View From the North: Inside NFL Draft Plans of Packers’ Division Rivals
With exactly two weeks until the NFL Draft, let’s take a stroll through the NFC North. The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings will be looking for quarterbacks. What about the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The NFC North will take center stage when the NFL Draft begins on April 25.
The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings almost certainly will draft quarterbacks. The players they select – presumably USC’s Caleb Williams will go No. 1 overall to the Bears – will change the course of the division and possibly the entire NFL.
What about the Detroit Lions, the reigning NFC North champions, and the Green Bay Packers, who joined the Lions in the playoffs? They might be picking from the same pool of players, with cornerbacks and offensive strong possibilities to be their first-round selections.
Here is a closer look in our View From the North, featuring SI’s team of beat writers.
Green Bay Packers
GM Brian Gutekunst hasn’t been one to reach to fill a need. From that standpoint, it will be interesting to see how he handles the first two days of the draft.
The Packers have the 25th pick of the first round, the 41st and 58th picks of the second round and the 88th and 91st picks of the third round. That’s five early opportunities to hit the big needs – namely offensive line, cornerback, safety and linebacker. Offensive line and cornerback have been among the focal points of predraft visits (and are the betting favorites at FanDuel Sportsbook).
With the ability to move around the draft board, will he stick at No. 25 and take the cliched best available player? Will he give up one of those Day 2 picks to go get his guy? Might he move back if the board is strong and, for sake of example, the Chiefs want to move up for a receiver or cornerback? After picking at 25, could he move way up for another pick in the early 30s? Nothing is out of the question.
One unrelated note: Gutekunst loves his quarterback tandem of Jordan Love and Sean Clifford. However, at one point during Brett Favre’s tenure, then-GM Ron Wolf drafted six quarterbacks in seven years. Gutekunst wants to get back to that way of doing business. Would he dare use a third-rounder on a signal-caller? Or wait to take a flier with one of his four picks in the final two rounds?
Detroit Lions
The Lions are in the unique position of being able to target the best player available when it is their turn to hand in their draft card.
It is clear the organization is doing their due diligence at the cornerback and wide receiver positions pre-draft.
I'm hearing Detroit’s front office is enamored with cornerbacks who have the potential of also helping the team in the return game, which makes Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry and Iowa’s Cooper DeJean – a couple of potential Packers targets – realistic options at No. 29.
Alabama’s Terrion Arnold, who has also visited the Lions, is a player many teams will covet in the first round, as he played 301 combined special-teams snaps the last two years. Being a contributor on special teams and being the only FBS player with 12 or more pass breakups and at least five interceptions last year will make it unlikely he is available when Detroit’s up at 29.
Outside of cornerback, it is also realistic general manager Brad Holmes targets an offensive lineman such as Duke’s Graham Barton, since the unit features three starters over the age of 30.
Detroit has been successful building in the trenches and the dream scenario this year is if Missouri edge Darius Robinson somehow falls to Detroit late in the first round.
Chicago Bears
By Gene Chamberlain, Bear Digest
The Bears' first pick in the draft is a formality as everything they've done and said leading to the draft indicates they'll take USC quarterback Caleb Williams No. 1 overall. The real interest will be in what they do at No. 9 in Round 1. Besides being an elite player, it could also set up what they select with their picks in the third and fourth rounds (Nos. 75 and 122, respectively).
Bears coach Matt Eberflus has said a major need in the draft is finding a defensive end opposite Montez Sweat, but it will be interesting to see if they're thinking the same thing at No. 9 because most predraft analysis puts three wide receivers above at least all but one edge rusher, if not all of them. It could be a case where the draft board dictates the Bears take a wide receiver and risk leaving their pass rush issues up to third- and/or fourth-round picks.
They've visited with all of the top receivers and edge rushers at this point. If Washington’s Rome Odunze remains on the board, it will be a difficult pick to resist, especially because Keenan Allen is in the last year of his contract and could essentially be a rental player. (Odunze is the betting favorite at FanDuel to be the ninth pick.)
The possibility of a Round 1 trade-back exists if they find the top three receivers gone because the edge rushers might be there a few picks later, as well.
Minnesota Vikings
By Will Ragatz, Inside the Vikings
Two weeks from now, the Vikings are going to draft a quarterback in the first round. There's zero question about that. This is a strong quarterback class, the Vikings have two first-round picks and the current options on their roster are Sam Darnold and Nick Mullens. They've been building toward this seismic shift – moving on from Kirk Cousins and drafting a QB – since the new regime took over two years ago.
The question is which quarterback, and with what pick? The Vikings have the 11th and 23rd selections in the first round. GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is known for wheeling and dealing, so it would be quite surprising if they stay put and make those two picks. The most likely outcome still seems to be a trade up for one of the top non-Caleb Williams quarterbacks, whether that's Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels or J.J. McCarthy. At FanDuel Sportsbook, the Vikings are the favorites to select McCarthy.
The issue there is how much of a QB tax they'll have to pay to convince a team sitting in the top five to move down to 11.
The other option is to take Michael Penix Jr. or Bo Nix in the teens or 20s, which would allow them to keep the other first-rounder this year, as well as their future draft capital. But if you're going to take a QB, you might as well be aggressive and go get your guy, right?
Seven-Round Packers Mock Draft 9.0
First-round offensive tackle and a receiver and running back in Day 2.
Packers Predraft Visits Tracker
Here are the NFL Draft prospects who have come to Green Bay to meet with the Packers.
