Sean Rhyan suspension glaring reminder of Packers 3rd round misses
By Paul Bretl
On Friday afternoon, the NFL reported that Green Bay Packers’ 2022 third-round pick Sean Rhyan, will be suspended for six games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances. Barring a miraculous turnaround where Green Bay makes the playoffs, Rhyan’s already disappointing rookie season is over.
The latest news is another glaring reminder of the Packers’ numerous swings and misses on third-round selections.
From a pure football standpoint, this is a move that shouldn’t affect Green Bay much in 2022 because Rhyan couldn’t see the field–another not-so-good sign for the third-rounder.
Coming out of UCLA, where Rhyan had over 2,200 career snaps at left tackle, he struggled to gain any sort of role with the Packers. Even with the team battling injuries along the offensive line for much of the season, Rhyan has been inactive for six games and hasn’t seen a snap on offense. He also has just one on special teams, according to PFF ($$).
Although we don’t know what the future holds for Rhyan as a Packer, Brian Gutekunst has already moved on from two former third-round picks before they even made it through their rookie deals.
Rhyan’s suspension comes just two weeks after the Green Bay Packers cut 2021 third-round pick Amari Rodgers after he was not able to carve out a role on offense and continued to fumble away opportunities as the punt return man.
Before Rodgers, 2019 third-round pick Jace Sternberger was cut at the beginning of his third NFL season after appearing in only 18 games. Despite the Packers’ need for a tight end, Sternberger could never find regular playing time as he was wildly inconsistent on the practice field.
Gutey’s two other third-round selections as GM are Oren Burks and Josiah Deguara. Burks at least finished out his rookie contract but was never more than a special teams player, and this was at typically weak linebacker position for the Packers. Deguara, meanwhile, is the most successful of the bunch, but even he still sees just 14 snaps per game on average in the very specific H-back role. I do believe he could play a larger role, but for whatever reason, that hasn’t been the case for him.
As Sports Illustrated’s Bill Huber wrote in a recent article, it’s not as if finding playmakers in the third round is easy, as there have been only six Pro Bowlers drafted in Round 3 since 2018. With that said, top-100 selections are valuable, and Gutekunst has really struggled at this point of the draft, with Bill also adding that Gutey’s five selections have combined for only 14 starts in Green Bay–the second-fewest in football during that same span.
As they say, past performance is not indicative of future results. However, given what has transpired over the last handful of years, perhaps Green Bay should be looking to either trade up, trade back, or move that third-round pick for a player from a different team because, at this point, it’s as if any selection made in Round 3 is doomed for failure.