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Big Corner, Productive Passer Highlight Packers’ Picks in Seven-Round Mock Draft

Here are the results from a seven-round mock draft, which started with three consecutive picks on defense.
Bill Huber|
UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano (QB07) during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium.
UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano (QB07) during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers weren’t big enough and they weren’t good enough at cornerback last season.

They are bigger and at least a little better after signing Benjamin St-Juste in free agency. They would be even bigger and better with the selection of Arkansas cornerback Julian Neal.

Neal was the Packers’ first choice in T.J. Randall’s seven-round mock draft at Pro Football Network.

“Back in January, I mentioned Julian Neal as a guy who could find his way into the second round. So, here we are,” Randall wrote. “Green Bay spends its first pick on the type of corner the league covets: big, long, and explosive.”

At 6-foot-1 5/8, Neal’s 40-yard time was 4.49 seconds, a relatively mediocre number, but he showed tremendous explosion in the jumps.

Neal is the No. 172 overall prospect at Pro Football Focus. He is not ranked among the top 100 players, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein called him a “late-blooming” cornerback, but he’s not ranked among his top 20 cornerbacks.

“He has average long speed but that won’t matter as much in deep-zone coverages, where his length can take over,” he wrote as part of his scouting report. “His talent as a run defender and tackler will benefit him in short-zone coverage. Neal’s traits raise his ceiling, but fit and technical improvement will be essential for him to become a factor.”

At Fresno State in 2024, he allowed a catch rate of just 48.0 percent with one touchdown, two interceptions and a 55.2 passer rating, according to Pro Football Focus. After transferring to Arkansas for 2025, those numbers inched up to 56.3 percent with three touchdowns, two interceptions and an 82.5 passer rating.

An uncle, Aaron Criswell, played receiver at UNLV.

If football doesn’t work out, he’s got Plan B figured out. Sort of.

“I finished with an accounting degree at Fresno State, so if anybody has a firm or anything in accounting,” he said during a live appearance on Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino’s radio show. “Choose me as an intern or whatever. I don’t have to get paid. I just need some experience.”

Neal was the pick over defensive tackles Darrell Jackson and Domonique Orange, offensive linemen Caleb Tiernan and Gennings Dunker, and cornerback Keith Abney.

In the third round, the Packers took care of another need with Michigan edge Derrick Moore. Green Bay traded Rashan Gary and let Kingsley Enagbare go in free agency. With Micah Parsons coming off a torn ACL, the Packers could enter Week 1 with a depth chart of Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox and Collin Oliver.

“The likes of Derrick Moore and Joshua Josephs are still available here, boding well for pass-rush-needy teams. Green Bay scoops one of them up to fortify such efforts.”

Moore is the No. 52 prospect for Brugler and the No. 66 prospect at PFF. During his final season at Michigan, he recorded 10 sacks, 10.5 tackles for losses and two forced fumbles to earn first-team All-Big Ten and team MVP honors. He had an elite pass-rush win rate of 19.5 percent, according to PFF. 

Michigan won the national championship in 2023. Along the way, it beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl. Moore made the game-saving tackle – but didn’t know it.

“I did not know!” Moore told Wolverines Wire. “Literally, I did not know. I was on the ground, I got up, I'd seen everybody running around, the band's playing. And I'm just like, I'm shocked. I'm like, we just beat Alabama, you know. It was just a great moment. It was just a great moment, just that moment.”

Among the players available was Cincinnati nose tackle Dontay Corleone.

Green Bay got a defensive tackle in the fourth round with Navy’s Landon Robinson. He is a unique prospect at 5-foot-11 1/4 and 293 pounds. But he’s incredibly athletic in terms of speed, explosion and strength.

The Packers have no history of taking short defensive tackles, but Robinson was a first-team All-American with 6.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for losses among 64 tackles.

He said he was a 220-pound linebacker when he arrived at Annapolis.

“It was a cool experience that transformed my entire football career. It was big for me to make that transition a successful one. I realized what I needed to do to make that permanent switch,” he told On SI’s Justin Melo.

After the second, third and fourth rounds were dedicated to the defense, the fifth- through seventh-round picks were used on the offense with an offensive lineman, receiver and running back before the final pick was UConn quarterback Joe Fagnano.

Fagnano had a brilliant final season with 28 touchdowns and one interception. Yes, 28 touchdowns vs. one interception on the strength of a 69.0 percent completion percentage as a seventh-year senior. His limited mobility and arm strength make this the right area in the draft.

Fagnano helped the Huskies go 18-8 in 2024 and 2025. They won a combined 16 games the previous seven seasons.

“That’s one of the key points of being a quarterback is decision-making,” Fagnano said before the season. “Because you’ve got the program in your hands every play. You’ve got the ball in your hands, everybody’s counting on you to see the right defense, get the ball to the right player.

“So, that’s something I’m always looking to improve each and every day is just decision-making, decision-making, decision-making. And that really comes with repetition and how fast you can make those decisions. A split hair could be the difference.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.