Daniel Jeremiah’s NFL.com Mock: Packers Grab Burks

NFL.com's top draft analyst unveiled his final mock draft before the real thing starts on Thursday night. The Packers took a receiver and a linebacker.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Seven receivers were selected in Daniel Jeremiah’s final mock draft for NFL.com.

The Green Bay Packers got one of them.

After a big-time early run in which Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson, Alabama’s Jameson Williams, USC’s Drake London and Ohio State’s Chris Olave went in a span of five picks in the Top 12, the receiver board stayed intact in Jeremiah’s mock.

“Maybe this is the year Aaron Rodgers finally gets his first-round wideout. Burks has the size and run-after-catch skills they have always coveted in Green Bay,” Jeremiah wrote.

In this scenario, Green Bay took Burks ahead of Penn State’s Jahan Dotson and Georgia’s George Pickens, who also went in the first round.

Burks was the 19th-ranked player on Jeremiah’s list of the Top 150 prospects in the draft.

“Burks is a big (6-2, 225), physical wideout with outstanding run-after-catch ability,” Jeremiah wrote. “He was used in a variety of alignments in the Razorbacks' offense -- outside, in the slot, at running back and as a Wildcat QB. He caught a lot of bubbles, slants and flat routes. Arkansas liked to get the ball in his hands as soon as possible to let him display his speed and physicality after the catch. He wasn't asked to run a full complement of routes, but he's a fluid athlete and should be able to do more at the next level. He likes to cradle-catch balls on his frame, which leads to some drops, but he flashes the ability to high point and finish. Burks will need some time to develop, but he has A.J. Brown-type upside.”

With only a 4.55 in the 40 and a 33-inch vertical leap, Burks’ Relative Athletic Score, which measures a player’s measurables compared to his peers at the position and places it on a 0-to-10 scale, was just 5.82.

At No. 28, the Packers selected Georgia linebacker Quay Walker. It would be an interesting selection, to say the least. Ever since drafting A.J. Hawk in 2006 and signing him to an extension in 2011, the Packers had dedicated relatively few resources to the position. That changed this offseason with the re-signing of All-Pro De’Vondre Campbell to a five-year, $50 million contract.

So, could the Packers invest heavily again in Walker, an incredibly athletic linebacker who was one of the anchors of the Bulldogs’ national championship team? At almost 6-foot-4, he ran his 40 in 4.52 seconds. His Relative Athletic Score was 9.63. He’s perhaps the best tackler at the position in the draft class but, in 52 career games, he broke up only three passes and didn’t force a fumble.

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