Packer Central

100 Days of Mocks: Packers Land Star Receiver In All-Trades Mock

Sports Illustrated traded all 31 first-round picks, including Green Bay moving up. That’s one of 10 fresh mock drafts with six days until the 2023 NFL Draft.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a chaos-creating new mock draft, Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame traded all 31 first-round draft picks. For the Green Bay Packers, that meant moving up from No. 15 to No. 11 in a deal with the Tennessee Titans and selecting Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

“If the Packers are moving on to Jordan Love, they need more weaponry for the first-year starter to have a chance,” Verderame reasoned. So, he shipped Green Bay’s third-round pick to Tennessee to create a potential-packed receiver trio of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Smith-Njigba.

Dominating from the slot in 2021, Smith-Njigba put up better numbers than his acclaimed sidekicks, 2022 first-round picks Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave. The Jets’ Wilson, who won Rookie of the Year honors and figures to catch passes from Aaron Rodgers this season, predicted stardom.

“Jaxon is a cold-blooded man, man,” Wilson told Yahoo Sports recently. “That boy is, we call him 'The Natural.' He's got hands, he's got feet that will throw you by, make you miss. He'll do the laundry for you. Jaxon's cold, man. I'm confident that wherever he goes, he's going to make a big impact early.”

CBSSports.com’s Josh Edwards produced a seven-round mock draft that led off with Smith-Njigba in the first round and Notre Dame tight end in the second round.

“The draft before Aaron Rodgers became the starter,” Edwards wrote, “the Packers selected wide receiver Jordy Nelson in the second round and tight end Jermichael Finley in the third round. A similar strategy could play out this year.”

Young addressed the defense with a safety and pass rusher in the third and fourth rounds, then added a running back and corner in the fifth. Three big guys were taken in the seventh, as was TCU quarterback Max Duggan.

Duggan was the Big 12 Player of the Year, a second-team All-American and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in helping the Horned Frogs advance to the national championship game. Passing and rushing, he accounted for 41 touchdowns. The Senior Bowl’s Jim Nagy compared him to Brock Purdy.

Also at CBS, Will Brinson selected Iowa edge Lukas Van Ness.

And another from CBS, with Bryan DeArdo combining 12 mock drafts into a consensus mock draft and landing on Utah’s Dalton Kincaid.

In a fan-driven mock at Pro Football Focus, listeners also selected Kincaid.

Also at PFF, Trevor Sikkema and Connor Rogers grabbed Smith-Njigba and Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave in a three-round mock draft.

Patrick Conn from USA Today’s College Sports Wire’s three-round mock started with Georgia edge defender Nolan Smith. Smith would follow Eric Stokes, Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt and make it four Bulldogs taken in the first round of the last three drafts.

Smith is a terrific player. Is he too small for Green Bay’s tastes?

The Day 2 picks were used on a too-small receiver and a perhaps-too-unathletic safety.

At NFL.com, former star running back Maurice Jones-Drew took Zay Flowers drafted another too-small receiver in the first round.

At Athlon Sports, Luke Easterling produced a three-round mock. Iowa’s Van Ness was the first-round pick, and he stuck in Iowa for the second round with tight end Sam LaPorta.

And, finally, how about trading Rodgers for Trey Lance? Nah …

100 Days of Mocks

Starting Jan. 17, when there were 100 days until the start of the NFL Draft, we started our mock-worthy goal of 100 mock drafts in 100 days. Here are the last 10 days of the series.

Packer Central's eighth all-Packers mock draft

7 days: Seven mocks, three votes for Jaxon Smith-Njgiba

8 days: A wild three-team Aaron Rodgers trade among 10 mocks

9 days: Four pass catchers and Peter Schrager among 10 mocks

10 days: Breaking down seven-round mocks by Brugler, CBS

11 days: Seven-round mock and a trade

12 days: Rodgers traded to Jets for first-rounder

13 days: Packers trade back, pick tight end

Packer Central’s seventh all-Packers mock draft

14 days: “Ideal” picks among 10 fresh mocks

15 days: The worst mock ever?

The Sports Illustrated publishers mock draft

16 days: Mel Kiper’s fourth mock draft

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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.

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