Packers’ Small But Mighty Draft Class Followed Critical Themes

Ultimately, the hope for the Packers is to find their way out of the purgatory of mediocrity and back to the Super Bowl.

While they are not necessarily relying on the rookies in this year’s class to be primary contributors to push them over the top, they will not be discounted simply because they are young players.

“I think all four of those guys coming in can compete for playing time and certainly they got to compete to make the roster, first and foremost,” coach Matt LaFleur said when asked about his defense getting better.

“But what was great about a lot of our picks is there was talk about drafting these guys – there were some tough decisions early on in the draft in the second round about who we were going to take, and I think we got great value and the board held strong. Where we were able to draft these guys, we didn't know if they were going to quite be available at that moment and they were, so that's a win for us.”

A win for the Packers in the offseason they are hoping translates to more wins on the field in the fall. The Packers finished the 2025 season on a five-game losing streak, including an embarrassing loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field in the playoffs.

Any draft develops some semblance of a theme, and here are the themes that emerged from Brian Gutekunst’s ninth draft class.

Competition

Competition breeds excellence, as the old saying goes, and the Packers have continued to preach that line of thinking by word and deed.

The biggest evidence of competition, on the surface, was the Packers moving up in the sixth round to select kicker Trey Smack.

“Competition,” LaFleur said. “Obviously, Trey was the highest-rated kicker we had on our board. Got to give our scouting department a ton of props, a ton of credit, man. They really worked hard. I thought they did an outstanding job. Obviously, it’s a position that’s important when you’re talking about scoring points in this league and just like any other position, you can never have enough competition.”

Assuming you believe this is a true competition, and there is reason for skepticism, that was the first of multiple examples of adding it to the roster.

Dani Dennis-Sutton, the edge defender taken in the fourth round, will add competition to the young trio of Barryn Sorrell, Collin Oliver and Brenton Cox.

Chris McClellan, who was selected in the third round, will add competition to the front of the defensive tackle depth chart.

Jager Burton, who was drafted in the fifth round, will add competition to the interior offensive line.

Most importantly, their first pick, Brandon Cisse, adds competition to a cornerback room that struggled mightily to finish last season.

With limited draft capital, the Packers were able to check some really big items off their list.

Small Class

Gutekunst entered the draft this weekend with just eight picks at his disposal thanks to the trade for Micah Parsons. The limited draft capital caused them to make some choices about where to add players – and when to add them.

The good news for Gutekunst was that he likes the team he has in place, which allowed him to focus appropriately instead of trading back to add more picks.

“I like the depth of our football team, I like the way our roster is shaping up,” Gutekunst said. “I didn’t think the opportunities to move back and add picks made a lot of sense for us, and the times we moved up I thought it did. I think it was just a unique year that way, but I do feel like we did some things with our roster that give me some peace.”

The Packers knew this class could solve some of their primary needs without looking to some needs that were below the surface.

“To be honest, I don't know if I ever feel like I've checked every box because I don't know if anything's ever complete,” Gutekunst said. “That doesn't mean I don't feel really good about what our team looks like but, to me, and I've probably said it to you guys, but this is 365.

“So, yeah, these three days were really good. I feel really good about what we did. I feel really good about our process and I'm really proud of our staff for setting the board up like they did and having the answers to a lot of things we were trying to figure out. But tomorrow – and this has been the way it's always been – but tomorrow we'll gather sometime around 9 o'clock, we'll take a look at it and say, ‘OK, what's next?’ We'll start and what's coming tomorrow and the next day and that won't change.”

Draft For Need

Without a first-round pick, the Packers were a little behind the 8-ball to fill all their needs, as the first day of the draft played in their favor.

“The board held up good,” Gutekunst said when asked about not having a first round pick. “There’s always guys that you’re kind of disappointed that they went in any draft.

“But we really had a few players with that first pick at 52 that we liked, and it was kind of a tough decision there. And then a couple of them hung around and we tried to get one, and we did. It was exciting to kind of come out of that. There are still a lot of good players left on the board.”

Perhaps Gutekunst was holding his breath because the three biggest needs on Green Bay’s roster coming into the draft were at cornerback, defensive tackle and edge rusher.

What were Green Bay’s first three picks? Defensive tackle, cornerback, and edge rusher.

Ted Thompson used to like to say that the board “just worked out that way” when he would follow a similar path to the one Gutekunst did over the weekend.

Maybe that’s true. Without looking at the board the Packers have, we’ll never truly know. It is quite the coincidence, however, that the best players on the board just so happened to be at those positions.

Regardless of the philosophy, it’s hard to argue with the results. Cisse has some technique concerns to work through, but should give the team a boost in the secondary. McClellan has the versatility to help the team stop the run while also rushing the passer. Dennis-Sutton could prove to be one of the steals of the draft as he was projected to be taken in the second or third round before falling all the way to Pick 120.

Defense Heavy

Defense wins championships, or at least that’s how the old saying goes. Gutekunst and his staff either agree with that, or feel like their offense is in really good shape.

Despite some speculation that the Packers could add a running back, receiver or developmental quarterback, the Packers drafted just one offensive player in this class, Burton, who will have a shot to be the backup center.

They had chances to take big-play receivers Ted Hurst or Chris Brazzell, both of whom came to Green Bay for “30” visits, in both rounds on Day 2. They passed for Cisse and McClellan. They had a chance to take running back Mike Washington Jr., who had a “30” visit, in the fourth round. They took Dani Dennis-Sutton.

They could have held onto their late-round picks to pick a quarterback but took a developmental cornerback in Domani Jackson before trading up for Smack.

With the contract extension of Jayden Reed completed and the Packers wanting to get a contract extension done for Christian Watson, it appears the core of the offense is in place.

Was that why Gutekunst wanted to add solely to his defense?

“We did not go into this thinking we didn’t need to add bodies to the offensive side of the ball,” Gutekunst said. “I feel good about us as a group staying disciplined and allowing the board to speak to us and not trying to do something that was out of character for us, let the players come to us.

“I feel really good about us as a whole as an offense being able to do what we need to do. We need to stay healthy, but that’s everybody in the national football league.”

Contrary to the 2024 season, when the Packers’ offense was well behind their defense as the season ended, Green Bay’s offense in 2025 was up to the task by the end of the year, but the defense fell behind without Micah Parsons.

The hope the Packers have is that their draft class can add to their team while still looking for ways to improve on both sides of the ball.

“I felt good about our team before this weekend,” Gutekunst said. “These guys I think are going to be really good additions to our locker room and then our football team and I think they'll help us, but tomorrow's another day and we'll see if there's areas we can improve and if we can we will.”

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