Here Is List of Packers’ 2024 NFL Draft Picks, Biggest Needs

The Green Bay Packers will enter the 2024 NFL Draft with 11 draft picks. GM Brian Gutekunst would rather have more than less.

Author:
Bill Huber
Apr 24, 2024

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2024 NFL Draft

NFL Draft

Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers draft

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst will enter the 2024 NFL Draft armed with a league-high 11 picks.

“More at-bats. You’ve got more chances for hits,” he told reporters during his predraft news conference on Monday at Lambeau Field. “There’s never enough. I don’t ever subscribe to the thought process, ‘Hey, we’ve got a pretty good team. These guys might not have a chance to make the team.’

“I’ve talked a lot about competition in every room and how much it accelerates the growth of your football team. I think that’s the best way for your team to move forward. So, to me, there’s never enough. You never have enough ammunition to build your room so there’s significant competition in every room. I think that’s really important. We have 11 right now. I’d love to end up with 13, 14 or more. I would never shy away from that.”

Here are Green Bay’s 11 picks, which include five selections in the first three rounds.

Round 1, Pick 25 overall.
Round 2, Pick 41 overall (from New York Jets in Aaron Rodgers trade).
Round 2, Pick 58 overall.
Round 3, Pick 88 overall.
Round 3, Pick 91 overall (from Buffalo Bills in Rasul Douglas trade).
Round 4, Pick 126 overall.
Round 5, Pick 169 overall (compensatory pick for Allen Lazard).
Round 6, Pick 202 overall.
Round 6, Pick 219 overall (compensatory pick for Jarran Reed).
Round 7, Pick 245 overall.
Round 7, Pick 255 overall (compensatory pick for Dean Lowry).

Quality And Quantity

Not only does no team have more draft picks than the Packers, only two teams have more picks in the Top 100; the Packers have five while the Arizona Cardinals and Washington Commanders have six. Thus, Gutekunst has a golden opportunity in front of him to build a championship team after it reached the divisional playoffs last year.

The Packers’ draft capital was illustrated by a recent Harvard Sports study, which placed point values on every draft pick. Using those numbers, the Packers have the sixth-most draft capital, according to Tankathon.

“The draft is the lifeblood of this organization. It always has been, so that’s why we put so much time into it,” Gutekunst said. “That’s why it’s so important to us. Again, it’s a funny thing. You can’t predict it and some classes turn out better than others for a variety of reasons, but, yeah, this is extremely important to this organization, this football team. The guys in that locker room are counting on us to bring in the right kind of guys to help them achieve their goals.”

Ranking Packers’ Positional Draft Needs

The Packers won a playoff game last year with the youngest roster in the NFL. Still, they have plenty of needs to be addressed with those 11 draft picks. Those include:

Offensive tackle: Taking over for David Bakhtiari beginning in Week 2. Rasheed Walker was just fine at left tackle and was especially strong in the playoffs. “We’ve seen some great flashes from him,” coach Matt LaFleur said recently. Zach Tom is a stud at right tackle. But there is no reliable depth, though maybe they’ll catch lightning in a bottle with the recent signing of former first-round pick Andre Dillard. Otherwise, Caleb Jones and Luke Tenuta constitute the depth.

Safety: The Packers gave Xavier McKinney a massive contract in free agency. He will be a centerpiece of Jeff Hafley’s new defense. Who will line up with him? Anthony Johnson, a seventh-round pick last year, is the only other safety who played more than a few snaps last year. He showed some flashes but ranked among the worst tacklers in the league. Zayne Anderson, Benny Sapp and Tyler Coyle round out the depth chart.

Cornerback: Can Jaire Alexander return to All-Pro form? Can Eric Stokes save his career? The team’s leader in passes defensed as a rookie in 2021 had zero in 2022 and 2023. Can Carrington Valentine take a big step forward in terms of consistency after showing some promise as a rookie? That’s a lot of questions. Wishing and hoping for the right answers is a bad way of doing business.

Linebacker: This is simple math. The Packers need one more linebacker in their starting lineup but released one of their starters, De’Vondre Campbell. Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie will man two of the spots in the new 4-3 base alignment, but what about the third? On top of that, McDuffie, Eric Wilson and Kristian Welch will be free agents next offseason.

Interior offensive line: Clearly, the Packers like Sean Rhyan. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have risked a run to the playoffs by continually giving him half the offensive snaps. However, Royce Newman is the only backup behind Rhyan, center Josh Myers and left guard Elgton Jenkins. Plus, Myers and Newman will be free agents next offseason and haven’t done enough to merit a second contract.

Defensive end: End, edge. Whatever. This is last year’s outside linebackers and this year’s defensive ends. With Kingsley Enagbare expected to miss the start of the season due to the torn ACL sustained in the playoffs, the Packers have only Rashan Gary, Preston Smith and Lukas Van Ness as reliable players. Not even Enagbare’s injury could get rookie Brenton Cox off the inactives list in the season-ending loss to the 49ers.

Running back: The Packers are set with Josh Jacobs and AJ Dillon, but Dillon is back on only a one-year deal. The Packers could use a running back to groom into next year’s No. 2. And if he’s got some home-run ability, all the better.