Green Bay Packers: 3 safeties to target in the draft

With the NFL draft rapidly approaching, these are three safeties we could see the Green Bay Packers target on the first or second day of the draft.

The Green Bay Packers were aggressive in solving some of their issues at safety from a season ago. Instead of waiting for the draft to address the need, they signed former Chicago Bear Adrian Amos, who is a good player even if he’s not going to make the splash plays that would get the attention of the casual fan.

Amos has shown the ability to play both as a deep safety and in the box and the Green Bay Packers may use that as a reason to just go into the season with Josh Jones playing alongside of him.

However, Jones has shown little promise in the two years that he has been on the field outside of his big game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was as fine of a debut as any Packers defensive player has ever had.

Unfortunately, he’s been inconsistent since then. That inconsistency could force the Green Bay Packers to look at another safety in a draft class that is full of options. No player will remind anyone of Earl Thomas in this year’s draft, but there are still quality players available, they just all have their flaws. It’ll really be up to what player has the traits that General Manager Brian Gutekunst is looking for.

Taking into account the fit, their athletic ability, overall performances, as well as a few other factors, these are three players that the Packers could target in the upcoming draft, should they decide to add another player to their safety room.

Darnell Savage – Maryland

Savage is a player that was under the radar at the beginning of this draft process, as he wasn’t mentioned at the top of the safety class until recently. Savage is a player that would complement Amos very well on the back-end of the Packers secondary. Something that has really stood out about Savage was his nose for the big play.

He was arguably the best player on the field in a November contest against Ohio State. Ohio State is the best program in the Big Ten, and one of the top 10 programs in the country, while Maryland is not that and Savage was still one of the best players on the field. He has an ability to play both in the box and as a deep safety and he spent some time as a slot corner as well. Savage is a player that is likely a day two selection and Green Bay should seriously consider him at 44 or 75.

Chauncey Gardner-Johnson – Florida

Gardner-Johnson is a safety by trade, but his skill set has some wondering if he could play cornerback in the NFL. His coverage skills are good in short spaces and he would probably remind Packers’ fans of Micah Hyde if he were to be drafted by Green Bay.

One thing that Gardner-Johnson will have to shore up is his tackling technique. Often times he can be seen diving at the ankles of opposing offensive players and that’s an easy way to get burnt in the NFL. Obviously, the receivers at this level are very good and they’ll leave you in the dust if you dive at their ankles as Gardner-Johnson does. If he can be coached out of that bad habit, his potential is enticing enough that Green Bay could consider him at 30th overall.

Juan Thornhill – Virginia

Thornhill rose up the draft boards after absolutely wrecking the combine as he posted a Relative Athletic Score of 9.78, which was the highest score by any safety at the combine. He’s by far the best athlete at the position in this class, however, he is much more than just a workout warrior.

Of this year’s class, Thornhill has perhaps the highest ceiling when it comes to players that could play free safety. In today’s NFL, free safeties have a large amount of value simply because there are not too many of them. Guys like Earl Thomas are incredibly rare. While Thornhill is a little raw at this point, his ceiling may be too much to pass up when Green Bay is on the clock at the end of the first round.