The youth movement in Green Bay is underway, and adding extra draft capital was a big part of the process. For 2024, the Green Bay Packers are slated to have 11 picks, including five in the first three rounds — the team has an extra second-rounder for the Aaron Rodgers trade to the New York Jets, and an extra third after the Rasul Douglas trade to the Buffalo Bills at the deadline.

With so much capital, it will be another important step into the Packers reconfiguration.

The roster has clear needs, and also other positions open for discussion — we will take quarterback off this discussion at this point, but it might be a consideration depending on how Jordan Love plays until the end of the season and which first-round pick the Packers will end up with.

Five biggest needs for the Packers

Wide receiver

The Packers have more than enough depth at the position after drafting six wide receivers over the last two drafts. However, they still lack a true X, number 1 kind of receiver. And if general manager Brian Gutekunst has the opportunity to select one at the top of the draft, he should consider breaking the modus operandi of not taking receivers so high.

If the Packers are able to add a player like Marvin Harrison Jr. or Keon Coleman, for example, that would allow the team to move Christian Watson into a role player, which he's better suited to, and Romeo Doubs to a rotational role. Jayden Reed would still be a starter in the slot, and the entire room would make more sense.

Considering that the top of the wide receiver market is extremely expensive, and Tyreek Hill is making $30 million per year, getting a playmaker early in the draft is a smart use of resources, with the potential to generate an impressive surplus value over four or five years.

Running back

Last offseason, Aaron Jones took a paycut from $16 million to $11 million. Next year, he's slated to make $12 million. Will the Packers be willing to pay it? Will Aaron Jones accept another paycut? To aggravate it even more, AJ Dillon is a free agent. Emanuel Wilson will be an exclusive rights free agent, so at this point he's the surest thing to be on the roster next year.

Gutekunst reached out to the Indianapolis Colts trying to trade for Jonathan Taylor, so it's clear that the general manager values the position more than the average and that he's willing to make more investments there.

Offensive tackle

The Packers started this season with a promising depth at tackle. But suddenly, the reaggravation of David Bakhtiari's old injury changed the team's short- and long-term plans. Now, Zach Tom is the only sure thing at tackle. Bakhtiari is still under contract for 2024 and plans to return, but it's impossible to know how his knee will react. Rasheed Walker is under contract through 2025, but he's an average tackle at best at this point and can't preclude the Packers to make a bigger move. Furthermore, Yosh Nijman will be a free agent.

Penn State's Olumuyiwa Fashanu and Notre Dame's Joe Alt are the two offensive tackles on the consensus board top 10, so while the Packers have had success with mid-round offensive linemen, a more aggressive move might be on the table.

Safety

Talking about pure need and not including positional value, safety is certainly the most glaring necessity of this roster for 2024. And it's been mentioned as a future or present need for the last two years, because Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage were slated to be free agents after the 2022 season. Amos left in free agency, and Savage had his fifth-year option picked up, but the long-term outlook hasn't changed. Savage is now in the last year of his deal, and fellow starter Rudy Ford has an expiring deal too, as well as Jonathan Owens and Dallin Leavitt.

The only safeties under contract with the Packers beyond 2023 are seventh-round rookie Anthony Johnson Jr. and special teamer Zayne Anderson, who hasn't played a single defensive snap for the team.

Cornerback

This is not exactly a glaring need, as the Packers have Jaire Alexander and Eric Stokes as the top guys. However, Stokes is still an uncertainty — he played well as a rookie in 2021, but regressed over the first half of the 2022 season and has been injured since. The Rasul Douglas trade put more stress over the depth. Keisean Nixon, the starting slot corner, will be a free agent, and Corey Ballentine will too. But at least the Packers got Carrington Valentine in the seventh round this year, and he's been a decent starter.

The team also signed Robert Rochell off the Carolina Panthers practice squad and claimed Kyu Blu Kelly off waivers from the Seattle Seahawks, so Gutekunst has shown willingness to find depth in the margins.

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