A Most Important Combine for the Packers

It’s combine week, and it’s a very important one for the Green Bay Packers.  The team continues to maneuver its way under the 2022 salary cap, mostly by redoing existing contracts, which generally means pushing money into the next few years.  When they finally run out of wiggle room in 2023 or ‘24, there is likely to be a significant exodus of established players. 

Those players will have to be replaced, to a large extent, by the athletes selected in this year’s draft.  They will be in their second or third year by then, and will need to be ready to start and contribute.  The Packers probably won’t be able to use the free agent market to fill gaps because they won’t have enough cap space to sign anyone of quality.  So the evaluations and judgments they make at this combine will go a long way toward determining if Green Bay remains a viable contender through the middle of the decade. 

General Manager Brian Gutekunst seems to relish the challenge.  Regardless of all of his other responsibilities, he is, at heart, a scout.  “This is the part of the job I probably love the most” he told the beat writers last week.   “This last few weeks and heading into the combine is a favorite time of mine as we start to build the 2022 Packers.”   

Everyone knows who the top prospects will be.  The trick is to identify the day two and three guys who could develop into the backbone of your team.  Maybe even find a diamond in the rough.  A guy like David Bakhtiari, who was taken in the fourth round, number 109 overall, back in 2013.  All he did was become one of the best left tackles in the NFL.   Someone like Aaron Jones, a fifth round selection, number 182 overall, in 2017.  Now he’s a top ten running back and one of the most important players on the offense.   

But the Packers will need to comb the combine for more than stars.  They will need role players coming out of this draft.  Guys who will become solid, if not spectacular, performers. They need folks who can become another Marquez Valdes-Scantling (5th round), or Dean Lowry (4th round), or Jon Runyan (6th round), or Mason Crosby (6th round). 

How does this class shape up in terms of matching Green Bay’s needs? “It’s another good offensive line class, which is good” Gutekunst said.  “I think the offensive skill positions are deeper than they have been in the past.  The pass rush group is deeper than it has been in a while.”   

Offensive line does not appear to be an area of great need currently, but you never have enough competent tackles.  As far as offensive skill positions, receiver jumps out at you.  Again this year, there seems to be a plentiful supply of good receivers at the top.  But Green Bay’s aversion to first round receivers is well documented.  Many of the draft gurus are projecting the Packers to go defensive lineman with their 28th pick in the first round.   But the reality is, when you are picking that deeply on day one, you’re likely in a “best player available” mode.  Gutey says, this year, that’s not a bad thing. 

“Overall, I think it’s good.  It’s an interesting year because there are so many guys that opted back in to play in the college season last year so I think the numbers are up across the board, especially in the bottom half of the draft.  I think the numbers are much bigger than they have been in the past.” 

The Combine runs through March 7th in Indianapolis.  There has been a buzz amongst agents and players to boycott this year’s event because of Covid restrictions.  Scouts are hoping all issues can be resolved because this was supposed to be the year they could finally resume personal meetings with prospects, as opposed to the virtual variety.   

The NFL desperately wants to develop the combine into another major media spectacle, as they have successfully done with the draft. To accomplish that, they want to move it around the country, as they also do with the draft. Dallas and Los Angeles are among the media centers expected to bid on next year’s event. But, if anything, the combine seems to be losing traction, as players are increasingly content to skip it in favor of their own campus workouts, where they can perform with their own coaches and teammates, in facilities they are familiar with. 

So, while the future of the combine is uncertain, it will still be the center of the football universe this week. The Packers contingent will be right in the middle of it, and the notes they take over the next several days could map their future for years to come.