy.   No added players that are viable 5T candidates.   The only chance to get better there is through improved coaching.  Hoping on Adams looks like fools gold at this point.  We didn't upgrade there and it really was needed.

Jordan Love has a lot to like about him, but also a lot that is not very good.   Have to hope our leadership is correct, and they can develop him into something.   The odds don't favor it.   I have little confidence in our leadership at that position based on the extension given to Rodgers less than 2 years ago, and the trade for Kizer.   Both appear to me to be a bad read on the capabilities of their QB candidates in the past.  The best indication of the future is the past.   That said, nobody involved with the draft and development of Rodgers is around anymore.   We certainly have not done a good job of identifying and developing QB's recently.

I don't really care about the WR position to be honest.   If it broke right and they could get an exceptional talent it would have been fine.  I don't think that was a viable option for them the way this draft fell.    Much more concerned about the OL, and defensive run stopping game.   Would have liked to see a CB in the later rounds, unless they have a good feeling about Jackson going forward. 

[Pugger]

20 hours ago, OneTwoSixFive said:

The trouble with grades is that they tend to compare drafting to consensus value. That not a hard thing, but a fluid thing, over different teams. Also, almost everyone (outside the teams themselves) underestimates the importance of fit, which can change the value of an individual to a team by several rounds.

If pressed to indicate how I feel about the draft at this time, I felt the Packers didn't address the needs most people felt they had.....needs at WR, DL, and also at OT and ILB (both not addressed with earlier picks in rounds 1-3). It just didn't seem like the right draft at the right time. The Packers went a different way this year, getting picks at positions other  than those of greatest need, and with choices that most of us thought were not good value. A current 'D' can become a 'B' in time..........and if Love really pans out it will be A+ regardless.

Now the organisations decisions are the only ones that actually count, so here I am feeling rather down about the team, but hoping the Packers can show, given time, that they made good choices. I think it was a poor draft, but that opinion is relatively worthless right now. If most people think the same thing in two years time, then the disappointed fans may be right. If, on the other hand the team performs well in it's evolving role, then fans will be happy again. The clock ticks.

PS I actually quite liked the Love pick. It's a roll of the dice for the successor to AR. It is a move that needed to be done within three years (this year being year one). I don't especially love Love, but I don't hate him either. He has a chance, made better by sitting 2 years behind AR.

This is the thing - most of the 'experts' felt WR, for example, was a big need for our team.   It appears Gute and company didn't feel WR was this was a dire need in the short term.  We shall see...

[Pugger]

14 hours ago, ThatJerkDave said:

Was Justin Harrell a bad pick?

 IMO guys like Harrell are 'injury busts'.  True busts are guys like Scott Campbell and Tony Mandarich.

[Pugger]

11 hours ago, Patriotplayer90 said:

NE has had several QBs traded away who went on to start with other teams.  Not to mention another guy in the 6th round, forgot his name.  Bridgewater was made to look competent enough to sign a $20m/per year.  Brees hasn't missed enough time for any QB to get that kind of exposure, but he became a HOF because of Payton and the improvement was immediate.  

 

If either NE or NO selected Love , then I'd believe he was the real deal.  But our HC and GM have nothing even close to their track record to deserve that benefit of the doubt.  They may not even be here when Love is ready to play if these next couple of years are wasted because of talent negligence.  It makes no sense for them not to try and win now and just worry about the QBOTF and bridge QB years down the road when the former can actually live out some of his rookie contract years and the latter really doesn't matter

What have either team done drafting QBs that makes you believe they are QB gurus?  I could only find 2 QBs in the past 9 years that NE has drafted that went on to start for another team and they were Matt Cassel and Jimmy G.  Matt is now a backup.  New Orleans haven't had much luck drafting a QB in a while.  Bridgewater was drafted by MN.   Taysom Hill was an UDFA who the Saints snapped up after our final cut downs in 2017.  There is a good chance they graded Love a 2nd round pick but we'll never know.

[Pugger]

8 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

When Packers Brass resigned Rodgers to a mega-contract, I assumed that meant they were planning to go all in with Rodgers and move the rest of the chips to the center of the table to win now, so-to-speak.  This draft signaled a move away from this perceived notion.  We’re now hemorrhaging money on Rodgers, and in a contract we can’t give up, only to change course with an eye towards the future beyond Rodgers - couple of years possibly.

I guess if it were me, I’d have probably stayed the course with the original vision that drove Rodgers‘ recent contract extension to begin with.  As it stands today, it feels like we’re now stuck in the “in-between”: one foot still in the old, and one foot plodding the other direction.  This seems futile to me.  Not only are we paying Rodgers huge bucks to “help” the team transition, we’re paying a first round pick to hold a clipboard at the same time - seems inefficient on the surface, unless we somehow find success in the “in-between”, and Love magically becomes the QB of our dreams in a few years.  

I suspect they are happy with Rodgers but in this past draft they realized they had a chance to nab a QB they really liked who they didn't think would be within reach.  They found a partner and pulled the trigger.

[Pugger]

7 hours ago, YaddaHolla said:

We need a classic season from Rodgers. Like Favre and his Vicodin induced 96 season. The NFL banned him from drinking booze lol.

I thought his wife gave him the ultimatium.  

[deathstar]

5 minutes ago, Pugger said:

What have either team done drafting QBs that makes you believe they are QB gurus?  I could only find 2 QBs in the past 9 years that NE has drafted that went on to start for another team and they were Matt Cassel and Jimmy G.  Matt is now a backup.  New Orleans haven't had much luck drafting a QB in a while.  Bridgewater was drafted by MN.   Taysom Hill was an UDFA who the Saints snapped up after our final cut downs in 2017.  There is a good chance they graded Love a 2nd round pick but we'll never know.

Didn’t Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer start for other teams but began their careers with NE?

[Pugger]

Just now, deathstar said:

Didn’t Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer start for other teams but began their careers with NE?

Oh yes, I remember Hoyer but not Brissett.

[vegas492]

22 hours ago, Golfman said:

I love the Love pick, but after that, not so excited. I do hold out hope for the 0-linemen we drafted late and the 7th round EDGE rusher. I gave us a C, but to your point if Love becomes a franchise QB it becomes an A for sure. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Franchise QB's don't come around at that part of the draft often.  When you can get one, you do it.

The absolutely beautiful thing about it is that he's in an ideal situation to learn from a great quarterback and he's got a very young head coach to learn and grow with.    

Kind of reminds me of a similar situation back in 05.

Edited April 29, 2020 by vegas492