B
Green Bay Packers
The Packers let Fitzgerald fall into their laps, and walked away with a B.
by 2024 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 7 steals
· 1 reaches
Somewhere a general manager is explaining how Ryan Fitzgerald got past him. The Packers do not have to explain a thing at slot 250.
The cost of the Handy reach is exactly the players who went right after him. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped quarterback, which is a strange place to end up.
The roster is better shaped than it was, with edge rusher chief among the fixes.
In short, they left a little better than they arrived, which is the whole idea.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 23 they get a ballhawk on the outside at a price that makes it sweeter. The biggest hole, addressed.
Jalon Walker in the 54th pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
You do not let a tight end like Harold Fannin Jr. reach slot 87 and blink. They did not. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Somehow Mason Taylor was still sitting there in the 122nd overall pick, and they pounced on premier tight end value. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
They barely believed it either: Jared Wilson still on the board at Round 5, Pick 21. A need, and now a little less of one.
Stone Handy at No. 196 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Tahj Brooks at the Round 7 slot is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Steal is underselling it; Ryan Fitzgerald at pick No. 250 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.