The poll answer for me is DL all the way. It is the weakest spot in the draft and a place that historically speaking, takes longer to develop. A vet at that price won't change things substantially but it would be the best bang for the buck, IMO.

And the reason the Packers have premier players at the key spots is because they emphasive those sports heavily on days 1-2 of the draft in the last 15-20 years. You go back to 1990 to find a round 1 RB. 1994 was the last IOL. 2000 was the last TE. 2006 was the last LB. They have drafted 2 Safeties in round 1. They have dipped their toe in these spots in round 2-3 a bit more. By and large, they draft value positions early on.

I went corner.

Before i voted i thought corner and DL would be neck and neck.

I picked corner because we all saw what it cost us. Also because when you look at the depth at the corner position, it's "lacking".

I'm being kind to describe it like that.

When the team ignores the needs of the team. we start to go back with the problems (patterns) we developed with Thompson.

The pattern being.....instead of improvement.
We have more needs on a team, than we had the previous year.
That IS a problem. You are then... going the wrong way.

When i have previously stated...that it takes years for this team to address positional needs.
I said that only because....it's true. And i'll keep telling the truth no matter how many times you "kitty's" want to thumbs down my post.

The truth always wins.

Why are the Packers in the playoff hunt every year? They have Pro Bowl players at the "premier" positions in the game of football. Anyone feel like giving their past and present GMs a little credit for this?

Yes, i'll give/gave credit (time and time again) to Ted Thompson for those 3 picks.

PFF
Apr 9
Packers: only team w/ 3 top-10 highest-graded offensive players in 2020:

1. Aaron Rodgers - 95.1
6. Davante Adams - 92.0
T-8th. David Bakhtiari - 91.8

Thanks for the Brain Drain Al, even though it’s a bit lighter than usual in the off-season, “snicker “

Oh come oh come Samuel - I absolutely love this kid but he misses a lot of the Packers athletic RAS, me thinks a trade back may be in play.

Defensive Line - look for them to draft one in round 2-3 and sign a veteran DL after June 1st thus not affecting the compensatory pick they will get for Linsley(most likely a 4th)

D. Randall - the reason he can’t stick around anyplace is in his own headspace, he’s talented. You would think before the Packers drafted him they would have figured this out in the interview process? Then to compound the mistake by trading him for Kiser!?
I hope they evaluated Love better than Kiser, but I digress, that is for another rant!

Until next Brain Drain Al

Nostradanus

There are 10 DL in the top 100. Why is it weak? Anyone of these guys can outplay what we have. ( Other then Clark). If I'm a DL I want to come to the packers. Cb-equals 1 and done. But Gutes guy will be in the top 50. Thats all what matters. Not his misses. Lets trade up to get him, so we can waste a pick. And not worry about a rookie returning punts.

Sorry Al, you over-thought the "why the Packers are in post season play so often". Aaron Rodgers is the reason this team is better than .500. Without Rodgers, I am afraid we would be chasing the Vikings. Yes some compliments such as a good O-line and a run game made the last years successful but then again, football is a team sport.

Fixing the defense has been a decade long series of half measures. We either don't value defense enough or don't evaluate the talent effectively. Still in question today are D-line, linebackers and yes CB. Apparently, this is a weak D-line class so we will have trouble replacing Lancaster, Lowry and everyone not named Clark. I am just hoping that we don't draft some project in the later rounds and call it fixed. Having to shore-up the defense via free agency is expensive and we are broke.

This will be Gutekunst's and Rodger's most important draft.

Maybe Jackson will new life in Barry's D.

I understand his coverage concept is to play his best CB in man and then zone for the other DBs. Jackson had 8 picks and 26 passes defended during his last year at Iowa playing mostly zone.

What a gift if Jackson finally makes the grade.

The discussion surrounding the Packers needs at DL is really frustrating. Last year the DL draft class was not strong so the Packers passed on Blacklock or Davis to draft a QB who never played a down. This year the DL draft class is weak so the Packers will once again pass on Barmore or Onwuzurike to draft another position.

