2023 Draft Thread

[YoHoChecko]

So crazy idea. Rodgers announces he is returning to GB for at least 2023. Packers knowing they can't keep love as Rodgers could decide to stick around in 2024 trade him for what they get. Anthony Richardson is there at 15. GB drafts him to replace Rodgers in 2024 or 2025.

Richardson got tons and tons of hype for his athletic workouts, and deservedly so. His upside is immense. But dang, he missed tons of intermediate throws in the drills that other QBs were doing on autopilot. Same with the DTR, UCLA guy who has a really awkward delivery. But it's weird seeing the Richardson hype without pointing out with equal weight the immense downside that he struggles to complete routine passes where you're literally just throwing to a spot against air.

Go watch his college games last season he struggles to read coverage and complete easy to intermediate throws in almost every game.

 

[GBP4EVER]

NO!!! Richardson while a freak athlete couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. And no they aren't trading Love this year regardless so it's a moot point.

Thing is can you really keep Love? I do not know if they put the 5th year tag on him because Rodgers has a $50 million option for 2024 that becomes fully guaranted 5 days after the SB. I am not sure you can trade him next year if he has another down year. If not what kind of cap hit do you take if you release him before that $50 million becomes guaranted?

 

[57packer]

Just looked at the list of players the Packers supposedly interviewed at the Combine. Some are the expected types, for example, they interviewed 3 early round OT's, which makes sense. High value position coupled with a moderately high need.

They interviewed a developmental QB, Jaren Hall. Smaller, highly athletic QB with a strong arm. A late round guy who can be your #3 or be stashed on the PS. They also interviewed Dalton Kincaid, the Utah TE, but interestingly he was the only TE they supposedly interviewed.

A couple of odd things for me. There isn't a single Edge guy on the list. They did interview Mazi Smith, DL from Michigan. He'd likely be a Rd2 guy - are they going to add a run stuffing DL early in the draft? They interviewed WR Nathaniel Dell, who came in at 5'8"-165#, not a guy the Packers usually look at.

They also used 5 interviews on cornerbacks, which seems like a lot considering the number of interviews is limited and they seem pretty good at the position. It was CBs from all areas of the draft from Rds 1-5. Maybe a signal that they feel they need more help there, or maybe they are seriously thinking about moving Douglas to safety, or mostly likely just doing due diligence at a high value position.

Not sure any of this means anything, but it's interesting to look at. It's always a mixture of real interest and a lot of smoke screens with the interviews, as the team sometimes drafts guys they've had no contact with and at other times drafts players they've met with, sometimes multiple times. I'm guessing one of these guys ends up a Packer.

 

[GBP4EVER]

Just looked at the list of players the Packers supposedly interviewed at the Combine. Some are the expected types, for example, they interviewed 3 early round OT's, which makes sense. High value position coupled with a moderately high need.

They interviewed a developmental QB, Jaren Hall. Smaller, highly athletic QB with a strong arm. A late round guy who can be your #3 or be stashed on the PS. They also interviewed Dalton Kincaid, the Utah TE, but interestingly he was the only TE they supposedly interviewed.

A couple of odd things for me. There isn't a single Edge guy on the list. They did interview Mazi Smith, DL from Michigan. He'd likely be a Rd2 guy - are they going to add a run stuffing DL early in the draft? They interviewed WR Nathaniel Dell, who came in at 5'8"-165#, not a guy the Packers usually look at.

They also used 5 interviews on cornerbacks, which seems like a lot considering the number of interviews is limited and they seem pretty good at the position. It was CBs from all areas of the draft from Rds 1-5. Maybe a signal that they feel they need more help there, or maybe they are seriously thinking about moving Douglas to safety, or mostly likely just doing due diligence at a high value position.

Not sure any of this means anything, but it's interesting to look at. It's always a mixture of real interest and a lot of smoke screens with the interviews, as the team sometimes drafts guys they've had no contact with and at other times drafts players they've met with, sometimes multiple times. I'm guessing one of these guys ends up a Packer.

GB has history of drafting guys in 1st round whom they never spoke to once.

 

[57packer]

GB has history of drafting guys in 1st round whom they never spoke to once.

This is true. In the later rounds it's more common that they met with some of the players.

 

[rpiotr01]

Seen Branch mocked to the Packers quite a bit but they believe in this stuff, for better or worse. They will see it as a big risk, maybe too much for 15.

 

[57packer]

That mediocre RAS should take Branch off the Packers board . . . I'm only half kidding. The Packers seem to love those high RAS athletes. While I don't think that RAS scores should be the be-all-end-all, it does seem that some of the bigger flops by Gute have been when he ignores it.

On a podcast they mentioned that guys like Jace Sternberger, Amari Rodgers, Josiah Deguara, and some others had more "average" RAS scores and have not worked out all that well. That doesn't mean the RAS score is some magic answer, but it does seem like Gute and his staff have a hard time finding "players" who don't have high athleticism. Might speak to some issues in the scouting dept.

 

[GBP4EVER]

That mediocre RAS should take Branch off the Packers board . . . I'm only half kidding. The Packers seem to love those high RAS athletes. While I don't think that RAS scores should be the be-all-end-all, it does seem that some of the bigger flops by Gute have been when he ignores it.

On a podcast they mentioned that guys like Jace Sternberger, Amari Rodgers, Josiah Deguara, and some others had more "average" RAS scores and have not worked out all that well. That doesn't mean the RAS score is some magic answer, but it does seem like Gute and his staff have a hard time finding "players" who don't have high athleticism. Might speak to some issues in the scouting dept.

Seems only thing marking him poor is weight being 190. That is easy fix to have him hit the weight room and add 10-15 pounds.

 

[57packer]

Seems only thing marking him poor is weight being 190. That is easy fix to have him hit the weight room and add 10-15 pounds.

That's not the only thing. Even if his weight is higher, his score is still just average. You'd like to see some more "green" in there among the athletic measuring. Average speed, average agility, mostly average explosiveness all say average. Plus, put 10-15 pounds on him and the athleticism might get worse.

 

[rpiotr01]

That mediocre RAS should take Branch off the Packers board . . . I'm only half kidding. The Packers seem to love those high RAS athletes. While I don't think that RAS scores should be the be-all-end-all, it does seem that some of the bigger flops by Gute have been when he ignores it.

On a podcast they mentioned that guys like Jace Sternberger, Amari Rodgers, Josiah Deguara, and some others had more "average" RAS scores and have not worked out all that well. That doesn't mean the RAS score is some magic answer, but it does seem like Gute and his staff have a hard time finding "players" who don't have high athleticism. Might speak to some issues in the scouting dept.

Biggest miss was Josh Myers over Creed Humphrey. Creed was a 99th percentile guy in RAS, and for some reason GB chose Myers over him. IMO the biggest miss of Gute's tenure as a GM.

I agree that RAS isn't the only thing to look at but it's a risk. If he's Minkah Fitzpatrick then that's a boon for the D. If he's not, he might as well be Rudy Ford.