Packers Focus on Trenches in New Seven-Round Mock Draft

The Green Bay Packers didn’t pick a cornerback until the fourth round and added the College Football Playoffs MVP in the seventh round.

Indiana's Mikail Kamara (6) lifts the trophy on the podium after the College Football Playoff National Championship game. | Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ biggest needs this offseason probably are defensive tackle and cornerback. A new seven-round mock draft at Pro Football Network hit on those needs – but not right away.

Instead, Alec Elijah selected Oregon guard Emmanuel Pregnon with Green Bay’s first pick, which is at No. 52 overall.

“Emmanuel Pregnon stands out as one of the top interior offensive linemen in the 2026 class,” Elijah wrote. “His combination of strength, technique, and gap-to-gap versatility makes him a highly reliable and professional presence in the trenches.”

Pregnon is No. 44 at Pro Football Focus, not in Daniel Jeremiah’s top-50 list at NFL.com and is No. 49 in Dane Brugler’s top-100 list at The Athletic.

“A massive, well-proportioned blocker, Pregnon has an NFL body, and he plays with power through his hips and shock in his hands,” Brugler wrote. “He anchors in pass pro and creates movement in the run game, driving defenders from the play when he stays balanced through engagement.”

Pregnon dominated at Oregon. Playing almost exclusively at left guard the past three seasons, he allowed just one sack in more than 1,500 pass-protecting snaps, according to PFF.

Would the Packers use their first draft pick on a guard? That will depend entirely on what the Packers plan to do with last year’s high-priced free-agent acquisition, Aaron Banks. Banks is due a huge roster bonus at the start of the league-year. If the Packers pay it, that means he’ll return for 2026, where he’d presumably start at left guard alongside Anthony Belton, last year’s second-round pick who started at right guard down the stretch.

In this scenario, San Diego State cornerback Chris Johnson was on the board.

The Packers added a badly needed defensive tackle in the third round with Oklahoma’s Gracen Halton.

Halton started three games in 2024 and seven games in 2025, when he was second-team all-SEC and a team captain. During his final two seasons, he had 8.5 sacks, 13 tackles for losses and three forced fumbles.  

“I loved his progression from seeing the field as a true freshman to working more as a sophomore, and then, boom, he has that huge year last year. The Gerald McCoy comparisons are coming,” an NFC West scout told ESPN’s Matt Miller.

CFP MVP Part of Day 3

Finally, in the fourth round, the Packers took a cornerback, Colorado’s Preston Hodge. Hodge started his career at Liberty before finishing at Colorado. He had two interceptions and nine passes defensed in 2024 and one interception and a Big 12-leading 13 passes defensed in 2025. He had five breakups against Utah.

Playing mostly in the slot, he allowed a catch percentage of just 50.7 with four touchdowns allowed.

He was not invited to the Scouting Combine, meaning he is not deemed a top prospect.

The Day 3 picks included a receiver in the fifth round, an offensive tackle in the sixth round, and a running back, edge rusher and tight end in the seventh round.

The edge rusher is Indiana’s Mikail Kamara. He had 10 sacks and 15 tackles for losses in 13 games in 2024 but only two sacks and seven TFLs in 16 games in 2025. The 6-foot-1 pass rusher grew up watching Von Miller.

“My entire career, pretty much since I was a kid, I played running back, I played quarterback and I played some receiver,” he told Forbes. “I got to my junior year of high school and then my high school coach, we had someone that was going to come in from another school to play running back. My coach was like, ‘You can play running back here, but you probably won’t play a lot,’ and he kind of suggested for me to move positions. I decided to move to defensive end.

“As soon as I decided to move to defensive end, I started watching all Von Miller highlights, Von Miller games and tapes and anything.”

Kamara was MVP of the Hoosiers’ victory over Miami in the national championship game because of the blocked punt that was recovered for a touchdown.

While his sack number plunged, he had more hurries, according to PFF, and his pass-rush win rate was still strong.

“I’m a zero-star (recruit),” he said via The Herald-Times. “I can't lie, I pull it up every year when the draft comes up and they put up guys like Travis Kelce, some of those no star or 3-star guys. When I get drafted, that's what they are going to put up for me.”

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