Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I and Mike Spofford joined alongside my trusted colleague West Hodko. It's we are coming to you one final time from the NFL scouting Combine in downtown Indianapolis before we hit the road to come back to our abodes in Green Bay. And West We've been here. It's been a long week. It's been a busy week. It's been a fun week.
I think if there's one major takeaway from what we've seen throughout this entire process and how things are shaping up, it's that when you look at the top of this draft and the Packers are sitting at the number twelve pick, you have players on the defensive front, a group that Brian Guducunt calls the deep best he's ever seen in a long time in the drafts, that he has worked, an offensive line group that is stronger than maybe was
perceived earlier on. You throw in the fact that a tight end from Iowa t J. Hockenson being talked about as a possible top ten pick, and then all the mystery surrounding who's going to draft Kyler Murray, the quarterback
out of Oklahoma. It really looks like with the Packers sitting at twelve, and I'm not telling Brian Goudaquin's what to do here, but with the Packers sitting at twelve, there's potentially a really, really good player who could be there for the taking for Green Bay at number twelve, they don't necessarily have to move around to find a potential impact star here. Yeah, Mike, you mentioned it's been
a long week, and it certainly has been that. But the one thing that stands out to me as we sit here now is is this thing draws to a close to the fact that in all the years I've covered this now, which I believe is my six or seven combine, I don't know if I can recall a year in which so many guys have sort of distinguished themselves, you know that their forty times, with their bench press, with their vertical there just seems like there's been quite
a few that have put their names out there. You mentioned Hockinson from Iowa, Well then you had no offense come right back and was like, hey, hold my draft projection, I'm gonna kind of outshine some some people here as well. Yeah, he beat Hockinson by two tenths of a second in the forty yard dash, and Hockinson's four seven one for a tight end was nothing to sneeze at, not at all, especially a guy that is projected a sort of that
all around in line tight end. Then he had dk Metcalf come through with the four three three forty for a guy that's over two pounds was the fastest forty time since two thousand three. So the thing I'm the point I'm trying to make with all this is that Brian Goodkin's last year, I remember him saying when there was all these quarterbacks, they were talking about his potential top ten picks and there ended up being four of them. How that bode well for the Packers and where they
wanted to pick. And then what happens on draft night. They get to number fourteen, There's a number of different guys on the board at that spot, and he decides to trade back and get an extra first round pick while only moving back four spots to probably get the same guy they were looking at in Gire Alexander's When you look at number twelve this year, there are a number of blue shippers, as you said, and it is destined to be a fact that at least a few
of them are going to be there. The question is going to be, though, where do you take them? Because there are so many different guys at so many different positions that could help the Packers. Yeah, and I think that is the question. When you look at the guys at the top of this draft on the defensive side of the ball, you have your Nick Bosa, your Josh Allen,
your Quinn and Williams. Those guys aren't going to be there at number twelve, but those being your in your top five, top six, six, top seven picks, however that shakes out, and then you throw in a quarterback or maybe two that get taken up there. It's just gonna
keep pushing players down there. Now. The other thing that works into the Packers advantages that when you look at where they are at edge rusher, the need that there is on the offensive line, and the need that there is at tight end, the it doesn't matter necessarily what position that player is going to play, because I think the Packers are going to have their pick of some real top quality guys at a key position of need
as they head into Yeah. Absolutely, and then if there's enough of them, maybe you move back again, who knows get to two thousand, twenty draft pick. But the biggest thing that that was my takeaway from all this so far, and it was kind of I did a story looking at some of those pass rushers, the guys that could be available so many years, might cael these last few years.
It seems like I remember when Ryan Ramcheck you remember him from Wisconsin went at the podium offensive and they were talking and I think you know at Lanta ended up taking them, but they were that that year. They're like, hey, this might be the only New Orleans part of it. Yeah, they ended up taking them, and people were saying, hey, this might be the only offensive lineman worth taking in
the first round that year. And how many years, like last year we were we had Marcus Davenport here and people were saying, now this this might be the guy that fits for the packers, but maybe it's a stretch this year it really isn't the k And and and you look at some of these guys now in their forty times, Brian Burns, who a lot of the people that I was looking at, we're saying, hey, this guy could end up being an end of the first round type guy.
