Green Bay Packers: 2018 NFL Mock Draft 3.0 with a Trade

[Bob Fox]

The 2018 NFL draft is now less than two weeks away. It starts on April 26 and will last through April 28. This year the location is AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Up to this point, the draft process has already taken us through the bowl games, plus the all-star games (the East-West Shrine Game, the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and the Senior Bowl) and finally the NFL Scouting Combine.

The pro days have taken place as well, and currently NFL teams are scheduling personal visits with various prospects.

As I mentioned in my previous mock draft, general manager Brian Gutekunst of the Packers has been a bit busy in the free agency process, both in adding players to the team (Jimmy Graham, Muhammad Wilkerson and Tramon Williams) and in releasing a big name (Jordy Nelson).

And earlier this week, the Packers also re-signed veteran cornerback Davon House.

Before the free agency period began, Gutekunst made a trade with general manager John Dorsey of the Cleveland Browns. In that trade, the Packers moved cornerback Damarious Randall to the Browns for quarterback DeShone Kizer.

In addition to the players being traded, the teams swapped picks in both the fourth and fifth rounds, which means that the Packers will have the first pick in both the fourth and fifth rounds of the upcoming draft.

I’m sure part of the reason Gutekunst and Dorsey made that trade, was the comfort level each has with one another, as both worked together for 13 years in the Green Bay scouting department.

In addition to that, Eliot Wolf, who is now assistant general manager of the Browns, and Alonzo Highsmith, who is now vice president of the Browns, also spent many years together with Gutekunst in the scouting department of the Packers.

In a recent piece about the Packers and Browns possibly doing more business during the draft, I surmised that another trade between the two teams might be forthcoming. And in this mock draft, I am going to use one of the scenarios that mentioned in that article.

In this scenario, I have the Packers trading up to get the first pick of the second round from the Browns, which would be the 33rd pick of the draft. To do that, the Packers would trade their own second round pick (No. 45), plus their first fourth round pick (No. 101), plus would have to also trade their two compensatory picks in the fifth round (No.’s 172 & 174).

The trade will still leave the Packers with nine picks in the draft, including at least one in each round, but now Green Bay would be able to get two of the top 33 players in the 2018 NFL draft.

As per usual, I am using the expertise of NFL scout Chris Landry to help guide me through the draft process, as I will be utilizing his horizontal draft board (best players regardless of position) and his various positional draft boards.

I will do one final mock draft the week of the actual draft. But without further adieu, here is my mock draft 3.0.

To read the rest of the story, please go to:

https://greenbaybobfox.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/green-bay-packers-2018-nfl-mock-draft-3-0-with-a-trade/

[Gopher Trace]

 Promoting our own blog, are we?

Reported. 

[Uffdaswede]

This is going to be such an interesting draft.

Landry, Davenport, Edmunds, LVE or go DB?

Do Fitzpatrick or James fall to 14? Great picks but you’d still need corners and edge.

Ward, Alexander, Hughes, Jackson, Jackson, or Oliver? It would be crazy if we didn’t get a CB with first or second pick.

TE in the midrounds? (3-5)

I think the linked draft got Fumagalli right. I would be surprised if we picked Josh Jackson.

[OneTwoSixFive]

Ok. So you have: picks 45, 101, 172, 174, all traded to Cleveland to move up to Browns  #33

1) OLB Davenport
2) CB Josh Jackson
3) WR Dante Pettis
4) Cb Tony Brown
5) TE Troy Fumagalli
6) G  Sean Welsh
6c) LB Leon Jacobs
7) OT David Bright
7c) RB Philip Lindsay

I like the first three picks, though that trade to get to #33 is too many picks given up, imo. I see several corners close to Jackson's ability who should go from the late first round to a dozen or more picks into round two. Carlton Davis, J.Jackson, I.Oliver, J.Alexander, M.Hughes. Now when maybe three of these guys are gone I'd look into trading up to get one of the last two, but that might not require moving as high as pick 33.

Alternatively, I'd also look at moving back several spots in round one, moving back to pick 19 or 20 should return picks to the value of about the 6th-9th pick in round three. Then you have more ammunition to move up in the second. Of course Davenport would be off the board by then, so other guys like Vander Esch or Landry might come into play.

For the late picks, some OL guys who have been in to interviews with the Packers are USC's Nico Falah, Hawaii's Dejon Allen (both likely interior guys). Korey Cunningham (Cincinnati) is a guy who could play tackle, he has good athletic numbers.

If the first pick in round 4 is retained, I'd hope that TE Ian Thomas (Indiana) is still there - if he is he would be my pick, he has a 4.74 40 time and Fumagalli is not that kind of threat to go deep.

[AlexGreen#20]

Do you get sick of writing the same eight paragraphs to begin every article? There isn't a word minimum on a personal blog. If you're going to do the mock draft, do the mock draft. Everybody who cares enough to read your mock draft already knows what the Packers did this season.