Two years ago the Packers got obliterated in the NFCCG by SF and their strong defensive front seven. Last year the Packers (with the #1 offense) were beaten in the NFCCG by TB and their strong defensive front six.

Defense is still an important component of winning a championship and the Packer front seven will not be of championship caliber unless they invest in it and soon. How much longer can the Packers wait?

Drafting at the bottom of the round for three decades running (except the final two McCarthy years and maybe one more year sometime where we picked in the middle of rounds) is tough to plug holes with drafted excellence. Look around. The only teams who managed to stay at the highest levels of the league year after year (and crucially also making multiple SB in different decades along the way) since the 90s are the Packers and Steelers. Since the 00s you can add the Patriots, Ravens and Seahawks to the list.

The Pats of course are a league of their own!

Rarefied air indeed. Gutekunst picked Alexander who is the best CB we've drafted by a magnitude of 10 since Woodson's prime years, who of course was a FA signing. I give much credit to the Pack for developing UFA CBs Williams and Shields into top shelf players. Gary appears to be rounding into form as the best edge rusher drafted since CMIII. Jenkins is a revelation at OL with his ability to excel everywhere across the line. I think he may be unprecedented.

And this is after what, three drafts? Barely enough time to judge the results of his first crop. The one area where Thompson and Wolf seemed to be otherworldly was finding great WR after the first round. And let's not leave Tonyan out of the plus column either.

The Packers have been an almost entirely successful playoff team for nearly 30 years. The lack of more than 2 SB wins during this time is frustrating for all fans but in context this is an elitist conception of "frustration" and for me at least beats the hell out of gambling away the future for one SB win followed by a decade or more of bottom fishing, which is the plane upon which all NFL teams exist except for us and the four teams mentioned above. And for each of the dice rolling teams who succeeded in winning their one lonely SB before fading away there are another ten who both gambled away the future and failed to hoist a Lombardi.

There are no more free agent DL that can make a difference, so draft Tufele.

I sense frustration in the fanbase. Waiting for the draft sucks as bad as covid 19 and not watching football in the stands. All this troll can say is...It better be at least 6 picks on defense if GB hopes to stop TB this year. Our offense again will win the NFC North, but to take the NFCC and the SB, it's the guys up front who set the tone and win the game....Yeah, it's the defense.
The more one picks the more one hits...GPG.

What people aren't realizing is that when Gute made the decision to sign Lowry to a 3 year 20 million dollar deal and drafting Keke is that...

That basically meant he didn't think the DL was a weak position.

Just a year or two after....Packer fans feel that DL is our greatest need.

Gute obviously didn't think we had a problem at corner either, otherwise he would have addressed that in the draft. But we were in dire need of a QB, a rb, and a tight end apparently.
So that had to be prioritized.

As to your poll, at this point I would wait till after the draft to sign, when we know what we got and if anybody shakes free from other teams. I voted “other” for that reason.

I think Rush has upside. I’d like to see him involved on the DL, but we need a core runstuffing infusion. Sadly I don’t see a suitable player falling early that can do both this year (Barmore will need to get stronger). So I’d go with just run capable later. No light, penetrative types please. So many of those this year.

My gut reaction on the second Samuel meeting is that there is exactly the debate you postulate or some aspect that they wanted to learn more about, to rule him in or out at 29, perhaps to do with non athletic questions.

My hope is that we eschew long term upside somewhat in the first two days and add players that can help now. Sadly I don’t see a dual threat DL this year and I don’t see a worthy receiver getting close.

Go with marginal upside for this season. That would be ideal if it leads to a CB, but could be an OT or DB/ILB type, at least there are plausible 2021 upgrades that will probably be around when we pick in those positions. There are a lot of good WR and other prospects later in the draft to develop as well as slot/option and return types.