Maybe into the second Well, he runs a four or five six mantes sweat before we came down here runs a four four two. These are guys that two or fifty five, two and sixty pounds running ridiculous times in the forty. It's not everything, but as Larry was mccarroen was talking about, if you're able to disengage the ability to close to the quarterback and utilize your advantages there, it's going to give the Packers a lot to consider,
specifically a pass rusher. And then, as you mentioned with some of those tight ends as well, it's been a long time since the Packers took a tight end in the first round, but there's a couple at either twelve or thirty them might make them think about it. Yeah, Well, and those two guys, we've mentioned them already, Iowa's t J. Hockenson and Noah Fanse, two tight ends from the same school. Now, it's pretty rare that two tight ends would go in
the first round of the draft. There are actually three that were drafted in the first round just a couple of years ago. But that's the only time you've had multiple first round tight ends in uh, you know, really this century. I believe it's never happened before that you've had two first round tight ends from the same school, but it certainly looks like that could be the case
in this draft with Hockinson and Fan. Now, I don't want to oversimplify things too much, but everything you've read is that Hockinson is the immediate plug and play, instant starter in the NFL, and that's why he's being talked about as a potential top ten pick in this draft. Because of the athleticism and as we mentioned the forty time a four five one from Noah Fan as opposed to the four seven one from Hockinson, the long term upside so to speak of Fan is also is very
attractive as well. Not what I wonder about is with the four five one from strictly the Packers situation, if you were hoping that Noah Fan maybe was going to fall all the way to number thirty at the bottom of the first round, that might not happen anymore, not not with not with the testing numbers that he's put up here in India. Yea. And you look at that list of guys that have run in the four fives for tight ends over the years, those guys didn't last
very long. Now, they weren't all just immediate, you know, go to a team and dominate type players. I think even a guy like Jared Cook, who was one of them, took time for him to get immersed in the NFL game. And that's one of the things I think that makes Hockinson such an intriguing prospect because it is really difficult. He saw with Evan Ingram, but for the most part, it's tough for a rookie to come in the NFL and just dominate and just be a guy that's gonna
have six hundred yards and ten touchdown catches. It just doesn't happen at that position and be the reliable blocker that a coach wants in the running game, which is which is what they're talking about with these two Iowa prospects, and and Alabama's IRV Smith is probably the three of those top three types. And his dad played in the league at that position, was a former first round pick
out a Notre Dame. And he was talking about that as well, and he mentioned a funny little story about how some of those same scouts that scouted his dad were talking to him now in Indianapolis twenties six years later. So those those two positions to me are the most intriguing. Certainly, there's others that the packers could consider. Um, you know,
do you look at baby adding another receiver? You know, do you look at potentially finding another offensive lineman that could help you this draft, if for nothing no other reason, I think is really going to be good for depth in being able to maximize the value of those pis. Yeah.
The interesting thing too, we in some of our other videos, Larry McCarron talked about that Iowa pipeline to to Green Bay and when you look at it going all the way back to Aaron Campman in the early two thousand's and then you have you've drafted Brian Blaga, Mike Daniels, Micah Hide, Josh Jackson last year. Um, there's never been
a character issue any of those kinds of things. And when you look at these two tight ends out of Iowa, they pride themselves right now on on the fact that they are the dual tight end that NFL teams are looking for. They can they can split out wide, run the routes and catch passes. They can also line up in line and blow can be a big part of the running game, and that's why they're being talked about
as highly as they are. Yeah, and the Packers have kind of played around with those positions the last few years. Certainly look at Jared Cook. I think in terms of what Mike McCarthy's offense was, he's the one that has fit the best, maybe even arguably better than when jaw Michael Finley was in his prime, just based on what he could do on the perimeter but also come inside and make an impact as an inline guy. Uh Mark, you know, Martellis Bennett really didn't work as an inline guy.
They're just you know, there was a drops issue there and the blocking was good, but he just didn't seem like he fit the offense. And then last year, I think Jimmy Graham showed some really significant signs of being a playmaker in this offense, but between the knee injury he suffered in training camp and then also breaking the
thumb in Seattle held him back. Now that the thing that I like about this with Brian Goodkusen and Matt Lafore both sounding like they're planning to have Jimmy Graham in this offense is if you do go with the tight end, whether or not it is the first round or not. If you do finally draft one, you have time to be able to mold that individual well, to have them work with Jimmy Graham. And I keep going back to what Robert Tonyan said last year about how valuable it was to be in the room with him
and how much that helped him. I mean, you take a legit tight end prospect as a rookie and allowed them to work in a room with Jimmy Graham, I
think only good things are going to happen. Yeah, And as you mentioned before too, the Packers not being talked about as much as in the wide receiver of the running back market, but certainly going into this draft with ten picks, six picks in the first four rounds, the opportunity is going to be there to to find more of those, uh, those skill position players that that maybe Matt Lafleur has his eye on in terms of certain skill sets, certain things that he wants to add to
the mix on the offensive side of the ball that maybe aren't there just yet. And the only thing that really intrigues me to about this is, you know, Ted Thompson, as much as people want to you know, make about you know him kind of. They think he sat on his hands when it came to trades and things like that. He was a very active trader, but you never could really predict it. Yeah, he just always seemed to do it when you least expected it, particularly on draft day.
