Packers GM sheds light on the team's strategy behind waiting to draft a cornerback despite the concerning need at the position
Look at the mock drafts going into the process. Most of them, including the biggest ones, had the Green Bay Packers take a cornerback in the first round. And that's not a coincidence, because there was real talk about the Packers taking a player at the position early.After all, there is an obvious need. The […]
Look at the mock drafts going into the process. Most of them, including the biggest ones, had the Green Bay Packers take a cornerback in the first round. And that's not a coincidence, because there was real talk about the Packers taking a player at the position early.
After all, there is an obvious need. The Packers are still expected to trade or release Jaire Alexander, and they also lost Eric Stokes, Corey Ballentine, and Robert Rochell in free agency, only adding Nate Hobbs as a veteran option.
Despite all that, the Packers left the draft with only a seventh-round pick at the position. Late in the process, the team selected Micah Robinson, from Tulane, to compete for a roster spot.
After the draft was over, general manager Brian Gutekunst explained his process. It was more of how the board fell, and not necessarily a designed effort.
"I don't really go in there with those kinds of priorities. We build our board and we try to stay true to our evaluations of it. And then we let the board come to us," Gutekunst said. "Every draft class is a little bit different. It wasn't something we were gonna chase."
Curiously, the last time the Packers drafted a cornerback before the seventh round was Eric Stokes, in 2021's first. Over the past three years, the Packers took three seventh-round corners: Carrington Valentine, Kalen King, and now Micah Robinson.
"It's important to us. Adding Micah (Robinson) at the end was really, really good," Gutekunst mentioned. "He's a player we brought in here that we are pretty excited about. The board is what it is and it fell the way it fell. We feel good about our group right now, I feel the guys we have in that room got some pelts on the wall, so to speak, as far as what they've been able to do in the National Football League. We'll kinda see how it goes."
After the draft was over, the Packers also signed Delaware's Tyron Herring as an undrafted free agent.
Outside of Jaire Alexander, the Packers' cornerback room has Keisean Nixon, Nate Hobbs, Carrington Valentine, Micah Robinson, Kamal Hadden, Kalen King, Isaiah Dunn, Kaleb Hayes, and Tyron Herring.
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Micah Robinson is one of their seventh-round picks
