#523 Packers Unscripted: Talking trenches

and defensive lines. And you know, you look at this Packers offensive line if the season started tomorrow, you know who you're starting five is. But when it comes to maybe some planning for the future, especially at the offensive tackle position, the Packers are definitely looking at some things in this draft. Yeah. And if you go back, Mike,

all these drafts, offensive line, defensive line. If there's anything that they're almost a certainty of, it's the Packers will draft at least one player from both of those positions. Defensive line. They've done it in twenty four, twenty five consecutive drafts. Now. But your question is valid offensive line. Offensive tackle is going to be an issue, an interesting thing for the Packers to potentially explore because Brian Bulag

has gone. Rick Wagner is here, but as we saw last year when Blaga went down, then you had to go get Jared Vlder to come in and help out at right tackle, who could potentially be that swing tackle candidate for them this year. That is gonna be the thing that I'm with my eye on. Alex light is back. Certainly, you have guys like you know, even Elaine Taylor who's still on the roster right now. He could potentially help out there as well. But I think they want to

probably get a guy in the system. With David bak T now nine years old, Rick Wagner also thirty, you want to get a young guy to work with them and really get a chance to develop a much like Bolaga did with box tr seven years ago. Yeah, you look at the offensive tackle situation and Rick Wagner he entered the league three years after Brian Bulaga, but he's an actually the same age as Bolaga. Then you also have David Bactieri, he's heading into the final year of

his contract. As far as the other options at offensive tackle, Billy Turner maybe could play there. You mentioned Lane Taylor maybe could play there in a pinch. You have Alex Light with a little bit of experience. Yosh Naiman is back from an injury. He'll be another guy to compete for a backup role on this roster. But in terms of planning for the future, yeah, you'd really like to get one of the top offensive tackles if you can in this draft. Obviously, a lot of that depends on

how things fall. With the Packers sitting at thirty in the first round, sixty two in the second round, it's going to be hard to find somebody after that. I mean the David Baktrs of the world. Finding a franchise offensive tackle and a left tackle at that in the fourth round. That that doesn't happen every day. It It doesn't happen, you know, even maybe more than once in about a decade or two. Packers very fortunate there. They've

made the most of everything with box Tr. I think they'd like to keep him in Green Bay even beyond this final year of his contract. But it's about planning for the future. With Rick Wagner the age that he is, and as you said, having a potential swing guy who could back up at both spots and develop behind a couple of established pros. Yeah, and this is something that you and I discussed on our last show. With the

receiver position. You've got Devin Funchius in the system. Now, this is a young man that allows you to have flexibility. You don't have to necessarily go out and use a high pick on receiver. You can if you want to, but you're not pressing for need the same thing. That's what happened with Rick Wagner, and I think actually Wagner is even more important now when you look at what could be a really truncated offseason program. We don't know

what will happen with the training camp. You don't want to throw a rookie out there right away off the bat. You want a guy like Wagner that started a hundred games in the NFL to this point and is going

to be able to help out. I have to deviate from this for a second, though, Mike and bring up Lane Taylor again, because if you go back back to January, back to February, West had Kowitz and I'm not trying to pat my self on the back here, but I'm just trying to reiterate Lane Taylor is a good football player here, folks, West Hodco has kept saying Lane Taylor is not going to get cut if you know anything about his contract, if you know any the way that

what he's gone through, the way they structured that, it wasn't like he was gonna be a big cap casualty. It reminded me a lot of what happened with Brian Bolaga last year. He was making good money, absolutely, but he wasn't making the most at his position. So by having Taylor back, by resigning Lucas Patrick extending him, you have Billy Turner coming back. Ellen Jenkins, I think is

gonna be a ten year pro in this league. For as many questions as the Packers have to answer as far as who that swing tackle is going to be, they have a lot of options on that interior offensive line in one of the deepest into your offensive lines that I can recall in my time covering this team. Yeah, the Packers are definitely in good shape depthwise on the interior. You do have Corey Linsley at center going into the final year of his contract. He's another one of those veterans.

