2024 Packers Draft Immediate Thoughts

[coachbuns]

58 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

How did I feel about the draft?

I'd give it a solid B-.

I'll bet in the mock exercises that the staff did, if they didn't take a tackle in round one, they knew they'd be chasing one all draft.

I'll bet that the new DC pointed at ILB Cooper and said "Me Want!".  Then he looked at Bullard and said "Me Need!".

I'll bet we were very tempted to trade up for Mitchell.  I'll bet the ask to go up was too high and they didn't covet him enough to hurt their efforts to get Cooper and Bullard.

So, they took a very safe LT in Morgan.  Kid reminds me of Bakh in how he plays.  Excellent feet, good size, plus movement skills.  His 2022 stuff looked really good.  I don't see a guard there, but I do see a tackle.  And typical GB, he's gonna sit and/or job share for a year.  I'll never be upset with investing in the OL.

Then we doubled or tripled down on that and we may have found our next center, if Myers doesn't improve.

I loved both the second round picks.  Cooper and Bullard.  Instant starters, and I just love how Bullard can play slot.  Cooper is nasty, it will be nice to have that next to Quay.

I really didn't like the Hopper (ILB) pick.  Thought it was way too early for him.  But, we did re-make the ILB room as well as the safety room.  It'll sort itself out.

If we were going to take a RB, I wanted Benson.  Outside of him, I wasn't really "sold" on any RB.  Lloyd has nice skills, though.  We shall see.  I wouldn't have taken him there, but I'm not upset about it either.

Mid and end of the draft, outside of the center, I liked that other safety, no, not Olidipo(sp), but the bourbon kid.  Evan Williams.  He's smooth!  I like the Olidipo (sp) kid for specials and development.  

It was a meat and potatoes draft for me.  I feel like it fits nicely with our current roster.  Wildcard is our first rounder, and what it really does is make sure that the Humper (Walker) has to keep working to keep his job.  I like it!

With all your likes and you give a B-  .. damn glad you weren't one of my kids teachers.   

[vegas492]

31 minutes ago, coachbuns said:

With all your likes and you give a B-  .. damn glad you weren't one of my kids teachers.   

I can rationalize myself into the Morgan pick.  But...I had other guys available that I liked better and a few guys much better with a slight trade up.

Didn't much care for taking a RB in the third.  I feel like we really reached for Hopper.

Didn't much care for bypassing corners earlier in the draft, despite us getting a good lottery ticket in the 7'th.

To me, we made hay in the second round.

[ThatJerkDave]

2 hours ago, Old Guy said:

How dare you! 

How dare YOU?

[Brat&Beer]

I like this draft. The thing that keeps me from loving it was the Hopper and Williams picks. I just think that was a little early to be drafting guys I see as backup/role players. But they got the best LB and best S in the draft without reaching and those were their 2 biggest needs. I love the Monk pick. He will provide instant competition at C and RG. Myers and Rhyan better come to training camp ready to fight. King was worth a shot. It remains to be seen whether he's a real talented player who had an off year, or a player with fatal flaws that teams figured out in 2023.

[Old Guy]

2 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

How dare YOU?

Great news, his days are numbered! 

[ThatJerkDave]

2 minutes ago, Brat&Beer said:

I like this draft. The thing that keeps me from loving it was the Hopper and Williams picks. I just think that was a little early to be drafting guys I see as backup/role players. But they got the best LB and best S in the draft without reaching and those were their 2 biggest needs. I love the Monk pick. He will provide instant competition at C and RG. Myers and Rhyan better come to training camp ready to fight. King was worth a shot. It remains to be seen whether he's a real talented player who had an off year, or a player with fatal flaws that teams figured out in 2023.

They got the second best LB with Hopper too.  Watch him play, he is faster than the times would indicate.  He also likes to hit people, and not like Joe Mixon.  

I didn't know anything about Williams.  I preferred the Wazzu kid, Hicks.  Watch some of Williams though.  He closes fast.  I won't be surprised to see Williams and Bullard playing interchangeable roles in a 3 safety package.  The kid can play.  

[ThatJerkDave]

3 minutes ago, Old Guy said:

Great news, his days are numbered! 

reported for inappropriate content.

[beekay414]

I think it's obvious who my favorite pick in the draft was. For real though, the only reason Michael Pratt fell to 245 is because he's a big dumb idiot. The kid can ******* ball. I don't need any Vikings fans coming in here and chiding me for this comment because I've made this statement going back throughout the draft process (seriously look it ******* up before you claim Packer homerism) but I've seen no major discernable difference between Michael Pratt and JJ McCarthy this entire process other than one plays for Michigan and the other plays for Tulane. McCarthy's deep ball is probably a tad better but it's not ******* 200+ picks better. 

Also, McCarthy comes off as a major tool and Pratt just comes off as a surfer type clown lol. I love it. Just adds more to the rivalry for me honestly. 

[Mr. Fussnputz]

2 hours ago, Spartacus said:

Morgan, Monk, & Dillard can all compete for RG snaps if the Packers feel good about Walker/Tom. 

I was just joking about half a G, because he rotated last year. In all seriousness, I can see Monk winning the C position and Rhyan rotating with Myers. I think we might also see a rotation between Walker and Morgan at LT early in the year. 

Before you laugh about Monk, who would have thunk mid-round choice Tom would be starting at RT last year? I view Monk as this year's Tom. Throw in Donovan Jennings and one of the developmental Ts and we have a pretty good OL. (Walker/Morgan-Jenkins-Monk-Rhyan/Meyrs-Tom backed up by Jennings, Newman, and Tenuta/Jones/Hillard, etc.) We finally backfilled the hole Bahktiari left! 

