Christopher from Sun Prairie, WI
Which players in the first round of the NFL Draft surprised you about where they were taken, and did you think any of them could fall to the Packers in the second round?
Five wide receivers taken in the first round surprised me a bit, but it’s not as though anything floored me. I counted two players among my dozens of Day 2 Prospect Primers – the O-lineman from Georgia Tech (Rutledge) and the running back from Notre Dame (Price) – taken last night, so the vast majority of guys I pegged as potential Day 2 targets are out there.
Let’s look a bit to our neighbors, what do you think of the Day 1 NFC North picks? Any big surprises or players you think we should be especially worried about for the next four (or five) years?
Minnesota’s interim GM took the big swing with DT Caleb Banks. Why not roll the dice if you’re in his position? Take the chance. See what happens. Otherwise, my perspective is the division opponents were filling obvious needs. The Vikings released Allen and Javon Hargrave up front on D, drafted Banks. The Lions moved on from Taylor Decker, drafted the tackle from Clemson. The Bears lost two safeties, signed the guy from Seattle and drafted the Oregon dude. Plug-n-play.
Any idea why the NFL reduced the time to pick the first-round player from 10 minutes to eight minutes? A good change for me this year.
I think the league just wanted the Thursday night broadcast to end a little sooner. But hats off to Pittsburgh. Wow, 320K. They showed up and showed out.
Hello hello! Watching the video of Gutey talking about the first night of the draft, he said he preferred to trade a pick this year rather than a pick next year should he decide to move. Given the number of picks we have next year, I was surprised to hear that. Did that surprise you guys at all? Gutey is playing a game a chess while I’m just playing checkers over here.
I mentioned this on “Unscripted.” He may lean toward hanging onto his haul of picks next year to provide the possibility of moving up into the first round, which wasn’t realistic this year. If the Willis comp pick gets upgraded to a third, the Packers will go into next year’s draft with one pick in the second, two in the third, and three in the fourth (Gary trade and Doubs comp). That would give him the capital to get a first-round pick next year if he really wants one.
Best of mornings to all! With eight picks and no first-rounder, how many players from this draft can you foresee making the 53? Out of this bunch what position/group would you most like to see have an immediate Year 1 impact? Or does all of this lead more to the probability that the real impact player is already on the roster? Thank you again for the insight.
The numerous young, returning players we’ve mentioned in this space over the past few months taking sizable steps forward will do more for the ’26 Packers than anyone drafted in the next two days, in my opinion. I don’t know how many of this year’s draft picks will make the 53, and it’s not worth thinking about until training camp. Let the draft picks from the last couple years who haven’t established themselves yet battle it out with the new ones and see who’s better.
Connor from Minnetrista, MN
Do you expect Gute to be active moving around the board this weekend?
I expect him to be looking to move around the board, but whether he’ll find the right trading partners remains to be seen.
So if the Packers hadn’t made the Micah Parsons trade (and thank goodness they did), any ideas whom they may have considered now that we have seen the way the board fell up to that point?
I honestly have no idea because I didn’t really research first-round picks this year.
Gary from Cross Plains, WI
Hoping you can reconcile a couple of concepts that have floated through II recently. Yesterday, it was mentioned how BG may not include certain players on his board, but then there’s “the rolodex.” Basically how the brass still want to evaluate (and I’d think rank) everyone – even if they know they won’t draft them this year. Then they have the info on hand down the road (for trades or as a FA pickup). Wouldn’t they still rank them now to know how they compare to rest of the draft class?
They do the homework, but if they aren’t on the draft board for whatever reason – medical or otherwise – they don’t care where they’re ranked. Their initial scouting reports are there for any future discussions, but by then their NFL game film matters most anyway.