B+
Green Bay Packers
The Packers fleeced the room on the phones and earned a B+.
by TitletownUSA ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 20 picks
· 12 steals
· 3 reaches
There is conviction, and then there is this. The Packers took Trajan Jeffcoat a full 63 picks ahead of where the board had him, an overdraft steep enough that it colors the whole weekend. Good, not great, and the B+ says as much.
The dealing alone would carry a lesser class. That is a running back worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly. It is not that Gray is a bad player; it is that the Packers had louder needs to answer first.
Leaving quarterback unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall.
Good work on the whole, with quarterback the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 30 they get a cornerstone up front at a price that makes it sweeter. A real need, handled.
No edge and no loss on T.J. Tampa in the Round 2 slot; it is a wash and a sensible one. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
No drama and no debate, Braden Fiske went about where he belonged in Round 2, Pick 21. The roster fit checks out.
A clean, defensible pick in the 61st overall pick with a little surplus value in Payton Wilson. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
They talked themselves into Cole Bishop at pick No. 82, and the board did not agree. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Blake Fisher at No. 91 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Trey Benson in the 93rd overall pick is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
You do not let a cornerback like Caelen Carson reach the Round 4 slot and blink. They did not. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The needs board was loud and they turned it down, spending pick No. 126 on Cedric Gray with quarterback and tight end unsolved.
Johnny Wilson slid further than he should have, and the 134th pick is lovely value for the wide receiver. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Nice patience on Sataoa Laumea, who had no business lasting to No. 148. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Circle this one: Isaac Guerendo at Round 5, Pick 23 is a fall that decides a draft. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They will replay Jarrian Jones at slot 164 for years; that is how good the value is. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
By-the-book stuff, Malik Mustapha at pick 169 squarely in line with his ranking. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
They barely believed it either: Nehemiah Pritchett still on the board at the 173rd pick. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Walter Rouse at the 176th overall pick is the proof. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Tahj Washington in pick 202. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Taking Curtis Jacobs in No. 219 is close to grand larceny; a linebacker that good had no business lasting this long. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Trajan Jeffcoat. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Frank Gore Jr. in Round 7, Pick 35 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.