P.S. After watching some film on Glover I am left speechless. The only thing I can think is that he is destined for a year on the PS in the weight room to develop an NFL body. 

Peace.

[Old Guy]

30 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

reported for inappropriate content.

You have a mullet, don't you? 

[Haha21]

I am happy with the draft. Like several members on here, I was disappointed but not shocked when we passed on DeJean in the first for an OT. Protecting the QB is the number one priority. Given the board at the time, I was convinced we would go with Guyton. The Packers definitely have H/W thresholds that they don't deviate from, especially in the first round. Morgan checks a lot of boxes and I am happy that he will be begin at tackle. 

I like the Edgerrin Cooper pick at 45 although I was more fan of Junior Colson. Cooper has all the athletic gifts in the world but isn't always consistent with his eyes, diagnosing plays. I am super excited to pair him with Quay as now we have two of the most athletic LB's in the league.

Bullard was my favorite pick in the draft. As soon as Philadelphia jumped in front of us and took DeJean, I knew we had to come out of the draft with Bullard. I love how versatile Bullard is, he can play anywhere in the secondary, is incredibly smart, and he possesses good ball skills. I haven't been this excited about a safety we drafted since Haha back in 2014.

I like the Marshawn Loyd pick but was more a fan of Jaylen Wright in that spot. Loyd has juice though and strong build. I expect him to over take Dillon for RB2 quickly. I wasn't a fan of the Hopper pick. Seems like a good athlete but I was hoping we would target IOL in the third round. 

Haven't seen much on Evan Williams but the reviews from Gute have been encouraging. Seems like another smart DB that can play. Monk looks like a player and hopefully after a year in a NFL weight room, he will be ready to compete for a IOL spot. Then outside of Glover, the rest of our day three selections were good values for the late stages of the draft, especially with Pratt and King being taken where they were. 

Overall I would give this draft a B. Morgan, Cooper, and Bullard should also all start right away and both the LB and DB rooms have been restocked. Only thing I would've liked to have seen would have been EDGE but the need was lessened with Engabare perhaps in better shape from his injury than we thought. 

[packfanfb]

32 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

They got the second best LB with Hopper too.  Watch him play, he is faster than the times would indicate.  He also likes to hit people, and not like Joe Mixon.  

I didn't know anything about Williams.  I preferred the Wazzu kid, Hicks.  Watch some of Williams though.  He closes fast.  I won't be surprised to see Williams and Bullard playing interchangeable roles in a 3 safety package.  The kid can play.  

The only thing that scares me about Hopper is when I see comments like "he plays through a straw." Just about every report I've read about him indicates poor instincts or some version of "he doesn't see it." That's typically a death sentence in this league for an OBLB, among a few other positions. If you're constantly a step slow in reading the play, your athleticism becomes almost irrelevant. Time will tell if those reports are correct. 

It's for this exact opposite reason that I like the Williams pick, probably more than most people. Yea, he's a 4.6 guy in shorts, but he's a smart player. We just paid a 4.6 safety $17m per year because he knows how to diagnose and react on the field. I'm not saying Williams is the next McKinney, but as a safety (much like the OBLB spot), instincts and play speed are so critical. I don't know if Williams will ever be a star in this league, but I think his mind alone will get/keep him on the field. 

[ThatJerkDave]

Joking aside, I will repeat my thoughts on the OL from the roster thread.

-Walker, Jenkins, Myers, Rhyan, Tom are the incumbent starters.  I am confident that these 5 make the roster.

-Morgan and Monk are likewise very safe bets based on draft status.

-We have three tackle spots filled.  In my opinion, that leaves one tackle spot open for Dillard, Jennings, Jones, Telfort, or Tenuta.  Jennings is the only player with any guaranteed money of this group.

^The above gives 8 OL.  You probably want 9 on the roster.  Perhaps two of the reserve tackles impress.  Perhaps Glover is more ready than we think.  Perhaps one of the other UDFAs or tryout players impresses.  

-However, if you look at Newman:  He has played in every single game of his career.  Has started a handful of games.  I believe he has played both guard positions and RT.  He also plays on at least one special teams unit.  That is a pretty good value as a player who dresses on game day.  I really think Newman is OL number 9 unless someone comes in and just kicks ***.  And at that point, great! We have a young player who came in and kicked ***!

 

[Old Guy]

9 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

 

-However, if you look at Newman:  He has played in every single game of his career.  Has started a handful of games.  I believe he has played both guard positions and RT.  He also plays on at least one special teams unit.  That is a pretty good value as a player who dresses on game day.  I really think Newman is OL number 9 unless someone comes in and just kicks ***.  And at that point, great! We have a young player who came in and kicked ***!

 

He's going to make 3.2 million a year. We save 3.1 if we cut him.

His special team's reps are not valuable at all. Anybody can play the line on FGs and XPs. Punt block as well. 

What you fail to mention is that when he did play, he was a turnstile. I'll take my chance on a rookie for under a million and save the 2.2 million. You can do a lot better than Newman for 3.2 million. There are a lot of serviceable vets who we can get for that after June 1st cuts are final. 

[skibrett15]

This draft GB had some significant deviations from the "consensus board".  Some would call them reaches.

Historically in the aggregate this has shown to not be a good thing, but individual picks can always swing it in a different direction.

 

Hopper especially was a big reach for the round he was drafted.  Now that was also somewhat true of jayden reed, but that was only by about 1 round.  Hopper was about 2 rounds.  To me this was bad process by the packers - even if they had him high on the board, it's very unlikely that other teams ALL had him this high and there's a very good chance they could have gotten him a round later.

 

3rd round REALLY seems to be the time when coaches get to make their picks - and 3rd round is often our worst picks by far in the draft.  Organizationally we need to stop handing out these favors to coaches who are clearly flawed when it comes to player evaluation.