The Packers will be making a decision on as far as a contract extension here sometime within the next twelve months. But but looking at offensive tackle, and I'll glance at my notes here for a second with regard to some of the prospects that are out there, there's kind of a consensus on the top four or five offensive tackles in this draft, but there certainly isn't a guarantee that any of those four or five guys is going to be there for the Packers at thirty if that's where

they're targeting. And I'm talking about guys like Tristan Worf's from Iowa, Jedrick Wills from Alabama, Andrew Thomas from Georgia, Beckton from Louisville, and Josh Jones from Houston. Now, Josh Jones is one of the one guy who's maybe outside of you know, those top four that there's a lot of varying opinions as to where he might fall in this draft. But then other guys, and these would be guys maybe that could be there at sixty two at the end of the second round if the Packers are

inclined to go that way. Austin Jackson from ust maybe Ezra Cleveland from Boise State, Isaiah Wilson from Georgia. He's the other tackle on the opposite side from Andrew Thomas, who is the higher rated tackle from Georgia, and then Prince Tega Winoga, Winoga, if I'm saying that correctly from Auburn, another offensive tackle being talked about in that that second round range. So there are going to be some options

there for the Packers. But again, when you're at thirty, when you're at sixty two, who's going to be there and can you get the right value for the pick to address those future concerns that we're talking about. One thing I love about when we do the draft series, spot is always the one that has to say all the prospects names. I always get to come in afterwards after you actually have gone through it and pained yourself

to make sure you get all these pronunciations correct. Uh, Josh Jones and the guy I've had my eye on this entire process. I just think that as you've seen that position and where he could potentially fit, he's the only senior in those top picks. A lot of experience there at Houston, certainly had a lot of success at the college level, but it seems like his project keep it can be anywhere from fifteen to thirty to maybe

second round. You don't really know where he's going to fall, but a lot of ability, there a lot of talent. I think he's a guy to have my eye on. As far as second round, Austin Jackson is probably the one if he would be there that late, I don't know. And Ezra Cleveland, I mean, Cleveland's a tall dude. If if he can get his pad level right, I think he can be a really big success at this level too.

It's not the deepest group ever, and there's some question in terms of where these guys are gonna play at the next level, but there are a lot of options and body types for Brian Goodicoins to take a look at. Yeah, just a couple other notes. Austin Jackson from USC He's the one whose grandfather played for the Packers. I believe it was back in the nineteen seventies, and that you

mentioned Ezra Cleveland from Boise State. I kind of look at him a lot like Josh Jones, just in the sense of there's talk of him being anywhere from maybe being picked twentieth in the first round to anywhere all the way down through the second round. There's a lot of varying opinions as to as to where he might go. You see some reports that some team wants to trade up for him in the first round, and then others are saying, well, you know, he'll be there in the

second round, so who knows. I mean, you know, we're still six days away at this point from this first round kicking off, and they're they're gonna be a lot of trades maschinations, teams shifting around trying to find the right value based on how they have guys rated on their board. And uh, and we'll just have to see

exactly where Brian Goudacum's test. Some of these guys rated his decisions are gonna tell us that absolutely And I want to jump in here and mentioned this is I love these type of prospects, by the way, the guys that people don't know if they're gonna go twenty or sixty because a lot of times the guys that end up falling into the second round, they're the ones that everybody thought were a sure friar first round pick and

then suddenly they're there. What's wrong with them? But then you look at you know, a guy like Darnell Savage last year, a lot of people didn't think he was a first round pick right away he ends up being the first defensive back on off the board. You know how many times I bring up late in vander esh a guy that at the combine a number of years ago was seen as a second or third rounder. He

works his way into the first round. Those guys that sometimes I have those wide projections and up going on the earlier side of that, because as much as there's questions out there about them, there's a lot of intrigue as well, as you know from NFL scouts. So for that reason, whether it's Josh Jones or whether it's Cleveland, some of these guys, I like those question marks because I think that shows their upside and their stealing and

how that could potentially impact an NFL roster. Yeah, absolutely well, shifting gears here to the defensive line. The way I put this in the written series that is that I've been posting on the site on a daily basis looking at the Packers roster position by position. The perfect world scenario for the Green Bay Packers is to be able to extend Kenny Clark and find the next Kenny Clark. Now that's absolutely you know, having your cake and eating

