Packer Draft

About ten days ago, April 25-27the National Football League held its annual draft of players.  This event has become quite the spectacle.  A few years ago they started to move it out of New York to varied NFL cities to attract a wider audience.   The first such substitute was Chicago.  This year it was Nashville.  They seemingly had people in the audience from every team. The high visibility can lead to some awkward moments; an immediate one that comes to mind is Aaron Rodgers falling way down in the first round. Something similar happened to other quarterbacks this year, although they may not as far as did Aaron Rodgers. The television cameras like to watch them squirm as yet another team passes on young man who was to be a top prospect.  having dropped in the draft is on why Rodgers was taken out of the green room. Yet, the NFL does all this to obtain peak visibility.  They subscribe to the mantra even bad news is good news.

Dexter Williams, 6th Round Pick

With people seemingly supporting every team in the NFL present at the Nashville draft, it makes me wonder if they are naturally residents of the area, or do they travel from far and wide because they are so obsessed with football they want to see who the home team picks?  Although knowing the NFL, it is quite possible they pay people to dress up in the funny hats, and color their faces for the "home team." I say this because several years ago, when Veteran's Day fell on a professional football night, it turns out that the NFL was not doing pregame and halftime shows out of the goodness of Roger Goodell's heart.  In one example, in Green Bay at prime time there was quite the pre-game and half-time event of their prime time evening game. People in the seats had different colored cards that when held aloft became a large American flag.   People thought it was really neat that the NFL would go to such lengths to honor Veterans.  However, it came out that the Armed Forces actually paid to have the extravaganza at Green Bay, and in other cities.  The NFL does little out of the graciousness of the small heart of Commissioner Roger Goodell.  If one were to look at it, except for one team, all other 31 teams have private ownership, and most of those are owned by persons with substantial wealth.  Some, like the McCaskey's, Rooney's and Mara's have been passed down to a second or third generation. Virginia McCaskey, who owns the Bears, is the daughter of George Halas, who helped found the NFL about 100 years ago.  The community ownership structure of the Packers, is not thought to be a testament to wealth, and so the Packers are grandfathered in and such structure is now not allowed by NFL rules.

No, you are correct this is not Clay Matthews.
It is Rasham Gary, first Round pick, 12th overall.
Clay commented that the body is not even cold and his
old number was given out

That gets us to the Packer draft.  The Packers have had terrible drafts for a number of years.  This goes to the incompetence of their general manager(s).  Ted Thompson was kept on way too long, like ten of his twelve years too long.  No, make that twelve of his twelve years.  Tom Oates, a WI State Journal writer and Packer apologist noted in a column right after the draft that in the past eight drafts "the Packers used 18 of their 24 picks in the first, second, and third rounds on defensive players.  All seven first round picks during that time played defense.  Seven of the top second round picks were spent on defense."  Yet, even with the selection of "top talent" their defense has not gotten any better, and really has gotten worse.  This shows one of two things:  they did not know how to pick the right player, or the top round picks are not worth the effort, or the money.  It may well be a combination of the two.  I think it is the Packer 2015 draft class that by the end of the last season none of its selectees were still with the team.  That class should be producing strong, knowledgeable players in the prime of their careers.  But no, not in Green Bay.   Not a very good sign for a team that has for many years has said they were based on a draft and develop philosophy. To me it is more like draft and get rid of.  The draft and develop philosophy only works if you get successful picks.  Clearly, it has not worked for the Packers because the GM (GM's) are quite incompetent in picking talent, in early rounds.  Historically, many of their best picks have come in the fourth round.  David Baktiari, Josh Sitton, TJ Lang, Mike Daniels, among others, were picked at that level.  If I were head of the Packers I would tell them to trade down in picks--get the hungry 3rd rounders and below.  Years ago the Packers drafted three corner backs with the first three picks in rounds 1-2-3, and the only one who remained with the team after year 1 was the third round pick.

