Packers Select ‘Escalade’ Anthony Belton with Second-Round NFL Draft Pick

GREEN BAY, Wis. – “Escalade” rolled into Green Bay for a predraft visit with the Packers, and he’ll return to the Green Bay Packers as a second-round pick.

The Packers continued their move toward a bigger, more physical offensive line by selecting North Carolina State offensive lineman Anthony Belton – aka “Escalade” – with their second-round pick on Friday.

With size and the ability to move, he was nicknamed “Escalade” by the Wolfpack’s director of strength and conditioning, Dantonio Burnette.

“I got that from my strength coach, Coach Thunder, when I first got there,” he said during a Zoom call. “We had team runs, agility stuff and he seen I could move good. He drives an Escalade himself so that’s what he always told me – how smooth I could move be like an Escalade, so that’s what that was.”

It’s those skills that captured the Packers’ attention throughout his final season at NC State, the Senior Bowl, the Scouting Combine and a predraft visit.

The No. 54 overall selection is a massive man at 6-foot-6 and 336 pounds. After signing Aaron Banks in free agency to play left guard at 6-foot-5 and 325 pounds, Belton adds more beef as the Packers have trended toward the Josh Jacobs-led power running game.

“It’s the old phrase, ‘big doesn’t get small,’ especially when you play here in the NFC North,” Packers vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan said of the team’s trend. “We play in the cold and you can wear people down as the season goes along and the elements change. It’s the way we were raised in this thing up here.”

Banks was a three-year starting left tackle but will be moved along the line to find his best spot and bet fit with the rest of the line.

“I think he can play left tackle, I think he can play both guard spots, I think he can play right tackle, so that’s one of the things that attracted us to him,” Sullivan said. “It’s a big man, versatility across the line of scrimmage, where we play, thinking it will be a very good fit in the room with the guys that we have now.”

Sullivan thought he’d fit in the locker room, a belief confirmed during Belton’s visit.

“Professional. He’s a professional kid,” he said. “He’s quiet, he’s about his business. I think when you talk to the people there at NC State, we talked about his growth over the years there. Football’s important to him. He’ll fit great in the locker room.”

Belton was a three-year starting left tackle for the Wolfpack, with 2,216 snaps at that position in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He’ll work at tackle and guard.

A late growth spurt in high school set the stage for Belton receiving the phone call of a lifetime on Friday evening.

“It was amazing, man, especially prior to it, just not knowing where you’re going to go,” he said. “Just sitting around waiting, I couldn’t eat. I was nervous. I was just eager to find out where I was going. It is everything I dreamed of since I was a kid. I’ve been playing football since I was 6 years old. This is all I wanted. This is all I worked for. The journey I went on to just be in this position is everything I’ve been wanting man.”

QUICK FEET EAT KID!!!@BeltonAnthony
GET’em on the 🖼️ and 🥊
👀👀📈📈#BigMenLead https://t.co/pd1R6u9gUr
— Coach Garett Tujague (@Coach2J) January 29, 2025

NC State coach Dave Doeren had high expectations entering the 2024 season.

“He’s in really good shape,” Doeren said via Rivals. “His practice habits have become escalated as far as the urgency and the focus. Anthony likes to have fun. He's got a great personality, and sometimes that gets too close to the game for him.

“Being able to compartmentalize those things – this is work, this is fun – and knowing when it's time to do both, he's really grown up. He's had a really good fall camp, and I'm excited for him.”

Run blocking is his calling card. That’s where he can “bulldoze the roads clean for running backs,” wrote NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein in his scouting report.

“It’s really just being in the conversation about that [the NFL] is really a blessing,” Belton said before his final season. “A lot of guys don’t get that opportunity. I’m just trying to focus on this year and go as far as I can go with this team. I know that will set me up.”

Here’s the early read.

Measurables: 6-foot-6, 336 pounds. 33 7/8-inch arms (34 5/8 at pro day). 5.26 40.

Relative Athletic Score: 7.72.

By the Numbers: After two years at Georgia Military College and a redshirt season at NC State, Belton started 32 games the past three seasons.

There were 120 FBS-level, draft-eligible offensive tackles who played at least 575 snaps in 2024, according to Pro Football. He ranked 25th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-protecting snap. He allowed three sacks and 12 total pressures and was penalized eight times. Almost all of his 2,251 snaps came at left tackle.

NFL.com said it:, Lance Zierlein wrote, “Belton is an enormous tackle with good power and long arms. He can bulldoze the roads clean for running backs but needs to play with better hand placement to sustain his early lead. He could become a solid starter at right tackle.”

Noteworthy: Belton,, was nicknamed “Escalade” by the school’s director of strength and conditioning., he said: “For me, it’s my athleticism. I’m a guy who can move, especially at my size. I can compare with any when it comes to power, speed, finesse. I’m ready for anything. I’m just ready for the unexpected because that’s what comes on the offensive line. You’ve got to go against different defenders and it’s about how you prepare yourself, how you react, how you bounce back when you lose.”

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