A year ago, between Rounds 2 and 5, the Green Bay Packers neatly filled their pass-catching rooms from top to bottom with Luke Musgrave, Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft, and Dontayvion Wicks. As the draft approaches, Brian Gutekunst will look to address their new core needs, which include offensive line and secondary help. David Bakhtiari and promising rookie cornerback Eric Stokes appeared to be cornerstones in those departments not long ago, but serious injuries have rendered both players ineffective lately.
Gutekunst made his first CB pick in Jaire Alexander, who set the market last summer with a four-year megadeal. However, that is the only secondary player Green Bay has selected with a high draft pick in recent years, and it is not for a lack of effort (see Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, Josh Jones, Josh Jackson, Kevin King, Darnell Savage Jr.). Many people expect the Packers to select Iowa’s Cooper DeJean this season. He’s been in so many mock drafts that it’s hard to believe they’ll pick him (see: T.J. Watt, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, etc.).
Gutekunst’s six drafts have shown that he isn’t hesitant to tap dance up and down the Day 1 board. I would go so far as to say he’s rather good at it. Gutekunst traded down and back up in his first draft, acquiring Alexander as well as a future first-round pick. If he hadn’t used that selection on Savage, whose Packers tenure reeked of unrealized potential, the move could have received more attention. Jordan Love, of course, is a contrarian move that will undoubtedly take some time to resolve. But by now, it’s safe to say that it was a huge victory for the group.
A Chad Forbes piece described Gutekunst’s desire to move up this year’s as one of the “worst-kept secrets.” It singled out the Seattle Seahawks, who pick 16th, as a potential partner. Who might be intriguing enough to prompt a shift deep into adolescence? Quinyon Mitchell of Toledo checks all of the boxes. Mitchell is widely regarded as the best cornerback on the board, but he may be achievable in an offense-heavy selection where no defensive is picked in the first ten. In the midst of persistent success, Packers supporters have become accustomed to drafting deeper down the board, missing out on opportunities to draft Sauce Gardner and Denzel Ward. As a result, Green Bay has had to acquire players such as Randall and King.
Mitchell is a hot commodity and will be difficult to sign, but so was Xavier McKinney, the market’s best safety prospect. His four-year, $67 million contract was a slam dunk for Green Bay, but it also reeked of tiredness given how difficult the position has been to fill in previous years. For an organization that has achieved so much success through a disciplined draft-and-develop system, its secondary troubles appear to have touched a nerve. Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Sitting tight and waiting for a DeJean or a Kool-Aid McKinstry to fall may land them in that category.
The Packers have made no secret of the premium value they place on cornerbacks in their draft process, similar to their contrarian valuation of wide receivers. After struggling to land corners in the back of Round 1, perhaps an aggressive move-up is in order. In addition to being well regarded, Mitchell meets Green Bay’s stringent athletic criteria. The Packers are infamous for emphasizing stature and relative athletic score (RAS), relying on their coaching staff to turn tools into production. Mitchell is 6’0″ and ran a 4.33.
