Ranking Green Bay Packers Positions of Need Prior to Draft
By Paul Bretl
Green Bay Packers positions of need ranked
9. Linebacker
With De’Vondre Campbell under contract for the foreseeable future, I’m going to guess that the Packers aren’t overly concerned about addressing the linebacker position early on in the draft.
Now, that doesn’t mean they can’t upgrade the LB2 position, and if they spend a Day 3 pick on linebacker, I won’t be surprised, given that Campbell and Isaiah McDuffie are the only players at the position under contract in 2023. But this is a position that the Packers haven’t typically valued, and after paying Campbell, I don’t see them double-dipping with a premium pick.
8. Cornerback
With Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas, and Eric Stokes, the Green Bay Packers are pretty well set at the cornerback position. However, it is one of the most important positions in football, so there is no such thing as too much depth.
On top of that, as I’ve discussed before, adding another slot presence could take this secondary to another level. While perhaps Alexander ends up taking the most slot snaps over the course of the season, that isn’t the only place he is going to line up either. Alexander will likely follow around the opponent’s top receiver, and when that takes him to the boundary, who will play inside?
There is little slot experience on the roster currently, but if a draft pick is able to fill that role, it would give Joe Barry an incredible amount of flexibility with how he constructs his secondary from week to week or even series to series. One example of this is that with a rookie inside, Alexander and Stokes on the boundary, Douglas could take over as the third safety over the middle of the field. Adding a slot cornerback, however, is a luxury more than a need, given what the rest of the cornerback room looks like.