Green Bay Packers Take CB in Todd McShay’s 2021 NFL Mock Draft

The Green Bay Packers have several positions that they’ll have to address this offseason, but perhaps none more important than finding a running mate for Jaire Alexander at cornerback.

Kevin King has unofficially played his last snaps as a Packer, leaving Green Bay with Josh Jackson, Ka’dar Hollman, KeiVarae Russell, and Stanford Samuels as current options on the roster to replace him. Now, the Packers could look towards free agency for help, but with the salary cap shrinking, that’s not something we can bank on, and step one, is to first become solvent.

As far as the 2021 NFL Draft goes, this isn’t the deepest cornerback class by any means, but in Todd McShay’s post-Super Bowl mock draft, he has the Green Bay Packers landing cornerback Aaron Robinson from UCF. McShay mentions that he’d love to draft a receiver, but with how the board fell along with their need for a corner, Robinson was the right selection.

Here is a snippet of what McShay had to say, and you can find his entire mock draft here.

"“Outside of Jaire Alexander, the secondary got torched by Tom Brady all day long. Robinson is a playmaker with 16 passes broken up and three interceptions over the past two seasons, and he comes with size and versatility in coverage.”"

Robinson began his career at Alabama before transferring and has seen almost all of his snaps take place between the 2019 and 2020 seasons. During that span, he has been targeted 103 times and allowed a completion rate of just 56 percent for 10.4 yards per catch.

The 6’1 – 193 pound Robinson also added three interceptions over those two years, along with 15 pass breakups, he gave up six touchdowns, and opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of 82.4 when throwing his direction. Additionally, he was called for eight penalties and created six pressures as a blitzer.

For a closer look at Robinson’s game, here is what Joe Marino of The Draft Network had to say in his pre-draft scouting report:

"“While he has some experience playing out wide, his best fit at the next level is likely in the slot. Robinson is a versatile defender that can function in both man and zone coverage and he will make the run defense better with his ability to fill and defend the D-gap. Overall, he’s a physical player with quick feet and sufficient athleticism.The concerns with Robinson at the next level are his modest coverage instincts, ordinary ball skills, and proving the tackler he was in 2020 is what he will be moving forward and not the inconsistent finisher he was in 2019. Robinson has the ability to become a featured slot corner in the NFL, but he will need to become more sure of himself in coverage and play the game with better angles.”"

As I highlighted in the beginning, the Green Bay Packers need a cornerback, more specifically, an out wide cornerback. As Marino mentions, Robinson projects to a nickel corner at the NFL level, and that makes sense since that is where he played most of his college career. According to Pro Football Focus ($), Robinson has 1,153 snaps from the slot over the last two seasons compared to only 259 out wide.

In a perfect world, bringing in some added competition for Chandon Sullivan, who struggled in the NFC Championship Game, would be ideal. However, drafting Robinson doesn’t help the need for an outside corner all that much, and it’s easy to see that that specific position is a much bigger issue to be solved this offseason.

As is, the Packers defense can be a successful unit in 2021, with Sullivan in the slot. With that said, they’re likely going to struggle if any of the aforementioned cornerback names above are tasked with CB2 responsibilities.

Yes, the Green Bay Packers do need a cornerback, but not a slot cornerback in Round 1. But I guess, as we’ve seen recently, GM Brian Gutekunst has certainly surprised us before.