Packer Central

Without Stokes, It’s Different Folk in 2021 NFL Redraft

Coming off a loss in the 2020 NFC Championship Game, the Packers used their first-round pick of the 2021 NFL Draft on Eric Stokes. Here’s how a redraft might have played out.

Bill Huber

Without Stokes, It’s Different Folk in 2021 NFL Redraft
Without Stokes, It’s Different Folk in 2021 NFL Redraft /
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the 29th pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers selected cornerback Eric Stokes. Aside from one poor performance against Minnesota Vikings star Justin Jefferson, Stokes turned in an All-Rookie-caliber season.

His 2022 season, however, was a dud that ended with foot and knee injuries. Nonetheless, that strong first year was enough to send him to the Vikings with the 23rd pick of a 2021 redraft by Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame.

In Stokes’ place, the Packers wound up with New York Jets guard Alijah Vera-Tucker.

Vera-Tucker certainly fit the Green Bay mold. At USC, he was a standout guard in 2019 before moving to left tackle in 2020 and earning the Morris Trophy as the Pac-12’s best offensive lineman as voted on by the conference’s defensive lineman.

That pedigree made him the 14th pick of the draft by the New York Jets.

In 2021, he played 1,027 snaps at right guard and earned All-Rookie honors. In 2022 before his season ended with a torn triceps, Vera-Tucker played 232 snaps at right guard, 130 snaps at right tackle and 70 snaps at left tackle.

Even with the injury, he was selected the NFL’s 11th-best guard recently by PFF.

In the real second round of the 2021 draft, the Packers – in need of a center – had their choice of Oklahoma’s Creed Humphrey, the consensus top prospect, and Ohio State’s Josh Myers. The Packers went with Myers at No. 62 and the Chiefs grabbed Humphrey at No. 63. Humphrey earned All-Rookie honors in 2021, All-Pro honors in 2022 and went to the Jets at No. 14 in the redraft.

Click here for the full redraft, including new first-round picks for Green Bay’s NFC North rivals.

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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.

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