Green Bay Packers Last 10 Drafts Ranked: #9 Class of 2011
By Kenny Jilek
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be counting down the last ten Green Bay Packers’ draft classes. That continues today with the ninth-ranked class, that of 2011.
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. Just like in the last article, we’ll split the players into tiers based on how their careers played out and their contributions.
Tier 1: Randall Cobb, Lawrence Guy, Davon House
The “Big 3” of this draft is again fairly underwhelming, but at least they have a Pro Bowl player in Randall Cobb. Cobb spent eight great years in Green Bay, exceeding the 1,000-yard mark once, in his Pro Bowl season. He was always a reliable target for Rodgers, and the void he left in the slot has been clear for the last two seasons and the reason the Packers took Amari Rodgers in the 3rd round this draft. He’s easily the headliner of this 2011 class, but with only one Pro Bowl appearance, he is one of the lowest on the totem pole of draft booms.
Davon House had two different stints with the Green Bay Packers, accounting for a total of six years. He was never an impact player here and was only a main starter in one season, 2017, when he started 12 games. In between those two stints, though, were two years in Jacksonville. His first year in Jacksonville, he seemed to be stepping into his prime and having a breakout season, picking off four passes and breaking up 23, which was good for third in the league. Unfortunately, he only started four games the next season and came back down to earth, but for one year, he looked like a premier cornerback.
Finally, we have Lawrence Guy, who has five seasons as a primary starter in the NFL. None of those are with the Green Bay Packers; in fact, the 7th round pick never played a regular-season snap here. He was injured his entire rookie season and then didn’t make the team, but has hung around and been a productive player, spending the last four years with the New England Patriots.