Place Your Bets: What Position for Packers’ First Draft Pick?

With their first draft pick, will the Green Bay Packers draft a receiver? A tight end? Here are the odds.
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Whether it was Ted Thompson or Brian Gutekunst, the Green Bay Packers’ first-round draft history is crystal clear.

Since 2000, the Packers have used their first-round pick on (with most recent pick in parentheses):

- Zero running backs

- One tight end (Bubba Franks, 2000)

- One receiver (Javon Walker, 2002)

- Two offensive tackles (Derek Sherrod, 2011)

- Two quarterbacks (Jordan Love, 2020)

- Two safeties (Darnell Savage, 2019)

- Three linebackers (Quay Walker, 2021)

- Four edge defenders (Rashan Gary, 2019)

- Four cornerbacks (Eric Stokes, 2021)

- Five defensive linemen (Devonte Wyatt, 2022)

That’s 18 defensive players and only six players on offense.

Other than Love in 2020, the Packers haven’t used their first-round pick on a player on offense since going with back-to-back tackles with Bryan Bulaga in 2010 and Sherrod in 2011.

In FanDuel Sportsbook’s NFL Draft odds, defensive line (which includes edge defenders, aka 3-4 outside linebackers) is the favorite to be Green Bay’s first pick at +200. That’s an implied probability of 33.3 percent. Not far behind are the hyped offensive-skill positions, with tight end and receiver +300. Offensive tackle also is +300.

Those four positions were all +250 about a week ago.

Cornerback is +1000 and safety is +4000. Those are followed by linebacker at +5000, quarterback at +7500 and running back at +10000. (Even with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon back at running back, would Gutekunst grab Texas stud Bijan Robinson – the top running back prospect in years – if he were to fall to No. 15?)

Subject to change based on any trades made by Gutekunst – not just Aaron Rodgers – here are Green Bay’s 10 draft picks.

First round: No. 15

Second round: No. 45

Third round: No. 78

Fourth round: No. 116

Fifth round: No. 149

Fifth round: No. 170 (compensatory for Marquez Valdes-Scantling)

Seventh round: No. 232

Seventh round: No. 235 (from Rams as part of Corey Bojorquez trade)

Seventh round: No. 242 (from Jaguars for Cole Van Lanen)

Seventh round: No. 256 (compensatory for Chandon Sullivan)

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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.