Green Bay Packers Last 10 Drafts Ranked: No. 3 Class of 2013
By Kenny Jilek
Tier 2 – Datone Jones, Nate Palmer, Charles Johnson, Josh Boyd, Sam Barrington
This tier is a mixed bag with busts and seventh-round grinders that all ended up with similar career outcomes.
Datone Jones rivals Derek Sherrod for the top Green Bay Packers’ bust of the last 10 years but is saved by his 10 career sacks and the fact that he’s played in more games. The plurality of those sacks came in year one when he had 3.5. He had 12 QB hits in 2015 and 2016 but never quite put together a good NFL season. The Vikings even gave him a one-year deal worth $3.75 million but cut him in early September. Plenty of teams took a flyer on the former first-round pick, but he never really got off the ground anywhere else.
In what was otherwise an uneventful and unimpactful career, Nate Palmer had one pretty big year in 2015. He started 10 games, made 68 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and had 4 QB hits. Even so, the Packers waived him in April, just a few months after the season ended. He spent two years with the Tennessee Titans, where he was basically a special teams only player, and an injury that put him on the IR in 2018 essentially ended his career.
After the Packers put wide receiver Charles Johnson on the practice squad his rookie year, he was picked up by the Cleveland Browns but didn’t his first true shot in the NFL until 2014 with the Vikings. That year, he made 31 catches for 475 yards and two touchdowns. Johnson spent the next two years in Minnesota, making small contributions both years, and earned a 1-year $2.2 million deal with the Panthers but was injured in the offseason. In all, Johnson made three trips to the IR in his career, which never let him get in a good groove.
Like basically everyone else in this tier, Boyd had one season where he got a real chance. In 2014, he made four starts, made three tackles for loss, and had one quarterback hit. The next year, he was injured after just two games and never made it back to NFL action, despite one last effort with the Colts in 2017.
Sam Barrington had one year, 2014 when he made seven starts and put up most of his career stats. Does this sound like a broken record yet? He made 53 of his 58 career tackles that season, had his one sack, and all three of his tackles for loss. 2014 was his only real chance to compete, being on the IR for the majority of the 2013 and 2015 seasons.