Brian Goodacuinz learned from that, and I think you're seeing a blend of his style with how he wants to run this thing. He got ten draft picks this year, which is pretty impressive concerning there won't be any compensatory this year for the first time since what two thousand nine, Three extra picks all from trades, all from trades, so to to be able to you know, take those now. I mean basically they cashed in the haha Clinton Dick's maneuver early and they end up getting a fourth rounder
out of it. I just think there's so many there's so much versatility that good Kuntz is gonna be able to draw upon that It gives you a lot of excitement going into this thing. Do you move up in the first round? Do you move back and get more capital? And I think those are the type of moves in
the long run that are going to make this team better. Well, this is the This is an interesting point because when I wrote a story of earlier in the week on where the Packers are sitting in the draft, I've talked a lot about the three picks in the top forty four and how neither Ron Wolf nor Ted Thompson ever took three players in the top forty four of a draft. But Ted Thompson did have the opportunity to do that
in two thousand six. He actually had three picks in the top thirty seven, the extra pick coming from the Javon Walker trade. But what did Ted Thompson do. He ended up taking both of those high second round picks in the thirties, trading back to accumulate more picks. But then in that second round, after he had already taken a j Hawk in the first round, he got Darren College and Greg Jennings. Well look at those top three guys, Hawk, College and Jennings, all starters, all key players on a
Super Bowl championship team. A handful of years later, when you look at Ted Thompson come into Green Bay in two thousand five, Mike McCarthy following him from two thousand six, there are definite signs of a five year plan that took that team from rebuilding mode, sped that up, got them into an NFC Championship game. Two years after, they won four games in three years after that NFC Championship
game found themselves in a Super Bowl. Brian Goodkins, I think in Matt Lafore talked about this in the luncheon that we had. They have a quarterback much like the Packers did back in two thousand five and two thousand six with Brett Farve. They have receivers, they have an left tackle much like they had with Chad I think when so many people ask about you know, we get this all the time and insider in box, you know,
how soon can we expect the Packers to compete? They are one free agent class, They are one solid draft class away from being right back in this thing. And I think when you look at the grand scheme of things, the way this league is built and developed, that's one of the biggest takeaways I took from Ted Thompson is that it doesn't take that long to renovate a program. And that's the situation that Brian good Coins finds himself
in right now. And I think the model that we as we've talked about before, is the New Orleans Saints. They had three consecutive seven and nine seasons with a Hall of Fame quarterback and Drew Brees, but they had a home run draft that brought them Marshawn Lattimore, that brought them Alvin Kamara, and then here. The last two years, the New Orleans Saints have been right on the brink of the Super Bowl and as I would argue they should have ended any would they should have been in
the super Bowl this past season. But I want to turn back to the defensive side of the ball here for the Packers as we go into this draft. You wrote a story on our website about the edge rushers, and it's a deep group of edge rushers here. I mentioned earlier the pass rushers like Nick Bosa, Josh Allen, Quentin Williams. On the defensive line, they won't be there when the when the Packers are on the clock. At twelve.
Other defensive front players, big time guys, Ed Oliver from Houston, Rashan Gary from Michigan, another big guy who ran a blazing for six times by the way, un pounds that's just ridiculous. So when you look at you look at maybe who might be there at number twelve that the packers could get to rush the passer. You wrote about a few options Jackai pole Light, I want to make sure I said it correctly from Florida, Montes Sweat from Mississippi State, although now who knows if he's actually going
to potentially be there at twelve. Cleveland Farrell from Clemson is an option. And you mentioned Brian Burns from Florida State, who maybe you'd be thinking about more at the number thirty pick at the end of the first round, but a end his stock seems to be rising as well. But a lot of options at edge rusher here that the packers are certainly looking at. Yeah, exactly. And it's funny too because, as you mentioned, Burns was a guy that was looking at it. He was going to be
the end of the first round. Well, he shows up the combine, he puts on twenty one pounds and he runs a four or five six. I mean, that's uh, that's quite the change in terms of you know, a couple of months stretch. It's going to be an intriguing class here because here the fact of the matter is Clay Matthews is an unrestricted free agent. Packers have said only positive things about him, but you don't know how this free agent process is going to go. There's questions
out there about Nick Perry. The reality is beyond that, you have Kyler Facrol, who had a great ten sacks season, looks like he's going to be a good part of this rotation for years to come. And then Reggie Gilbert. I think that it's a position that you could use help at. I think there's a guy that you could add into that rotation and find a way to make an impact because it reminds me a lot of two
thousand nine. Yes, you had Aaron Kampman. He was making a change in terms of the defense, but they were able to find that pass rusher for the future and it changed the course of the Packers defense and to sleeve the franchise for the next few seasons. And in getting Clay Matthews, I think they're in a very similar
spot right now. And if they want to go that route, Michael, there are probably a dozen guys, whether it's defensive line, outside linebackers, whatever you want to call them, there are a dozen guys from that defensive front they're gonna go in the first round, and as we said, whether it's at twelve or thirty, they're gonna have some interesting decisions
to make. Yeah, no question about it. Well, with that, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted and for our on location work here at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. Thanks so much for joining us and for tuning in for Wes. I'm Mike. We'll see you next time.