Green Bay Packers: The Draft Network’s latest 7 round mock draft

Brad Kelly of The Draft Network puts together his seven-round mock draft for the Green Bay Packers.

As the Green Bay Packers find themselves in the midst of a mini-rebuild, it will be crucial that GM Brian Gutekunst utilizes free agency this offseason and perhaps the most important piece is hitting on a majority of the team’s draft picks.

There are a number of key positions that the Green Bay Packers need to fill this offseason, which include edge rusher, safety, an interior offensive lineman, tight end, and wide receiver. It will be highly important to infuse this roster with playmakers, something that has been lacking in recent seasons.

In his latest mock draft, Brad Kelly of the Draft Network put together a seven-round mock specifically for the Packers and tried to tackle each of the needs listed above and choose the player he thought best fit to do so based on the film that he has watched.

Round 1:

Pick 12: Brian Burns, Edge Rusher – Florida St.

Pick 30: Irv Smith Jr., Tight End – Alabama

Round 2:

Pick 44: Johnathan Abram, Safety – Mississippi St.

Round 3:

Pick 76: Jakobi Meyers, Wide Receiver – NC State

Round 4:

Pick 108: Kaleb McGary, Tackle – Washington

Pick 112: Beau Benzschwazel, Interior Offensive Lineman – Wisconsin

Round 5:

Pick 140: Gary Johnson, Linebacker – Texas

Round 6:

Pick 172: Byron Cowart, Interior Defensive Lineman – Maryland

Pick 182: Andrew Wingard, Safety – Wyoming

Round 7:

Pick 204: Tommy Sweeney, Tight End – Boston College

What I really like about Kelly’s draft is that the positions of need are all addressed within the first four rounds, which is typically where your best players are going to come from.

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While I prefer Jachai Polite over Brian Burns, the Green Bay Packers are still getting elite edge rush talent at the 12th pick. Early on in this process, T.J. Hockenson of Iowa had been linked to the Packers at 30, but with his stock continuing to rise it seems likely that he won’t be available at that point anymore. So still being able to land a top-tier tight end in Irv Smith Jr. at that pick is a home run.

Safety Johnathan Abram would provide this Packers team with an incredibly physical player and a solid tackler, which this defense desperately needs. However, at this point in his career, he is limited in coverage and most likely won’t make a huge impact next season.

In the third round, receiver Jakobi Meyers would most likely be used in the slot with the Packers as that is where he spent most of his time at NC State and would provide Aaron Rodgers with a big target on short to intermediate routes.

Under the Ted Thompson regime, the Green Bay Packers had a lot of success drafting offensive linemen in the fourth round. Previous draftees include Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, and David Bakhtiari. We can only hope that new GM Brian Gutekunst would have similar success with Kaleb McGary and Beau Benzschwazel.

During the late rounds, I like how Kelly has the Packers double dipping on a few positions of need. He has Green Bay grabbing another tight end and safety in the sixth and seventh rounds to help add depth and infuse more young talent on to this roster.

Overall if the draft worked out this way for the Green Bay Packers, I’d have to say I would be fairly happy. They address all of their key positional needs and add some depth pieces as well. With the free agency period still ahead of us, the Packers priorities could still change depending on how active they are and the combine will play an important role in regards to where players fall on the team’s big board.