A Cornerback? Packers take Cornerback in recent mock draft
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers have a number of needs to address this offseason, but I’m going to guess that many don’t have cornerback too high on the priority list. However, that is the position that the Packers add to in Round 1 of a recent mock draft.
Marcus Mosher of PFF went outside the box with this one, having Green Bay take South Carolina cornerback Cam Smith with the 15th overall pick. Mosher acknowledges that the Packers’ cornerback room is pretty well set but adds that Smith is just too good to pass up.
The 6’0″ – 188 pound Smith has 1,357 career snaps over four years at South Carolina, the bulk of which have come in the past two seasons. During that span, he has been targeted 70 times and allowed a completion rate of just 47% at 11.9 yards per catch, according to PFF ($$).
Smith has been very good when the ball has been in the air, logging 15 pass breakups and four interceptions in those two years. He has, however, been flagged 14 times as well.
We saw Smith’s versatility on display during the 2022 season, as he lined up on the boundary 357 snaps, along with nearly another 200 from the slot. He also graded out well against the run in 2021, for what it’s worth, and has been a willing — although at times inconsistent — tackler, totaling 17 stops.
The Draft Network has Smith ranked as the third-best cornerback in this class and the 17th player overall. For more on his game, here is what Joe Marino wrote in his pre-draft report.
"“Smith is a highly-competitive defender that plays the game with confidence and physicality,” said Marino. “He’s a twitchy athlete with good speed, loose hips, and quick feet that lead to sticky reps in man coverage. Smith is patient and balanced at the line of scrimmage and he’s more than willing to crowd and leverage releases to create early disruption on routes. I love the way he competes to get off blocks and tackle.”"
As I alluded to initially, on the surface, the Packers aren’t exactly hurting for cornerbacks. Jaire Alexander is only entering the second year of his extension. Eric Stokes has two years, plus a fifth-year option, left on this rookie deal, and Rasul Douglas’ deal runs through the 2024 season.
On the flip side, we don’t know when Stokes will return from injury, and Douglas could be a cap casualty next offseason–so I suppose you could make a case for adding to this position. After all, the draft should be about planning ahead more than anything.
With that said, it still feels unlikely, at least in the first round. Once Stokes is healthy, the Packers already face questions about how they are going to divide the playing time between the three cornerbacks they already have. Last season, it was Douglas in the slot with Alexander and Stokes on the boundary; however, Douglas was much more effective once back outside.
Among those three, the Packers don’t have a “true” slot cornerback, so adding Smith to the mix, who has slot experience, could make sense in that regard, but then who will be on the sidelines? I suppose an outside of the box solution could be moving Douglas to safety, but we don’t know if that’s on the Packers radar or how Douglas would perform.
Cornerback is an important position and one where there really is no such thing as too much depth. But given the current construction of the roster, a first-round pick on the cornerback position seems unlikely.