I see many of you have become fully "Kiperized" about the NFL draft.
(Definition: named after the first big time draft guru, it means the hype surrounding the draft has clouded the judgement of fans.)

The draft is just one tool teams use to build a team. How many teams have high draft picks(Lions are a good example) who simply don't do squat? The 'hit and miss' ratio on first round picks is around 50 percent. Most teams rely on players not at the top of the draft, free agency of all types and plain old luck to get players.

Look at the Packers offensive line from last year. David B. was a fourth-round pick, Jenkins second round, Linsley fifth-round pick, Patrick UDFA, Turner round 3. That offensive line was considered one of the best in football. You have a second round pick, a third, a fourth, a fifth and a UDFA.

Don't let the deep pile of blurry analysis and speculation take away from the reality that Kiper, et.al, are selling a product, a product where there is no negative blowback if they are wrong. It's all just hype.

Only the folks inside the pro drafting rooms know what's going on and even there, a majority of teams don't do well.

Never forget the likely greatest QB of all time, Tom Brady, was a sixth-round choice. Bart Starr was 17th.
My point: take what the experts tell you with a grain of salt and don't make judgements based on hype. The truth of a draft pick often doesn't emerge until much later.

I think it’s unlikely we’ll draft a small CB. I actually think that as much as we like to play three safeties it would make sense to draft one. Plus, you want to get a guy who can tackle and cover and is smart and those guys play safety. We’ve all seen that the defense is better when Greene plays.....why not draft his replacement?

I would expect us to take a DL on Day Two of the draft. I see 4 DL: Clark, who is real good. Lowry and Lancaster, smart, durable rotation guys. Keke is the bottom and isn’t taking snaps away from anyone. A real stud would line up with Clark for four more years...you can build a defense around that.

I still think we need a plug and play RT. Nothing will derail the season like getting Rodgers hit, or not making holes in the running game. We’ve lost a lot of guys in the past 9 months.

Play it Again Sam-uel?
Doing their due diligence. I'm honestly not as worried about pairing a couple of 5'10" corners together. Jaire can take on any WR regardless of height. King struggles with shorter speedier WR's. Samuel might be an upgrade there. The other thing is they could be looking to use him at the Star position. Which right now would likely be an upgrade over Sulivan.

Defensive Line:
Packers need help on the DL. I think Keke takes a big step this year. I would not be surprised if they went DL with a couple of picks this year. Barmore could be their first pick. I would not be surprised if they draft a more pure NT at some point as well.

Premier Position Pro Bowlers:
They put a premium on drafting OL, DL, CB. Almost every year they are drafting at those positions. I expect them to put a premium on those positions in this draft. But adding to that, I think they have to find another RB, WR, and possibly a LB/S hybrid. They need to add more speed, especially at LB and WR.
One thing they really need is a guy who can be a dynamic type of return man.

I don't know their names or in which order but our first 3 picks should be the BPA for CB, WR and a DL. Why? Because those are the 3 positions where we need players who can make plays. We need a WR who can be a legit NFL #2 WR at least and possibly evolve into a #1 WR if we lose Adams to FA after this season. We need a CB who can play effectively opposite Alexander and hopefully step into a starting role by mid-season. If Barry is going to play 3 DLs we need a DL who can be more effective that either Lowry or Lancaster to play alongside Clark and Keke.

Our first 3 picks are within the top 100 players and this tells me that within the top 100 players there must be a WR better than MVS, a CB better than King and a DL better than Lowry/Lancaster. Find those guys and we will improve our chances of reaching the SB in 2021 and/or 2022. Otherwise what is the point of "keeping the band" together (as we've done so far in the offseason) if we're not going to provide them with the required reinforcements. However if the plan is to trade Rodgers and let Adams go to FA after this season, then I guess we are remaining on the building for the future train. Gute's early picks will tell us which direction the Packers are heading, I think but you never know with Gute.

Follow those first 3 picks with OL, ILB, an RB and possibly a 3rd string QB.

Wake me when it's over. Thanks, Since '61