What’s the Packers’ Biggest Draft Mistake?

Pro Football Focus draft analyst Michael Renner tackled that question for all 32 teams. Here is his answer and our answer, as well.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – What was the Green Bay Packers’ biggest draft mistake of the past five years?

Pro Football Focus draft analyst Michael Renner tackled that question for all 32 teams. For Green Bay, he bypassed what seemed like the obvious choice and went for the “drafting for the mythical future.” Renner focused on the 2020 draft, in particular, which netted quarterback Jordan Love in the first round, running back AJ Dillon in the second round and tight end Josiah Deguara in the third round.

In the NFC Championship Game, Love was inactive, as he had been all season, Dillon ran three times for 17 yards and caught one pass for 11 yards, and Deguara missed most of the season with a torn ACL. Compounded with the fourth-round pick given up in moving up to snag Love, Green Bay’s draft class played 30 snaps from scrimmage against the Buccaneers: 16 for Dillon and 14 for fifth-round linebacker Kamal Martin.

“A big thing we preach here at PFF is understanding where you are as a roster in the hierarchy of the league,” Renner wrote as part of his summation of the Packers. “It does you no good to go all-in for one player if you’re an average team just to sneak into the playoffs. If you’re on the verge of a Super Bowl with a franchise quarterback creeping toward the end of his career, we can get on board with some win-now moves. The Packers went the opposite direction in 2020.”

In that championship game, Kevin King might have played the final 63 snaps of his Packers career. In 2017, which was general manager Ted Thompson’s infamous last draft, the Packers had key needs at outside linebacker and cornerback. With Wisconsin outside linebacker T.J. Watt on the board at No. 29, Thompson traded out of the first round. Watt went to Pittsburgh at No. 30 and Thompson swung for the fences at No. 33 with King, a cornerback with an off-the-charts combination of size and speed.

Watt is coming off his third consecutive All-Pro season with 13 sacks and six forced fumbles in 2018, 14.5 sacks and a league-leading eight forced fumbles in 2019 and a league-high 15 sacks and two forced fumbles in 2020. In four seasons, he has 49.5 sacks and 17 forced fumbles.

King had one quality season with five interceptions and 15 passes defensed in 2019 but battled through another injury-plagued season in 2020 and failed to intercept a pass. In four seasons, he missed 28 of a possible 64 games and played only about 52 percent of the defensive snaps.

For the ultimate insult: King finished his four seasons with six interceptions and 27 passes defensed. Watt, who was not drafted to play pass defense, had four interceptions and 25 passes defensed.