Packer Central

Packers Select Elusive Receiver in New Seven-Round NFL Mock Draft

In a new seven-round mock draft, the Green Bay Packers did the unthinkable with a first-round receiver and added a pass rusher who was coached by a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Bill Huber

Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III
Missouri Tigers wide receiver Luther Burden III / Butch Dill-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Do the Green Bay Packers need to upgrade their receiver corps?

“We need the guy that’s proven to be a No. 1 already,” running back Josh Jacobs said at the Super Bowl.

The supply of “proven” No. 1 receivers available this offseason won’t keep up with the demand. So, the Packers could have to look to the 2025 NFL Draft.

In a seven-round mock draft for Pro Football Network, the Packers selected Missouri receiver Luther Burden III with the 23rd overall pick.

Wrote PFN’s Ian Cummings: “(Burden’s) 2024 campaign wasn’t quite as productive as expected, but he still has WR1 tools, and Josh Jacobs believes Green Bay still needs a WR1. Burden’s RAC framework emulates Packers greats of old, but he has truly elite three-level upside.”

Burden in three seasons at Missouri caught 192 passes for 2,263 yards (11.8 average) and 21 touchdowns. His best season came in 2023, when he caught 86 passes for 1,212 yards (14.1 average) and nine touchdowns. However, that fell to 61 receptions for 676 yards (11.1 average) and six touchdowns in 2024, with his yards-per-game tumbling from 93.2 to 56.3.

Pro Football Focus’ data shows Burden’s potential, though.

First and foremost, he led the nation with 30 forced missed tackles after the catch in 2024. During his final two seasons, he broke 50 tackles. During his three seasons, he averaged 7.3 yards after the catch. He’s got excellent hands, too, with 147 catches and seven drops his final two seasons.

“He is at his best with the ball in his hands,” wrote NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah in ranking Burden the No. 32 overall prospect.

Burden did most of his work out of the slot – 85.3 percent in 2024 and 81.7 percent in 2023. The Packers already have Jayden Reed for a slot player.

Burden credited a Boys & Girls Club for his rise to star athlete.

“For me to be able to have some place to, basically, save me? It’s just a blessing,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “There are so many different ways to go (the wrong direction) in St. Louis and in that area. For me to have football, it just saved my life, you know? I feel like if it wasn’t for Herbert Hoover (Boys & Girls Club), I wouldn’t be in this position right now.”

The second-round pick addressed arguably the team’s biggest need, cornerback, with Florida State’s Azareye’h Thomas.

Thomas intercepted two passes in three seasons. In 2023, he had zero interceptions and 10 passes defensed. In 2024, he had one interception and five passes defensed.

PFF’s numbers tell the story, though. He allowed 17-of-33 passing for just 141 yards in 2024. He didn’t give up more than 28 yards in any game.

“Unproductive only because no one threw his way, Azareye’h Thomas has the length, fluidity, and competitive mentality to be a mainstay for Green Bay,” Cummings said.

Thomas would add more than talent. He’d add some size at 6-foot-1 1/2 and with 32 1/2-inch arms.

Jeremiah listed him among his 12 Senior Bowl standouts.

His older brother, Juanyeh Thomas, is a safety for the Dallas Cowboys.

“As I tell people all the time, he's a pro,” Seminoles defensive coach Patrick Surtain said during spring practices. “He approaches everything like a pro as far as the classroom, meeting room and how he comes out here and handles business.”

The third-round choice took care of another need with Miami defensive end Tyler Baron, who had six sacks and 11 tackles for losses at Tennessee in 2023 and 5.5 sacks and 11 tackles for losses at Miami in 2024.

Baron, who measured 6-foot-4 1/2 and 262 pounds at the East-West Shrine Game, had an elite pass-rush win rate of 19.0 percent, according to PFF.

“The Packers’ high-upside gambles haven’t always panned out at edge, but Tyler Baron has the power, bend, and upward trajectory to bank on,” Cummings wrote.

His position coach at Miami was Pro Football Hall of Famer Jason Taylor.

“The size jumps off the page first,” Taylor said before the season. “All the measurements are there. He’s played up and down the line at Tennessee. He’s very versatile, has a good repertoire of pass rush moves. He plays with really, really great effort.

“That’s the biggest thing. We tell the guys in the room a lot that effort is the biggest eraser. When things don’t go perfectly on a particular play, your effort can erase it for you. One of the biggest things he brings is his motor is relentless. You can’t teach that. He plays with physicality, plays with finesse. Can play in space. Can bend for a long guy. He has a lot of really good traits.”

The Day 3 choices were used on a center, defensive tackle, a big receiver, a linebacker and an offensive tackle.

Click here for the full mock.

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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.