Packers’ Rookies Ready to Dash Onto Practice Field

After weeks of training for the 40-yard dash and vertical jump, the Green Bay Packers' rookie class is eager to hit the practice field for the first time on Friday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Christian Watson was sick of it.

After the Senior Bowl on Feb. 5, Watson’s focus was on doing everything possible to enhance his draft status. That meant a month of training to get ready for the Scouting Combine and the physical tests like the 40-yard dash and vertical leap. After that, it was another couple weeks of training to get ready for North Dakota State’s pro day, which included the 20-yard shuttle and bench press.

Next, during that final month before the draft, it was a series of interviews and answering mostly the same set of questions again and again.

Last Friday, the grind paid off when the Green Bay Packers drafted Watson in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft. On this Friday, Watson and his fellow rookies – 11 draft picks, 14 undrafted free agents and 18 tryout candidates – are finally back to football with the start of the rookie minicamp.

“I’m extremely excited,” Watson said just before his first practice as a professional football player. “I definitely feel like I plateaued a little bit in my excitement during the predraft process. I really just wanted to play football. You’re used to sitting and doing meetings and interviews. There’s only so much of that that a football player would want to do. A football player wants to be a football player. So, I’m definitely excited to be here now and get to go out there and put on the helmet and catch some footballs.”

Two of Green Bay’s draft picks on the offensive line, third-round pick Sean Rhyan and fourth-round pick Zach Tom, used the same word about finally getting to play football.

“A relief,” Rhyan said. “I’ve been jonesing a little bit to go play some football, do some pass sets against defensive linemen.”

Said Tom: “It’s a relief, to be honest. Training for the Combine, all that stuff, it’s not really football. That’s what I’m here to do. It’s nice to get back out there on the field and show what I can do.”

For linebacker Quay Walker, his predraft testing was a major reason why he was selected with the 22nd pick of the first round. Walker was a good player on a great Georgia defense, but he didn’t intercept a pass or force a fumble in four seasons, and he broke up three passes in 15 starts as a senior. He wasn’t even on the all-SEC team. However, with an elite combination of size and athletic ability, the Packers have great expectations for what a Walker-De’Vondre Campbell pairing can mean to an already-strong defense.

“I was kind of nervous a little bit because this is my first time being in Green Bay and even coming in here and seeing the facility,” Walker said. “I pretty much sat in my locker and stared around the whole place and that was it. Kind of nervous a little bit, but a good type of nervous.”

Walker and fellow first-round pick and Georgia standout Devonte Wyatt signed their rookie contracts on Thursday.

“I wasn’t even worried about the contract, to be honest with you,” Walker said. “I just want to play football, get in here and meet everybody, to meet the older guys and everything like that. But that was nice to do that. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to do that, but I wasn’t too worried about it. I knew it was going to be settled with my agent and everything doing the great job that he does.”

While Walker has the security of being a first-round pick, the team’s four seventh-round picks will be fighting for their professional careers. For Nebraska receiver Samori Toure, that fight starts on Friday.

Toure wasn’t invited to the Scouting Combine, which put all the eggs in the Cornhuskers’ pro day basket. With a 4.44 clocking in the 40, the Packers drafted him in the seventh round.

Now, it’s time to show that every step in his career – five seasons at Montana, a transfer to Nebraska and the hours of work that went into that 4.44-second dash for cash – has made him worthy of a spot on an NFL roster.

“I’m hyped,” Toure said. “I’ve been waiting to play football. I was saying that preparing for the Combine and the pro day, it’s like, this isn’t training for real football; it’s just testing. Ever since pro day, I’ve been training to play real football and I’m excited to get back on the field later today.”