Green Bay Packers Trade Back in 2 Round TDN Mock Draft

During Brian Gutekunst’s tenure as GM of the Green Bay Packers, it’s not uncommon for him to move around the draft board–especially early on. In fact, if he were to stay put in this year’s draft, that would actually be the outlier.

In 2018 he would trade back in the first round and then back up to select Jaire Alexander. That same year he traded up for Oren Burks in Round 3 as well. In 2019, he moved up to take Darnell Savage, he did the same thing in 2020 to select Jordan Love, and then in Round 3 of last year’s draft, Gutey traded up to select Amari Rodgers.

So in a recent mock draft from The Draft Network, Gutey trading out of Round 1 isn’t all that far-fetched–although, as highlighted above, typically when he does trade, he is looking to move up.

Here is who the team over at The Draft Network have the Green Bay Packers selecting in their recent 2 Round mock draft after they trade back to acquire more picks.

TRADE: Pick 40–DeMarvin Leal, IDL, Texas A&M

Packers acquire picks 40 and 81 in exchange for picks 28 and 170

"“With the way the board was falling, we weren’t too comfortable with most of the players. So we figured picking up an extra third-rounder would allow us to get better value with our first pick.As someone who has been mocked to Green Bay at No. 28, imagine our excitement when DeMarvin Leal fell to us at No. 40. Green Bay finally gets a top player next to Kenny Clark on the defensive line, and with Leal, Clark shouldn’t have to worry about double teams as much.”"

I have two initial thoughts on this pick and trade. For starters, I’m a huge fan of the selection and believe that Green Bay gets very good value landing DeMarvin Leal at pick 40. However, moving back from pick 28 to pick 40 sure seems like a massive move down the draft board–although I guess you could say it worked out in this instance since they still landed Leal.

We saw Dean Lowry have a career year as a pass-rusher along with flashes from Tyler Lancaster and TJ Slaton, but overall, by run-DVOA and yards per carry allowed, the Green Bay Packers run defense was worse in 2021 than in 2020.

Now, it’s important to note, with Joe Barry’s defense, the main objective is to take away the passing game first.  So Green Bay may never be dominant against the run, even with Kenny Clark; however, they can still be better–not to mention that the interior defensive line room is very thin with only four players under contract for 2022.

Leal is a true junior and has three years of starting experience with the Aggies, totaling 1,498 career snaps, according to PFF ($$). For his career, he has tallied 79 pressures,13 sacks, and 25 tackles for loss. 2021 was his most productive college season as he recorded 37 pressures and nine sacks.

The 6’4″ – 290 pound Leal is an extremely versatile defender, playing up and down the defensive front at Texas A&M. Per PFF, nearly 1,000 of Leal’s defensive snaps came lined up as an edge rusher, but he also has about another 500 lined up inside.

For more on Leal’s game, here is what The Draft Network has to say about him in his pre-draft report:

"“He has the power to collapse pockets from the interior and the speed to be an effective edge rusher. In the NFL, Leal will be best utilized as an interior defensive lineman who can overwhelm offensive linemen with his ability to convert speed to power. Overall, Leal has rare athleticism will become a physically dominant defensive lineman once he is placed in one specific role.”"

Pick 59: Darian Kinnard, OL, Kentucky

"“Darian Kinnard will likely be a guard, but he played tackle in college so he has the positional flexibility Green Bay would like. Kinnard projects to weigh in much heavier than traditional Packers offensive line picks in the past and I’m not sure he will hit their preferred athletic thresholds. However, he may surprise this week at the combine and seemed like good value at likely a position of need.”"

There are a few question marks along the Green Bay Packers offensive line this offseason. Lucas Patrick is a free agent and someone I expect to be playing elsewhere in 2022. Billy Turner could be a cut candidate — although I expect him to be back — and we don’t know when Elgton Jenkins will return.

However, I have to imagine that overall, the Green Bay Packers feel good about their offensive line unit. David Bakhtiari will be ready to go, Jenkins will return at some point, and along the interior, we saw promising performances in 2021 from Jon Runyan, Royce Newman, and Josh Myers, as well as Yosh Nijman at left tackle.

With that said, there is no such thing as too much offensive line depth, and you’ll never hear me complain about adding to the position. However, I can’t say that I see Green Bay selecting Kinnard in Round 2.

At 6’5″ – 345 pounds, Kinnard is an experienced player with 2,254 career snaps during his four-year playing career at Kentucky, and he’s also someone who could play both guard and tackle at the NFL level if needed, and we know how important that versatility is to Green Bay–although most project Kinnard as an interior lineman.

During his career at Kentucky, where he primarily lined up at right tackle, Kinnard allowed just seven sacks and 33 pressures. During his final season, he allowed only one sack and seven pressures, not to mention that he was PFF’s fourth-highest graded tackle and finished tied for 15th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency metric.

But there are two primary reasons that I don’t believe the Green Bay Packers would select him in Round 2. The first is that with Kinnard likely being a guard in the NFL, the Packers don’t typically select that position this high in the draft. Their M.O. is to select a Day 3 offensive tackle and move him inside–something they’ve had a lot of success doing since Ted Thompson was at the helm.

The other reason is that Kinnard did not test well at the NFL combine. Out of a possible 10.0, Kinnard scored 3.28 on the Relative Athletic Scoring table, finishing with “poor” scores in the vertical and broad jumps as well as in the 40-yard dash, shuttle, and 3-cone. As we all know, Gutekunst loves drafting elite athletes at their respective positions.

For an additional look at Kinnard’s game, this is what Kyle Crabbs of The Draft Network had to say about him:

"“Despite being a long-tenured starter, Kinnard is someone I see benefitting from additional coaching in fundamentals to help him optimize his punches and consistently maintain his blocks. This is a viable starter in a gap/power heavy system but he’s also got the functional athleticism to play in zone schemes and I appreciate his mobility despite his size.”"