In Draft, Packers Covet Athletes, But …

The Green Bay Packers started the 2022 NFL Draft by selecting three elite athletes. Here's a look at Relative Athletic Scores, Brian Gutekunst's draft history and the outliers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the 22nd overall selection of the 2022 NFL Draft, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst envisioned a defense-changing tandem of inside linebackers.

Utah’s Devin Lloyd, a consensus first-team All-American, was available. Instead, Gutekunst went with bigger and faster and selected Georgia’s Quay Walker, who wasn’t even all-conference during a senior season in which he had zero forced fumbles, zero interceptions and only three passes defensed.

With a dire need for a receiver, Gutekunst rocketed up the draft board to select Christian Watson, an elite athlete but not an elite receiver.

Relative Athletic Score takes a prospect’s key measurables – height, weight, 40-yard time and so on – and plots them on a 0-to-10 scale relative to other players at the same position. The marks of Green Bay’s first three picks? Walker scored a 9.63, Georgia defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt was a 9.60 and Watson measured an all-time elite 9.96.

It’s almost as if the Packers value athleticism or something.

“First of all, it’s about being a football player and playing the game,” Gutekunst said last week. “That’s the most important thing. Certainly, at this level, there’s kind of a certain amount of athletic traits you have to have. Those of you who have been around here, whether it’s Ron (Wolf), Ted (Thompson), the way we’ve been trained – it probably goes all the way back to the Al Davis days with the Raiders – size and speed is important to us. Certainly, I think that’s a reflection of some of the guys we’ve took the past couple days.”

There’s nothing at all unique about Green Bay’s draft strategy, though.

Kent Lee Platte, the man behind Relative Athletic Score, averaged every team’s 2022 draft picks for a cumulative RAS. The Packers’ average of 7.98 ranked just 18th – so, right about average.

Nine of Green Bay’s 11 draft picks have a RAS; fourth-round receiver Romeo Doubs and seventh-round offensive tackle Rasheed Walker didn’t go through predraft testing because of injuries. Running Tariq Carpenter’s numbers as a safety (that’s where he lined up at rookie camp and at Georgia Tech) rather than linebacker (his NFL role could be dime linebacker), and running Sean Rhyan’s numbers as a guard (where he might wind up playing) instead of tackle (where he was a three-year starter for UCLA), Green Bay selected six players with a RAS of 9.00-plus.

(Those position changes would move Green Bay’s team RAS to 8.13, which would rank 15th.)

Gutekunst, though, hasn’t handcuffed himself to top-tier athletes. Kingsley Enagbare, the outside linebacker selected in the fifth round, ran one of the slowest 40s of any Class of 2022 edge defender who’s on an NFL roster. And Miami defensive tackle Jonathan Ford, a seventh-round pick, tested horribly.

In 2021, Gutekunst didn’t take an athlete-first approach. Of the eight draft picks with a RAS, first-round pick Eric Stokes was the only one with a score of 9.00-plus and one of only three with a mark of even 8.00.

Every year, there’s an outlier.

In 2022, it was Ford, whose RAS of 3.53 was built almost entirely on height and weight. In 2021, sixth-round cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles’ RAS was 4.27 and third-round receiver Amari Rodgers’ RAS was 5.37. In 2020, six picks had a RAS. Five scored at least 8.44; the exception was sixth-round center Jake Hanson, whose RAS was 3.75. In 2019, eight of the nine picks had a RAS of at least 8.00. Third-round tight end Jace Sternberger, with a RAS of 5.20, was the notable exception. In 2018, Gutekunst selected 11 players in his first draft. The only player with a RAS of less than 8.40 was sixth-round guard Cole Madison, whose RAS was 4.58.

There’s one obvious thing in common with all the outliers. None of those picks panned out. While it’s too early to write off Rodgers and Jean-Charles – neither were expected to play key roles as rookies because of veterans on their depth charts – Sternberger and Madison are no longer on the roster and Hanson has played 19 snaps (six on offense) in two seasons.

Packers Draft Picks With 9.50 RAS: Boom or Bust

In his five drafts, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has selected 11 players with a Relative Athletic Score of at least 9.50.

CB Jaire Alexander: 9.54

Boom.

GM Brian Gutekunst's first draft choice, Alexander is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. According to Sports Info Solutions, he's allowed a career completion rate of just 49.2 percent.

OL Zach Tom: 9.59

Rookie.

A fourth-round pick this year, Tom hopes to be a five-position lineman. Said co-director of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan: "He’s got twitch, he’s got athleticism, he can bend. I think some people questioned his size, but when you watch him, he’s got some innate strength, and his ability to play the angles, move his feet, drop his backside and bend allows him to play bigger than he potentially is."

DT Devonte Wyatt: 9.60

Rookie.

Said coach Matt LaFleur of the first-round pick after rookie minicamp: "He sure looked good in some of the pass-rush things that we were doing. I love his intensity, his focus, you can tell he’s been coached hard. There’s a reason why he was a first-round pick. You can see it."

LB Quay Walker: 9.63

Rookie.

Said GM Brian Gutekunst of the first-round pick: "He can do a lot of things. I think one of the things when we looked at if we added a player like Quay, he’s got some similarities to ‘Dre and having kind of two interchangeable pieces there gives our defense so much flexibility."

LB Ty Summers: 9.71

Bust.

Unable to claim a spot on defense in his first three seasons, the 2019 seventh-round pick will have to fight to keep his roster spot this summer on Rich Bisaccia's new special teams.

LB Oren Burks: 9.73

Bust.

The Packers traded up in the third round in 2018 to get Burks, who was billed as a new-age linebacker with coverage skills. In four seasons, he started seven games and broke up zero passes.

DT James Looney: 9.75

Bust.

A seventh-round pick in 2018, Looney played three games in his career. Not even a change to tight end could salvage the pick.

WR Equanimeous St. Brown: 9.84

Bust.

A sixth-round pick in 2018, St. Brown caught 37 passes in four seasons. He signed with Chicago in free agency, where he'll be asked to play the role of Allen Lazard.

OLB Kendall Donnerson: 9.89

Bust.

A workout warrior, Donnerson was a seventh-round pick in 2018. His athleticism gave him a chance and continues to give him a chance, but he's played in zero games while spending time with seven teams.

OLB Rashan Gary: 9.95

Boom

A first-round pick in 2019, Gary has gone from athletic projection to star. Of the 80 edge defenders with at least 214 rushes last season, Gary ranked third in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity and second with 81 pressures.

WR Christian Watson: 9.96

Rookie.

Not many receivers have a better size-speed combination than Watson. Among them: Calvin Johnson and Julio Jones. Said GM Brian Gutekunst on why he traded up in the second round to get him: "Obviously he’s a big, fast, physical receiver. We think his best football is ahead of him. ... His athletic traits are off the chart."