Picking the perfect Round 1 draft target for the Packers after the Combine
The Green Bay Packers approach in the first-round will be a fascinating consideration. Brian Gutekunst took over as a general manager in 2018, and so far he has made eight first-round picks. Seven of them were defensive players, and the exception is quarterback Jordan Love. This year, Gutekunst could finally look to build something around […]
The Green Bay Packers approach in the first-round will be a fascinating consideration. Brian Gutekunst took over as a general manager in 2018, and so far he has made eight first-round picks. Seven of them were defensive players, and the exception is quarterback Jordan Love.
This year, Gutekunst could finally look to build something around Love, but the board is also intriguing for defenders near the 25th pick. And the defense certainly needs more pieces for defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to work with.
To make this exercise of analyzing who is the perfect target for each pick, we used The Athletic’s Consensus Big Board to the top 100, and the NFL Mock Draft Database for later picks. And, to open the series, we go with the first-round selection — the 25th overall pick.
CB Terrion Arnold, Alabama (19th)
He's 19th on the consensus draft board, so it's far from a certainty that he will be there for Green Bay. But Arnold would be a truly interesting piece for the new Packers defense. He's athletic, just like the Packers love, with a good frame and great ability to play man coverage.
The Combine didn't exactly helped his cause from a Packers' perspective, because he ended up with a Relative Athletic Score below 9.0, but it's still a good athletic level.
According to Dalton Miller, from Pro Football Network, Arnold is "aggressive but patient at line of scrimmage when playing with inside leverage" and his "efficient feet allow him to mirror effortlessly in man coverage."
Miller ponders, however, that Arnold "can get to the post in C3 leverage but must process cross-field quicker when no threat in his zone."
Roster
The Packers will go through a sequence of interesting decisions. They traded Rasul Douglas to the Buffalo Bills right before the deadline in October, and Eric Stokes has missed basically one and a half seasons because of multiple injuries.
So, from the three projected starters from last year, Jaire Alexander is the only certainty. Sure enough, the team drafted Carrington Valentine in the seventh round last year and he’s on the right track to become a decent starter, but cornerback depth is a factor — especially because starting nickel corner Keisean Nixon is a free agent.
The Packers have several new young pieces on offense, and that brought excellent results in 2023. Now, maybe it's time to have a similar approach on defense, hoping that a good teacher like Jeff Hafley will be able to extract more out of the rookies.
Plan B: WR Keon Coleman, Florida State (21st)
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