The Packers took Oliver in the 5th round. What does he bring to the defense?
Going into this draft, Green Bay Packers Brian Gutekunst was asked if he felt the need to “chase” pass rushers in the draft. In front of hot mics, he said that wasn’t in the plans for the team.
Brian Gutekunst doesn’t feel need to “go chase” pass rushers:
“We can do everything we need to do from the players we have on our roster right now. Because I think there’s a significant amount of improvement from those guys, not only Year 2 in the scheme, but individually.” pic.twitter.com/oxewjV5N0y
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) March 31, 2025
While I doubted that was the case, Gutekunst backed that up with this draft, drafting offensive players with the first three picks. Certainly no chasing there.
In the 4th and 5th rounds, Gutekunst started throwing picks at the defense, first with Barryn Sorrell in the 4th round, then following that up with Collin Oliver in the 5th.
Today, we’re looking at Collin Oliver. Let’s get the big stuff out of the way first: Who is Collin Oliver?
Oliver was a linebacker for 4 seasons at Oklahoma State in a kind of weakside/EDGE hybrid role. In those 4 seasons, he racked up 23.5 sacks and 42 tackles for loss (TFL). He was off to a solid start in his senior season, but he suffered a foot injury two games into his senior year that ended his season.
He’s not a big dude, but he is an explosive one. Oliver comes in at 6’1”, 240 pounds, which is undersized for the position. But his speed and explosion grades are both elite for the position.
Collin Oliver was drafted in round 5 pick 159 in the 2025 draft class. He scored a 8.92 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 220 out of 2030 DE from 1987 to 2025.
Correction, as we were missing explosion drills.
ras.football/ras-information/?PlayerID=27189&ovl=Packers
— Kent Lee Platte (Mathbomb) (@mathbomb.bsky.social) 2025-04-27T01:09:48.215Z
Oliver’s Mockdraftable chart also shows a good – if undersized – athlete. Good 40 yard dash, vertical & broad jump, but low in terms of height, weight, wingspan and arm length.
While Oliver wasn’t strictly a pass rusher with Oklahoma City for his entire career, that’s where his value is with the Packers. In the recent past, the Packers have built their pass rush out of pocket-crushing monsters, but with this draft, they may be looking to complement that approach with another skillset. A hammer on one side and speed/bend on the other. Crushing the pocket is good, but it’s an approach that takes longer to get to the QB. In a quick-passing/RPO world, building the plane out of pocket crushers simply isn’t a viable strategy. You need guys who can win quickly and in a variety of ways.
That speed/bend is where guys like Oliver and Sorrell come in. They’re not the traditional rushers in terms of what the Packers have been rolling out, but they complement those rushers.
When you watch him, Oliver absolutely explodes off the screen.
As we talked about earlier, he’s on the small side, so he can get washed out in the run game (and that will be doubly true in the NFL). It’s something he’s aware of, but he also knows how quick he is, and you’ll see him using that to create some havoc in the backfield. In this clip, you can see him step back to avoid the initial punch, then work back a gap and attack the backfield.
If they’re running away from him, you can see Oliver jump inside the block for backside pursuit.
It’s something that teams will take advantage of if he does it too often – and obvious rushing downs are likely something the Packers will hold Oliver out of, at least in the first couple years – but he’s got a nice club in his bag in the handful of times he may be forced into this kind of action.
I mentioned the speed off the edge, and that’s certainly his best trait and the thing that will serve him well in Green Bay. When he’s able to just pin his ears back, the speed and quickness is obvious. The dude is an absolute blur, able to get the edge and enough dip/bend to avoid the block. In the RPO/quick-game world, the ability to win quickly is huge, and Oliver flashes that all over his tape.
He has some fun counters to that pure speed, too. If the tackle is too fearful of the speed, Oliver has a filthy inside dip.
And if the tackle oversets and finds himself off balance, well, Oliver can take advantage of that, too.
So, what do we have in Collin Oliver?
He’s undersized to be sure, but he’s twitchy and fast with moves that allow him to find ways to win immediately when rushing the passer. The Packers are liberal users of stunts, and Oliver is an absolute demon as the looper on stunts, so those will be a ton of fun to watch.
In his rookie year, Oliver will step in immediately as a situational pass rusher. His ability off the edge will not only give the Packers more juice in obvious passing downs, but it also allows Hafley to get a little more creative with his pass rush plan in those situations. In his first year, Hafley showed himself to be extremely creative with the front 7. Having a piece like Oliver on the field will allow for Hafley to trot out some extremely fun blitz packages. And I, for one, cannot wait to see it.
Watching Oliver’s film was an absolute blast. He’s a fun pick and should give the Packers a speed/bend dimension in their pass rush that they haven’t had in a while. He’s pretty limited in what he can do at the moment, but he seems destined to be a fan favorite sooner rather than later.
Albums listened to: The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots; The Raveonettes – PE’AHI II; Tennis – Face Down in the Garden; Samia – Bloodless; Jessica Lea Mayfield – Choose Myself; Beach Bunny – Tunnel Vision