These Cornerbacks Might Not Be on Packers’ Draft Board

The Green Bay Packers could use another cornerback to join Jaire Alexander, Carrington Valentine, Keisean Nixon and Eric Stokes. Here is who the Packers probably won’t select.

Kamari Lassiter / Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For the Green Bay Packers at cornerback, short prospects need not apply.

Between Ted Thompson (2005 through 2017) and Brian Gutekunst (2018 through current), the Packers have drafted 17 cornerbacks. At 5-foot-10 1/4, Jaire Alexander is the shortest.

Otherwise, seemingly, all bets are off. They’ve taken fast corners and slow-ish corners. They’ve taken corners with and without explosive vertical leaps. They’ve taken corners with elite 20-yard shuttle times and terrible ones.

Relative Athletic Score

Every draftnik’s favorite acronym is RAS. Relative Athletic Score takes all the prospects’ key measurables – height, weight, 40-yard dash and so on – and creates a single 0 to 10 score for sake of positional comparison. 

There is no position in which the Packers have drafted more prospects with limited physical tools than cornerback. Of the 17, Shemar Jean-Charles (4.24), Quinten Rollins (4.71) and Micah Hyde (4.73) were below average. Gutekunst has drafted six. Five beat 9.2 – showing a profound preference for elite tools – but Jean-Charles sticks out like a sore thumb.

The average cornerback in this draft class scored a 5.35. Remember, that’s the average corner. Not the average of the draft-worthy cornerbacks. Arkansas’ Dwight McGlothern, Louisville’s Jarvis Brownlee, Missouri’s Kris Abrams-Draine, Maryland’s Ja’Quan Sheppard and Arizona State’s Ro Torrence were among the corners who fell short of 5.00.

40-Yard Dash

The slowest of Green Bay’s drafted corners – second-round standout Casey Hayward, second-round bust Quinten Rollins and Brandon Underwood – ran their 40 in 4.57 seconds.

Georgia’s Kamari Lassiter, who entered the draft process considered a potential first-round pick, ran a plodding 4.64. Maybe he’ll be saved by solid marks in the 20-yard shuttle and three-cone drill. He might be the only drafted corner who failed to break 4.60.

Iowa State’s T.J. Tampa (4.58) and Tennessee’s Kamal Hadden (4.57) could be on the fringe.

Height

The Packers haven’t drafted a cornerback of 5-foot-10 or shorter since Ahmad Carroll in 2004. Before that, it was Terrell Buckley 1992. That both were busts has solidified the reality that the Packers will not draft a short corner.

“If anybody comes in there talking about they want a 5-9 corner, that’s not going to happen,” Gutekunst said with a laugh of the new defensive coaching staff.

This draft class mostly measures up, pardon the pun. Michigan slot Mike Sainristil, at 5-foot-9 3/8, is the best player who won’t be on Green Bay’s board. Really, he’s probably the only corner in the first four or five rounds who’s shorter than 5-foot-10. Washington State’s Chau Smith-Wade, Penn State’s Daequan Hardy and West Virginia’s Beanie Bishop are 5-foot-9 3/4, 5-foot-9 3/8 and 5-foot-9 1/8, respectively.

Weight

From 2006 through 2020, the Packers didn’t draft a single corner who weighed less than 192 pounds. Jean-Charles, a sixth-round pick in 2021, broke that streak at 184 pounds. That Jean-Charles, a premier ballhawk at Appalachian State, didn’t pan out certainly won’t have Gutekunst bending his parameters.

Using 185 pounds as a hypothetical cut-off would exclude:

- Clemson’s Nate Wiggins (6-foot-1 3/8, 173 pounds)

- Missouri’s Ennis Rakestraw (5-foot-11 3/8, 183 pounds)

- Georgia’s Kamari Lassiter (5-foot-11 1/2, 187 pounds)

- Auburn’s DJ James (5-foot-11 5/8, 175 pounds)

- Missouri’s Kris Abrams-Draine (5-foot-11 3/8, 179 pounds)

- Mississippi’s Deantre Prince (6-foot-, 183 pounds)

Arm Length

Other than Jean-Charles, no Packers cornerback draft pick had arms as short as 31 inches. That Jean-Charles (30 7/8) didn’t stick, once again, would give Gutekunst no reason to move the bar.

Auburn’s James and Missouri’s Abrams-Draine hit 31. South Dakota’s Myles Harden (29 7/8), Arkansas’ McGlothern (30 1/2), Tennessee’s Hadden (30 7/8 at the Combine but magically 31 3/8 at pro day) and Penn State’s Dixon, Hardy and Kalen King (29 1/2, 30 and 30 7/8, respectively) fell short of the mark. So did Qwan’tez Stiggers (30.5), the impressive prospect from the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts.

Now, the asterisk. Florida State slot Jarrian Jones has 30-inch arms. He had a predraft visit with the Packers, who were well aware of his measurements before inviting him to Lambeau Field for a day. Arm length doesn’t matter quite as much in the slot because they’re not playing press-man coverage.

20-Yard Shuttle

The historic Combine average is 4.17 seconds in a drill that seems to be important at many positions. However, of Gutekunst’s six picks, three were slower and Carrington Valentine (4.15) barely beat the mark. Eric Stokes had an electric 40 (4.31) but a woeful shuttle (4.36).

Kevin King was the best of the bunch at 3.89 and was a bust. Hayward (3.90) was second-best and was a stud.

In their mocks, @chad_reuter and @TheDan_Parr had the #Packers trading back. So, in a fun and "educational" experience, here's the give and take of giving up No. 25 for additional picks. ⬇️https://t.co/MHxlOFIF1R

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) April 21, 2024

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