it too. So to speak, but Brian Goudakunst has made no bones about the fact that he wants Kenny Clark in a Packer uniform long term. He's now entering the fifth year option from his rookie contract as a first round pick in the Packers want to work out a deal. They want to extend Kenny Clark, and they did extend Dean Lowry last year. But after that, you have Tyler Lancaster, you have Montrevius Adams, and you have keys Lee Kiki,

a sixth round draft pick from a year ago. All of those guys still, you know, you hope that they're still developing and and haven't necessarily reached their peak yet. But this is a position I think if the right guy is there, whether you're talking at thirty or at sixty two, I don't see Brian Goudacum is hesitating whatsoever to make that pick and add to that defensive line and hope that that's the next Kenny Clark, if that

guy is there for him. There's been a lot of interviews and types of like things I've done leading up to the draft here of people asking, you know, what are the Packers going to do with number thirty Are they gonna move up, are they gonna move back? Are they going to go with receiver finally for the first time in eighteen years. You don't know, But you can go off of history and you can go off percentages. If you were asking me, Okay, West, you gotta pick

a spot here, you have to pick a player. You basically look at the past twenty years offensive line, defensive line, that's more often or not been the way the Packers have gone. And for that very reason, I always take scouting those players, reading about those players very seriously because as it goes back to that old adage that Ted Thompson always used to say, you're familiar with him, Mike, I'm sure we bring it up on the show every year.

There's only so many of those guys on this planet, and there's even fewer of them that can actually run, jump, all those type of things that you look for in a professional football player, and you put a premium on that position. You look at where the Packers stand right now. Kenny Clark, I think undoubtedly is going to go down is probably one of the top ten picks that Ted Thompson had because he found him at the end of

the first round. And this is a guy that is now, at twenty four years old, one of the best at his position in the league. Dean Lowry signed the extension last year. I'm sure if you ask Dean, he probably wanted to make more of an impact than he was able to. But still a very consistent, durable player for them. Has not missed a game yet due to injury. And those are your two building blocks are on the defensive line.

Who's going to be that third person though, because as much as we have talked about all the league's moving towards the passing league, we're seeing more two down lineman looks Mike. I didn't run the actual percentages, but I would I would have a hard time believing that base defense has been down as much as I think everybody says it is. Packers ran a lot of it last year, whether it was a different type of variation, but they've had a lot of three defensive linement on the field

at the same time. So you're looking at Montrevia Saidams, You're looking at Kiki, You're looking at Tyler Lancaster. You want to see those guys step up, but a lot of times the best way to get the most out of that room is to find a real nice athlete, like they did with Kenny Clark in two thousand and sixteen, throw them in there and let those guys, you know, compete for that playing time. Well, that that's what I think dictates what you do from a defensive perspective with

regard to your packages. Is what type of defensive lineman do you have? And if the Packers, I mean Kenny Clark is he's that every down, all around lineman. He can he can stop the run, and he can take on double team, he can get after the quarterback, he can do all of those things. Well you add a second guy who's just like that. I don't care whether you call it nickel or bass or sub package, whatever

you wanna call it. If you have two guys like that playing almost every down on the defensive line, your defensive coordinator has all kinds of flexibility with how he wants to package everybody else at the linebacker level and at the secondary level. So that's the kind of and and that's how the San Francisco forty Niners, frankly the

defending NFC champions, that's how they built their defense. They built their defense by spending first round picks or trading or signing former first round picks to build that defensive line. Now they ended up trading I believe it was DeForrest Buckner this uh this offseason. So there's talk that the forty Niners at number thirty one, picking right after the Packers, might be in the market for another defensive lineman as

well because of their trade of of Bucker. They want to try to keep that same style, that same core of defense in terms of type of players to there to make another run out of Super Bowl. So this is gonna be really interesting to me how this shakes out at the at the end of the first round, because and we all know, the Packers didn't stop to run well enough against San Francisco in January, and that's

why the forty Niners went to the Super Bowl. And let's be honest, Mike, I'm gonna flash forward to a year from right at this moment, I fully expect that David Batr, Kenny Clark, both of those guys are gonna be the long term plans for the Packers. I see them being in for the next four or five years. But in Clark's specific spot, you what you want to

