Scouting Combine Day 2 Winners: Packers Edition

An athletic group of running backs and offensive linemen turned heads at the Scouting Combine on Friday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – At the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday, offensive linemen and running backs sprinted, jumped and went through drills inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

The Green Bay Packers are in an interesting position on the offensive line. They’ve got a lot invested in five-time All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, who missed almost all of last season with the ACL sustained on Dec. 31, 2020. The Packers played well without him but couldn’t handle the pressure applied by the Buccaneers in the 2020 NFC Championship Game and the 49ers in the 2021 divisional round.

Right tackle Billy Turner is set to enter his final season under contract, but the Packers have some tough financial decisions to make. And what is the positional future of Elgton Jenkins, a Pro Bowl guard in 2020 who thrived at left tackle in 2021 until tearing an ACL? If Jenkins is viewed as a tackle, then perhaps the Packers need to add another pick to their interior.

It’s a strong class of offensive linemen, in general, and offensive tackles, in particular. One of the really intriguing prospects is Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning. At 6-foot-7 and 325 pounds, he ran his 40 in 4.89 seconds – just 0.01 seconds from winning the Combine gold medal – with a 4.62 in the 20-yard shuttle.

He’s more than just an athlete, though. He’s got a big-time nasty streak, whether it was beating up on FCS competition or proving his talent at the Senior Bowl.

“I think it’s huge, a huge part of my game,” he said of his mentality. “You want to make the defender across from you feel it. You want him at the end of the day to be exhausted and he wants to go home and get on that flight and get the hell out of there. It’s very important.”

If Penning has played his way out of Green Bay’s spot at No. 28, Washington State’s Abraham Lucas could be worth a shot in the third round. Lucas ran his 40 in 4.92 but absolutely crushed the 20-yard shuttle with a 4.40 clocking that ranked first among the offensive linemen. The Packers historically have put a lot of value in that shuttle time.

Lucas was a four-year starter. In the Cougars’ pass-happy attack, he allowed one sack the past two seasons. He came a long away after enrolling as a 259-pounder.

“I had never been to a place where you could get boxes and boxes of food,” he told The Seattle Times. “That helped. And then, I wasn’t a huge fan of weightlifting in high school, but then I started to see my body transform (when he did at WSU), and I loved lifting. I got the motivation when I saw my body change and the pounds came on that much faster.”

The Packers are set at running back. Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon give coach Matt LaFleur a top tandem. Kylin Hill, a seventh-round pick last year, showed some potential before suffering a torn ACL at midseason. Patrick Taylor impressed in the finale at Detroit.

“We’re fortunate. We’ve got two No. 1 backs, and they both offer a little bit something different,” LaFleur said at the Scouting Combine. “The one thing that I love about both of those guys is, obviously, they can run the football at a very high level, but just their contributions in the passing game, whether it’s in protection, whether it’s receiving out of the backfield, whether it’s lining them up out wide. I think both of those guys are very versatile. That’s an important part to our offense.”

Seven running backs ran in at least 4.40 seconds or faster, led by South Dakota State’s Pierre Strong and Rutgers’ Isiah Pacheco in 4.37.

According to Stathead, 54 running backs have run in 4.40 or faster since 2000. That’s 2.57 per year. There were only seven backs over the past six years. So, by historical standards, this year’s group is fast. Very fast.

“One of the backs looking to gain notoriety in this draft cycle, Pacheco certainly helped his case,” noted NFL Draft Bible. “A positional-high 40-yard dash at 4.37 and soft hands in pass-catching drills will help evaluators understand the skillset associated with the Big Ten back. After the three big names of Breece Hall, Isaiah Spiller, and Kenneth Walker, the running back draft order is fairly open, meaning Pacheco can gain ground leading into April.”

For more Scouting Combine winners, check out NFL Draft Bible.