Green Bay Packers 7 Round Mock Draft Based off Gutey’s Tendencies
By Paul Bretl
As fans of a team, we can read up on players or watch all the tape that there is, but it’s still extremely difficult to gauge who the front office is interested in when it comes to the draft. This seems to be especially true for fans of the Green Bay Packers.
Brian Gutekunst has been GM for three drafts now, and while that’s not a large sample size by any means, he’s already thrown us our fair share of curveballs. But even so, there are a few trends that have developed.
In a recent article, I highlighted what those trends are, and you can find that here, but in short, here is what I’ve observed.
Elite athletes: Brian Gutekunst loves drafting some of the best athletes at their respective positions. Using the Relative Athletic Scoring (RAS) table to help add some context, out of Gutey’s 25 RAS eligible draft picks, 22 have scored at least 8.0 out of 10 on the scale, with 13 players scoring 9.0 or higher.
Three of the same position: Since 2017 — Ted Thompson’s final draft as GM — the Green Bay Packers have taken three players from the same position in three of the last four drafts.
Positional value in Round 1: A lot of mock drafts have the Green Bay Packers taking a WR or LB in the first round; however, history says otherwise. In the last 15 drafts, Green Bay has spent a first-round pick on a WR, LB, TE, or IOL just one time.
Trading up: In all three of Gutey’s drafts as GM, he has traded up in the first round. In 2018 it was for Jaire Alexander. In 2019 for Darnell Savage and then in 2020 for Jordan Love.
Rookies with Veterans: Not that a rookie can’t come in and start right away, but Gutekunst makes sure that there are veterans to lean on in case the rookie isn’t ready. In 2018, Gutey signed Tramon Williams and Davon House before drafting Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson. Then in 2019, after signing The Smiths, Adrian Amos, and Billy Turner, Gutey drafted Rashan Gary, Savage, and Elgton Jenkins. In 2020, his first three picks were players at positions where Green Bay already had veteran presences.
Expect the Unexpected: If there’s one thing that we’ve learned through Gutey’s first three drafts, it’s that we need to stay on our toes.
While these six items are far from the be-all-end-all, and who knows, Gutey could switch things up on us in this year’s draft; what would a draft look like if we stuck to these trends that have developed? Well, I did my best to find out using The Draft Network’s mock draft machine.