do is you want to be able to build that up. Now, whether it takes a first round pick or not, you don't know, but you want to be able to use him in different ways so he doesn't have to do everything, because as great as Kenny Clark is, you can't always expect him to play of the defensive snaps every single year, especially as he gets older. You want to be smarter with him. You want to take him out of certain run packages. You want to be able to take him

out of certain pass packages. You want to maximize his value and make sure that that guy is going to give you a percent physically you know you're gonna get it mentally, but being able to give everything he has when he's on the field, that's why. And and you know we'll get into some prospects here, but these last few years, you know, you've had a guy or two that you've mentioned, the one I always like to use

as Elvin Kamara. You were on that train before anybody else, and I think Ross Blacklock is one of those guys. This year. I didn't know Ross Blacklock until you brought up his name at the NFL Scouting combine. And I've done a lot of research on the young man. He has a different body type than Clark. He's about the same height, but he's a little smaller about pounds smaller. But those two ninety pound defensive tackles, now, Mike, they're

infiltrating the league and they're making big impacts. That's a guy that could potentially if the Packers would go that direction, maybe take off some of those pass rushing duties from Clark or being able to at least use them in different ways to be able to give you more of a two headed approach in the trenches. Yeah, and just to to run down some names as far as guys that are being talked about in that that late first round or into the second round. On the defensive line.

You mentioned Blacklock from TCU. He's getting a lot of a lot of publicity in terms of people wondering how much the Packers are interested. Um Neville Gallimore from Oklahoma would be another one. Marlon Davidson from Auburn. He was another guy really intrigued me at the combine from a personality standpoint. Really interesting guy and and just like I was talking about with Georgia with the offensive tackles, Davidson

is sort of the second guy from Auburn. Because Derek Brown, the top defensive lineman from Auburn, he's being talked about as a possible top five, top ten pick. But then Davidson is that is that second guy from that same defensive line unit. Uh justin Mattabek if I'm saying that correctly, from Texas A and M. And then also ray Kwon Davis another one from Alabama. Um, who's been talked about in that late first round or or second round, you know, day two type of mix. So again, you just don't

always know where these guys are gonna go. And and you know, with a lot of these prospects, I mean, as we talk about all the time was beauties in the eye of the beholder. There are some teams who will have certain guys rated as theft or twentie best player in the entire draft on their board, that same guy best guy on another team's board. So um, and they you know, they guard those opinions as as well as they can leading up to when the soul starts

next Thursday night. Yeah, just a touch on you know. Obviously, Gallamore has such an interesting story Canadian and a guy that went to a prep school I think his parents are paying sixteen thousand dollars a year or something like that for him to go. And you know Canada, you know, the Great North is not known for a lot of NFL prospects. Uh. And here was a guy that put in everything he had to try getting a college scholarship.

He did that at Oklahoma, was very productive there. And then also as you mentioned, made Bouki, Yeah, I can't pronounce his name. He played last year or two years ago with Kingsley Kiki, very similar type of skill sets. He really came on as a senior. I think he had eleven sacks or something like that. Um made book keep. I'm not gonna be able to pronounce that. That That means the Packers are gonna draft him, and I'm gonna have

to learn how to pronounce that. But it's those type of guys that I think whether the Packers go first, second round, if they want to go high with the defensive linemen again, much like with the offensive line, a lot of different guys that could really be a complimentary piece and potentially help them out depending on what they're looking for. Yeah, and just getting back to Blacklock for a second, to he's the one who's uh father has

been the coach of the Harlem Globe Trotters. So I I just his his story to me is is is fascinating and like I said, with Davidson from Auburn Blacklock from a personality standpoint, just a really interesting guy to listen to him talk at the combine and and tell his story. Um, there are definitely some some personalities in this defensive line group and we'll see if if ultimately one of them falls to the Packers at a place

that Brian Goudaquins feels there's good value to take one. Yeah, and even if they don't take one of the first three days, as I mentioned earlier, I think it goes back to or ninety six somewhere around there was the last time the Packers have not drafted a defensive lineman. So death taxes and defensive lineman you can count on them every year for the Green Bay Packers. Yeah. All right, Well, with that we will sign off on this edition of

Packers Unscripted. Will continue our position by position preview series next week when we return. For now, thank you for watching, everybody, enjoy your weekend, Take care and stay safe.