Study Concludes Packers Have Had Worst Drafts Over Last Decade

GREEN BAY, Wis. – While the Green Bay Packers have been more active in free agency under general manager Brian Gutekunst, they traditionally have favored a draft-and-develop model for building their roster. Doing that successfully demands consistent success in the draft.

That has not been the case for the Packers, though, at least according to one study. In fact, according to its results, no team has drafted worse over the last decade than the Packers.

Betway examined the last 10 drafts and counted:

- End-of-season awards (NFL MVP, Super Bowl MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Offensive Rookie of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year).

- First- and second-team All-Pros.

- Pro Bowlers.

- All-Rookie selections.

- Super Bowl winners drafted.

Betway put those results into a formula to determine which teams have drafted the best. The Kansas City Chiefs were the best. The Packers were the worst.

Over the last 10 years, the Packers have drafted six All-Rookie performers, five Pro Bowlers, one All-Pro, zero end-of-season award winners and two Super Bowl champions.

That put them on the bottom of the list, just ahead of the Las Vegas Raiders, who had seven All-Rookie selections, five Pro Bowlers, three All-Pros, zero end-of-season award winners and four Super Bowl champions.

In the NFC North, the Detroit Lions were sixth (11 All-Rookie, 17 Pro Bowlers, eight All-Pros, zero end-of-season award winners and four Super Bowl champions), the Minnesota Vikings were 13th (eight All-Rookie, six Pro Bowlers, six All-Pros, one end-of-season winner and three Super Bowl champions) and the Chicago Bears were 28th (eight All-Rookie, seven Pro Bowlers, four All-Pros, zero end-of-season winners and two Super Bowl champions).

The Chiefs were followed by the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles.

“I do think in the era of the salary cap, your young players have to play for you,” Gutekunst said at the end of the season. “The days of, ‘Let’s sit them for four years, and then see what we’ve got,’ you can’t do that anymore. These guys have to get out there and play, and they’ve got to make up your football team, and maybe it’s just on special teams. It would be really, really hard to field a super-veteran team with the salary cap and the way the markets are these days.

“But we’ve always been draft-and-develop. We believe in that. The development of our own players will always be a high priority for us. I think it’s one of the benefits we have in working here in Green Bay is we’re allowed to give guys time to really develop, and that’s certainly something that we’ll continue to do.”

FTN Fantasy did its own 10-year study focusing on first-round picks. The Packers, whose average pick was at No. 22.8 of the round, came in 12th.

“There haven’t been out-and-out disaster picks,” Daniel Kelly wrote of a group consisting of Damarious Randall, three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark, two-time Pro Bowler Jaire Alexander, 2024 Pro Bowler Rashan Gary, Darnell Savage, Jordan Love, Eric Stokes, Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness and Jordan Morgan.

“But there also haven’t been over-the-moon home runs, either. The Packers have only gotten six Pro Bowls from their first-rounders in the last decade with no one ever making it in back-to-back years. It’s a history of getting fine playing time, solid starters, but no difference-makers.”

Pro Football Focus did a first-round study since 2020. While Dalton Wasserman wrote about only the best five teams and the worst five teams, he said the Packers’ picks on offense ranked 14th in PFF grade, their picks on defense ranked 24th in PFF grade and the group as a whole was ninth in PFF WAR “mostly due to Jordan Love and the imbalance that comes with QBs.”

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