Packer Central

Packers Take Havoc-Creating Defensive Tackle Athletic’s NFL Mock Draft

The Athletic’s Dane Brugler addressed one of the Green Bay Packers’ glaring needs in his post-Scouting Combine mock draft.
Bill Huber|
Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon
Oregon defensive lineman Derrick Harmon | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ defensive tackles didn’t provide much juice last season. With 17-game starter TJ Slaton headed to free agency and Kenny Clark coming off his worst season since his rookie year, the team could use an infusion of talent.

In his new mock draft for The Athletic, Dane Brugler sent Oregon defensive tackle Derrick Harmon to the Packers at No. 23.

At 6-foot-4 1/2 and 313 pounds, Harmon ran his 40 in 4.95 seconds. That was fourth-fastest among the defensive tackles and second-fastest among the 300-pound defensive tackles.

Stopwatch speed equates to game speed. Harmon led the nation’s defensive tackles with 55 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus. No other player had more than 43. He finished second among defensive tackles in the draft class in pass-rush win rate.

At the Scouting Combine, he described his game “With a little bit of grit. I’ve got a dog in me. Real gritty player, just trying to get to the ball and make a play.”

He likes to watch the Chiefs’ Chris Jones and the Steelers’ Cam Heyward.

In Brugler’s pre-Scouting Combine rankings, he had Harmon as the No. 19 prospect. At NFL.com, Daniel Jeremiah had Harmon at No. 26.

“Harmon is just really disruptive,” Jeremiah said in a pre-Combine conference call. “He has quick hands. He just lives under the side of the line of scrimmage. He’s really instinctive. He’s aware. He knows where blocks are coming from and he gets up the field. So, he’s a fun, fun player.

“But I want to see him show his power. It flashes. It’s all in there. I would love to see him play into his power a little bit more.”

In two seasons with extensive playing time, Harmon had 3.5 sacks and seven tackles for losses at Michigan State. In his one season at Oregon, he had five sacks and 11 tackles for losses. He added two forced fumbles and used his height to deflect four passes.

“Humongous (addition for us),” Ducks linebacker Jeffrey Bassa said. “Just the way that he creates havoc in the backfield, stopping the run for us, creating turnovers for us, and then getting after the quarterback, as well.”

At Oregon, the Detroit native said he learned “how to be a pro.”

“Right now, I don’t know what team I’m going to go to,” he said. “I could go all the way to Seattle to play ball over there. It really taught me how to be a pro and be myself in that time.”

He had one sack during the Ducks’ victory over Michigan State on Oct. 4.

“Motivating, for sure,” Harmon said after the game. “Like I said all week, I wanted to be them guys. I wanted to beat those guys. Still got family over there, teammates, still love them like I said earlier, but I wanted to beat those guys. My whole motivation was beating that team.”

One pick later at No. 24, the Vikings selected an offensive tackle. Another top defensive tackle went to the Lions at No. 28.

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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.