5 Green Bay Packers draft picks way worse than Jordan Love
By Todd Welter
Ahmad Carroll | Cornerback | Green Bay Packers 2004 first-round pick
The 2004 draft may have been one of the worst drafts in Green Bay Packers’ history.
It was also the last draft run by Mike Sherman. Sherman was both general manager and head coach at the time. Let’s just say drafting was not his strong suit.
Mike McKenzie was disgruntled with his contract and was threatening to hold out. Also, the Packers were coming off seeing their 2003 season ended by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Divisional round. The cause of that loss was partially due to the infamous 4th and 26 play where the pass coverage failed badly.
Those two factors played into Sherman’s selection of Carroll with the 25th pick in the first round.
The problem was Carroll had more penalties than he did interceptions in his two-plus seasons in Green Bay.
Carroll was also not the best teammate. He got into a fist-fight with fellow cornerback Joey Thomas—who was a Packers’ third-round pick in the 2004 draft.
Carroll’s penalties issues were so bad that he had to practice with boxing gloves on to avoid grabbing at wide receivers.
He was also undersized at 5’10” and 190 pounds. This was when the Green Bay Packers still had to deal with Randy Moss in the division.
Moss famously torched the Packers in the 2004 Wild Card game for two touchdowns in the Minnesota Vikings win.
Maybe Chris Gamble would have had better luck against Moss that day. That was the corner Sherman passed on. Gamble had 13 interceptions in his first two seasons and went on to have a solid career.
Bob Sanders could have anchored the secondary for a few seasons as he was a two-time All-Pro safety for the Indianapolis Colts.
Linebacker Karlos Dansby was also available to provide immediate help. Guard Chris Snee could have been drafted to take over for Mike Wahle or Marco Rivera, who both departed after the 2004 season via free agency.
That is another reason the Carroll pick was so bad. The Green Bay Packers were an overtime loss away from the NFC Championship Game and passed on three players that could have provided immediate help on defense.
They had the offense to contend for a Super Bowl, but the defense held the Packers back.