They went much higher than expected!
One question I continue to hear from Green Bay Packers fans is why the team didn’t do more to address the defensive tackle or cornerback position earlier in the draft. I’ll touch on the cornerback position later this week, but I want to focus on defensive tackle today.
I’m not here to carry water for general manager Brian Gutekunst. There have been plenty of Packers picks I have disagreed with over the years. Ty’Ron Hopper, Colby Wooden, Sean Cliford, Anders Carlson and Amari Rodgers are a couple, to just name a few.
With that being said, I understand not hitting defensive tackle early on in this draft, considering what happened on draft day.
Day 1
There was a belief that one of Kenneth Grant, Walter Nolen or Derrick Harmon would be available for the Packers with the 23rd overall pick in this class. When we ran community mock drafts this spring, fans picked Harmon as the team’s first-round pick in three mock draft simulations and Nolen in the final two simulations.
Not only were none of those players available for the Packers at 23, but they were “overdrafted,” according to the consensus draft board, by a collective 21 draft slots. The most “overdrafted” was Michigan’s Grant, who was ranked as the 24th overall prospect in the class and was taken 13th overall by the Miami Dolphins — one of the biggest surprises of the first round.
By the time Green Bay was on the clock with the 23rd overall, the highest-ranked defensive tackle in the class was Ohio State’s Tyleik Williams, a player the Packers brought in on a pre-draft visit and were certainly aware of. He was ranked as the 44th overall prospect in the draft, around a mid-second-round projection. Had Green Bay taken Williams over receiver Matthew Golden, who was ranked the 18th prospect in the class, there would have been an insurrection attempt on the Packers’ facilities.
At the time, the only players ranked above Golden on the consensus draft board when the Packers were on the clock in the first round were Shedeur Sanders, a quarterback, and Mike Green, a pass-rusher who fell to the 59th pick due to two accusations of sexual assault that date back to high school and his first stop in college at the University of Virginia.
Despite Williams seeming like a reach in the first round, the Detroit Lions still turned in the card for him with the 28th overall pick, a half-round before Williams’ consensus projection.
Day 2
The Day 1 “reach” selections of defensive tackles set the tone for what the NFL was going to do at the position on Day 2. Between the Packers’ first and second picks of the class, two more defensive tackles went much earlier than expected.
T.J. Sanders of South Carolina, another Green Bay pre-draft visitor, was picked 41st overall after being projected as the 59th prospect in the class. Alfred Collins, the 64th prospect, went off the board shortly after at 43rd overall. Yes, two borderline second-round selections ended up going in the top 45, something few, if any, mock drafts had projected.
After the Packers’ second-round pick of Anthony Belton, five more defensive tackles were drafted on Day 2: Shemar Turner, Omarr Norman-Lott, Darius Alexander, Vernon Broughton and Jamaree Caldwell. All were “overdrafted,” from a consensus draft board perspective, other than Alexander. It’s worth noting here that Alexander is projected to play a three-technique defensive tackle role in the NFL, a role that the Packers expect Devonte Wyatt to fill long-term.
The Packers weren’t in the three-technique market as much as they were in the nose tackle market, as all of their returning defensive tackles can play three-technique, but only Kenny Clark can credibly play the nose tackle position. If you wanted the team to spend a second-round pick on Alexander, a player who probably would have backed up Wyatt, then that’s your right as an American, but I disagree with you. At the time of the 54th overall pick, the Packers’ second selection, Alexander was the only defensive tackle available who was ranked 77th on the consensus board or higher.
To put into perspective some of the reaches that happened later on Day 2 of the draft, Texas’ Vernon Broughton was ranked as the 153rd player in the class and was taken 71st. Oregon’s Jamaree Caldwell was ranked 111th and was taken 86th.
Collectively, the Day 1 and Day 2 defensive tackles were “overdrafted” by 205 total draft slots. Of those 12 selections, 11 were “reaches.” Of those 11 “reaches,” the four smallest reaches were Mason Graham, Nolen, Harmon, and Grant, all players who were off of the board by the time the Packers were on the clock for their first pick of the draft.
Truly, here were Green Bay’s options in the first three rounds at the nose tackle position:
- Round 1: Take Tyleik Williams (44th overall projection) at pick #23 over Matthew Golden (18th overall projection).
- Round 2: Take Vernon Broughton (153rd overall projection) or Jamaree Caldwell (111th overall projection), the next two nose tackle-capable players who were selected in the draft, with the #54 pick.
- Round 3: Only nose tackle-capable players who went the next round a half after the Packers’ selection were Deone Walker or CJ West, so one of them. Walker had major back concerns and was ranked the 95th player in the class. He also fits better as a 3-4 defensive end than as a 4-3 nose tackle. West was picked 26 slots after the Packers’ third-round selection. Neither would have been “value picks” in their position.
That’s just my two cents on the situation. Everyone liked this defensive tackle class. We all knew it would be one of the strengths of the draft. When push came to shove, though, the NFL seemed to like it even more.
Almost all of the defensive tackles early on in the class were “overdrafted,” especially the players who were able to play nose tackle — the only role the Packers were really in the market for considering general manager Brian Gutekunst’s pre-draft statement on his expectation that Wyatt will be on the team through at least 2026 by way of the fifth-year option or an extension.
It’s a bummer that the NFL didn’t let a nose tackle fall into Green Bay’s lap. I’m with fans on that. I’m worried about the number two nose tackle role on the team. I’m with fans on that. With that being said, there were really not many options that the Packers had on Day 1 or Day 2 of the draft if they wanted to find “value.”