Green Bay Packers Last 10 Drafts Ranked: #10 Class of 2015
By Kenny Jilek
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be ranking the Green Bay Packers’ last 10 draft classes, starting right now with the worst one and counting down until we reach number one. This will include the 2011 through the 2020 class since there is no way of knowing what the contributions from the 2021 class will be.
The rankings will be based on the contributions of each player, and their play for other teams, if they’ve left, will be factored in as well because if they turned out to be a good player, that means it was a good pick. A few quantifying measures we’ll be using are total years of primary starters and Pro Bowl appearances that each class produced, both provided by Football Reference. The issue with this is those are cumulative stats, and the last few classes are still developing and will very likely become starters and make some Pro Bowl appearances, so rankings won’t be solely based on those things.
We’ll also look at yards, tackles, sacks, and other stats, but it’s hard to compare apples to oranges with different positions, so there will be a subjective element as well. The final ranking criteria will be the headliner of each draft and how they stack up against the others. Each draft has at least one Pro Bowler, so it’s easy to pick out. With that being said, let’s get started with the bottom of the barrel and 2015. We’ll divide it into three tiers, which fit directly with where they were drafted.
Top Tier: Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins, and Ty Montgomery
Remember a few seconds ago when I said every draft had a Pro Bowler? Yeah, the 2015 class doesn’t, and that’s precisely why they’re in the cellar of these rankings.
In the early years, things looked alright for this group, with Damarious Randall and Quinten Rollins both making solid contributions in their rookie years and Ty Montgomery becoming the feature back after switching from wide receiver in his second year.
Things quickly went downhill, however, for the top three picks in this class. After playing 68 percent of the defensive snaps in year two, Rollins played just six games before being placed on IR and never made his way back to an NFL game, despite trying with the Cardinals and 49ers. Randall looked good statistically, with 32 pass breakups in 3 seasons, but never quite seemed comfortable in a Green Bay Packers uniform and was traded to the Browns for Deshone Kizer. We all know how that worked out. Randall switched to safety in Cleveland, a move he wanted to make for years, and proceeded to have the best year of his career, picking off four passes and breaking up nine more. Finally, the emergence of Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams made Ty Montgomery obsolete, and his time here was quickly ended after a fumble against the Rams that cost them the game, and he was traded that week. He has less than 300 yards rushing since that trade.