GREEN BAY, Wis. – Armed with five picks in the first three rounds and 11 selections overall, the Green Bay Packers had a chance to push a good team toward greatness in the 2024 NFL Draft.
“I think we had a really good opportunity in front us as we started on Thursday and, sitting here right now, I feel like we did a lot of good things for our football team,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Saturday evening.
Some things were better than others. Here’s what we liked and didn’t like.
Two of the Packers’ biggest needs in the draft were filled by arguably the top prospects at their positions.
The Packers traded back four spots to get Edgerrin Cooper, a big-time athlete and playmaker with a history of causing game-changing havoc. Cooper was the first linebacker off the board, so the Packers certainly got their guy.
Later in the second round, the Packers landed Javon Bullard, a versatile and impactful defensive back with extensive time at safety and in the slot. He was the second safety selected; the first, Minnesota’s Tyler Nubin, might not have been on their board because of poor workout numbers, so they might have gotten their No. 1 option again.
They aren’t perfect prospects – Cooper is sometimes overaggressive and missed too many tackles and Bullard is a bit short for a safety – but they will be instant starters who immediately will upgrade the athleticism in the middle of the defense.
“I think we got a lot faster, which I wanted to do this weekend,” Gutekunst said.
First-round pick Jordan Morgan can play tackle and guard. Second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper might be able to play every linebacker spot. Second-round pick Javon Bullard can play safety and slot. Fourth-round pick Evan Williams can play either safety position and perhaps the slot. Fifth-round pick Jacob Monk started at right guard, center and even right tackle. Fifth-round pick Kitan Oladapo is a safety whose future might be as a subpackage linebacker. Sixth-round pick Travis Glover can play either tackle spot.
Coach Matt LaFleur’s “best five” on the offensive line has become practically cliche, and it can put a lot of stress on players like Zach Tom, but you can’t argue with the results. Having better players on the field is always better than having lesser players on the field. That’s why versatile players are coveted.
“We’d love to have our entire group be able to play all five spots,” Gutekunst said of his blockers, “and I think we’ve done a good job of getting close to that.”
The Packers’ final picks were anything but throwaways.
Gutekunst said he wanted to draft a quarterback and got one of the better ones in the draft in Tulane’s Michael Pratt. A scout said he had Pratt graded higher than Sean Clifford, the Packers’ talented fifth-round pick from last year. Ron Wolf had success drafting/developing/trading quarterbacks in the 1990s, so there’s some potential long-term upside. LaFleur called Pratt a “tough, fearless thrower.”
Penn State cornerback Kalen King went from projected first-round pick to the 36th of 36 cornerbacks selected. In 2022, he was an All-American who finished third in the nation with 21 passes defensed. In 2023, he broke up only two passes. King was emotional after getting picked, and said he’d have a “permanent chip on my shoulder.” Who knows how long that chip will last but this pick is a bet on past production, motivation and coaching.
First, let’s make something abundantly clear. Gutekunst thinks Morgan can play left tackle. Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy is confident Morgan can play left tackle. They have forgotten more about scouting offensive tackles than I’ll ever know.
That being said, Morgan’s lack of length is concerning. Laugh all you want about 32 7/8-inch arms being a deal breaker when they’re only three-eighths of an inch shorter than the arms of the starting offensive tackles, Zach Tom and Rasheed Walker. But NFL teams have thresholds for a reason. If history demonstrated that arm length didn’t matter, they’d stop measuring.
Today, Morgan might be better than Guyton. Morgan’s got a lot more experience and polish. But Guyton has the rare traits to play left and right tackle, both of which are premium positions.
Cornerback seemed like one of the top three of four needs, but Gutekunst punted until his final pick of the draft.
At this point, in the search for a starter opposite Jaire Alexander, he is betting the season on Eric Stokes’ health and Carrington Valentine’s development. Stokes was superb as a rookie in 2021 but had a sophomore slump in 2022 and was terrible in extremely limited action in 2023. Can he finally stay on the field and is he capable of becoming a quality starter again?
Valentine was OK as a seventh-round pick last year, but they would have finished 7-10 and missed the playoffs had the Chargers’ Quentin Johnston not dropped a fourth-quarter bomb and had Valentine been flagged for tackling the Chiefs’ Marquez Valdes-Scantling. There are high hopes for Valentine but those two bits of good fortune certainly changed the narrative.
The Packers needed a back with some big-play potential and got one with USC’s MarShawn Lloyd, who averaged 7.1 yards per carry in 2023 and ran his 40 in 4.46 seconds.
Tennessee’s Jaylen Wright, who went to the Miami Dolphins a full round later, was even more explosive. He averaged 7.4 yards per carry and ran his 40 in 4.38 seconds. Moreover, Wright is a more polished receiver and better pass protector.
More than anything, Lloyd fumbled three times in 129 touches last season compared to one fumble in 159 touches for Wright. Gutekunst said there’s no correlation between hand size and fumbles, though it’s maybe worth noting that Lloyd’s hands were three-fourths of an inch smaller at the Combine (and 1 1/8 inches smaller at their pro days).
Our Day 3 draft grades | Five takeaways | National draft grades
Day 3: Evan Williams | Jacob Monk and Travis Glover | Kalen King
Day 2: Javon Bullard | Edgerrin Cooper | Marshawn Lloyd | Ty’Ron Hopper
Day 1: Jordan Morgan | Short arms
