Packers Select Oregon Center Jake Hanson with Second of Sixth-Round Picks

With the second of their sixth-round picks, the Packers took a second offensive lineman. Hanson started 49 games for Oregon.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the first of back-to-back picks in the sixth round, the Green Bay Packers selected Oregon center Jake Hanson.

Hanson was a four-year starter for the Ducks. He was second-team all-conference as a junior and senior. He started 49 of 50 career games. It was a long wait on draft weekend, though.

"I was expecting to get drafted in Day 3 at some point," he said during his conference call. "But I wasn’t sure where. I’ve been talking with my agent and he was telling me expect somewhere fifth through sevneth round. But obviously there’s a lot of picks in those three rounds. So, didn’t know where I was going to go, but now that I’m picked I’m just happy to be part of this organization now."

At Eureka (Calf.) High School, he was an offensive tackle. Oregon’s coaches prefer taking athletic, intelligent prospects and move them to center. It worked for past Oregon centers such as Max Unger and it worked for Hanson, too. "It was pretty difficult at first, snapping the ball versus having your hand in the dirt, but having that whole redshirt year to build on my redshirt abilities really helped," Hanson told Oregon.com.

At 6-foot-4 and 303 pounds, he ran the second-slowest 40 at the Combine with a timing of 5.50 seconds. He did put up an impressive 33 reps on the 225-pound bench press.

Football is part of his DNA; his grandfather played in the NFL for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1950s - "back when it was leather helmets" and right out of high school, he said in his conference call.

“I’ve always been around the game and loved it,” Hanson told the Times-Standard. Hanson was part of Oregon’s revival along with quarterback Justin Herbert and fellow linemen Shane Lemieux and Calvin Throckmorton – all four-year starters. 

“It’s been a really long road with a lot of hard times,” Hanson told the Herald and News before the Rose Bowl. “When we first came in, our goal was to win a conference championship and make it to the Rose Bowl. We’ve grown individually and as a team. We’ve really created something special that we’re all really proud of. To be here to finish up our careers is a really great feeling.”

Green Bay used all three of its sixth-round picks on offensive linemen, with Michigan tackle Jon Runyan first, Hanson second and Indiana guard Simon Stepaniak third.

Green Bay is scheduled to pick twice in the seventh round, at No. 236 and No. 242.

Video: Second-round pick A.J. Dillon

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