Knowing that they had success in mid rounds, what did the Packers do this year?  They traded away two fourth round picks to move up nine spots with their second pick in the first round (that pick was acquired from trade with New Orleans).  Who did they select?  An undersized safety.  They say, however, that this player has the speed and footwork to make up for his lack of height.  The whole Packer draft seemed to be getting people who are faster than what they have at present. But, speed is not everything.  They picked another defensive player who is fast, but struggles to tackle.  What team picks someone for defense who struggles to tackle? Yes, the inept Packer front office. Tom Oates is a column in the May 5 "Wisconsin State Journal" says that the picks are related to the Packers using analytics, the pride of propeller heads, to pick players.  he notes that all but the third round pick scored greater than 8 in what is the RAS rankings.   He does admit that some none measurable items come into play like football smarts.  he does not talk about heart.   Although they did not select any wide receivers to offset the fact that they had the slowest starting receiving corps in pro-football last year.  Perhaps, they think the departure of Randall Cobb will offset that not so precious moniker.

Jace Sternberger, Third round pick.
Only one to score below and 8 (he scored in teh five range)
 on the RAS rankings Tom Oates quoted.
And no, that is not Jordy.

Their first pick, at twelfth overall, was a defensive end, who will likely be used at outside linebacker. From the University of Michigan,  Rasham Gary was ranked the best high school player in the nation four years ago, but he did not live up to that rating in college. There is also the issue of a torn labrum, but that is another story.  It is interesting to note that another defensive lineman from Michigan was selected ahead of him.  Tom Oates and other commentators rave about his combination of strength, speed and size, but ten sacks in four years is not a successful collegiate career.  Others say he not used correctly in the Michigan defense.  CBS Sports graded the Packers a C- in his selection.  "USA Today" named it one of the worse five picks in the opening round of the draft.    Not very good.  But, from a Packer perspective, given how bad they have drafted, perhaps it is acceptable.  The Packers have, in typical Packer fashion, flopped on defense since 2011, as the Oates stats quoted above show.  Does anyone recall the great Ted Thompson pick of defensive lineman Justin Harrell?  Of course not., but he was selected 16th overall in the 2007 draft.  The combination of size, speed and strength is not everything.  Good technique and what I call football sense can make up for a great deal that may be lacked in speed, strength and size.

GM Brian Gutekunst

This year, the Packers also used significant capital to acquire three free agents to play on defense.  These men, combined with the several defensive players selected in the draft,  Tom Oates says that defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has the pieces.  But that is only if the performance on the field exceeds their capabilities, and well exceeds the CBS sports draft grade.  With their picks in the first three rounds of the draft the overall grade point average, based on CBS Sports ranking, was 2.56, while those picked in the last three rounds was 2.66.  Overall CBS gave them just below a B-.  The Packer organization probably consider this acceptable for a team resting on its past success.  They fill the seats and sell the beer, why worry about a product on the field?  Oh, Packer President, the mindless Mark Murphy, perhaps last December realized that the lack of success on the field is hurting his Titletown District, so last December he decided to get involved in the team.He fired the head coach, who was given a lack of talent with which to produce.  He altered the team structure so rather than the coach reporting to the GM, the coach and GM are both equal reporting to Murphy.  This can be a good thing, because if they continue to be a middling team, perhaps the powers that be will finally clean house as they should have done last year when McCarthy was fired.  (That means getting rid of Murphy, and the GM.)

Head Coach, Matt LaFleur

In ranking the NFL teams for anticipated performance in 2019, one website ranked the Packers 17 of the 32 teams in the league.   A middling score for a middling general manager, a middling mindless president who have taken mediocrity in Green Bay to a whole new level.  If this hold true it would also show that their prized analytical method is well, rather middling.  Which, given their leadership, is  to be expected.  It is like we are back to the Bart Starr, Forrest Greg eras, and those in between.

Packer President Mark Murphy

However, the real test will be if they can perform better than anticipated.  Due to their poor record last year, they match well with part of the schedule of other NFC division opponents.  Time will tell if Mr. Gary will finally perform to the level of which his size, speed and strength indicate, or whether he is another failure on the defensive front fitting for a mindless, mediocre organization that excels at poor picks of players in the NFL draft.  The whole organization takes its key from the top man and that is one of middling mediocrity.   That is what I have to say about the Packer Draft.