29 Days Until NFL Draft: Packers Take Tackle in ESPN.com Seven-Round Mock

ESPN.com rolled out two big mock drafts with a seven-rounder by Matt Miller and a first-rounder by former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum. Here were the picks for the Green Bay Packers.

NC State linebacker Payton Wilson at the Senior Bowl. / Vasha Hunt-USA TODAY Sports

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers landed Oklahoma offensive lineman Tyler Guyton with their first-round pick in a new seven-round mock draft by ESPN.com’s Matt Miller.

Guyton, Miller wrote, “could thrive at multiple positions” in the NFL. He started 14 games at right tackle for the Sooners but talent evaluators have no doubt the 6-foot-8, 322-pounder who started his college career as an H-back at TCU could make the transition to Jordan Love’s blind-side protector.

In 355 pass-protecting snaps in 2023, Guyton allowed zero sacks and 12 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.

Big guys were the theme of the draft for Green Bay.

In the second round, the second of its choices was South Dakota State guard Mason McCormick, a two-time FCS All-American for the back-to-back national champions. McCormick is one of Miller’s sleepers. A big-time athlete, McCormick could challenge Sean Rhyan at right guard in 2024 and could replace free-agent-to-be Josh Myers at center in 2025.

The third-rounders bolstered the defensive line with Oregon defensive tackle Brandon Dorlus and UCLA defensive end Gabriel Murphy. Dorlus had 12 sacks and 27 tackles for losses in his career, with career highs of five sacks and nine passes defensed in 2023. Murphy, who spent his first three seasons at North Texas, had eight sacks and 16 tackles for losses as a fifth-year senior.

The draft included three cornerbacks (including Missouri’s Ennis Rakestraw in the second), a fourth-round quarterback, and late shots at running back, receiver and punter.

The big problem with this draft? No linebacker. Based on free agency and this draft, Green Bay’s base defense would include Eric Wilson as the third starter and Kristian Welch as the next man up.

NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks: NC State LB Payton Wilson

As we just established, the Packers need a linebacker. Payton Wilson is a first-round talent. So long as Wilson’s medical history checks out, this could be a marriage made in heaven, NFL.com’s Bucky Brooks said in his latest mock draft.

“If Wilson clears teams’ medical evaluations with an injury history that dates back to his high school days, he is a potential impact playmaker as a see-ball, get-ball defender,” Brooks wrote. “Though off-ball linebackers are not usually considered premium prospects in the current NFL game, Wilson’s instincts, awareness and versatility could help him grade out as a blue-chip player early in his career.”

The numbers are rather ridiculous.

First, the production. As a fifth-year senior, Wilson in 12 games tallied 138 tackles, including six sacks and 17.5 for losses, along with three interceptions, six passes defensed and one forced fumble. He wo the Butkus Award as the nation’s top linebacker. In five years, he had seven interceptions and 48 tackles for losses.

Second, the athleticism. At 6-foot-3 7/8 and 233 pounds, Wilson ran his 40 in 4.43 seconds. Dinged really only by his weight, his Relative Athletic Score was 9.81.

However, to Brooks’ point about injuries: Wilson tore the ACL in his right knee as a senior in high school in 2017 and tore it again in June 2018. In the 2020 finale, he dislocated both shoulders and had surgery on them both after the season. Two games into the 2021 season, he suffered another shoulder injury that required surgery.

That news was hard to swallow.

“I think just more so that I was playing the game to get to the next level,” Wilson said during fall camp in 2022. “The injury just set me back and got me to love football for what it is again, and not the accolades and the winning, but truly just going out there and playing a kids game.”

Wilson missed the second game of the 2022 season with an arm injury but played in every other game the rest of his career.

ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum: Oklahoma OT Tyler Guyton

Can Tyler Guyton play left tackle? Yes, said former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum in posting a first-round mock draft for ESPN.com . Guyton was the pick for the Green Bay Packers.

“Guyton's smooth movement skills remind me of D'Brickashaw Ferguson, whom I drafted in 2006 while with the Jets. Guyton is a plug-and-play guy from Day 1 at left tackle,” was part of Tannenbaum’s summary.

While Ferguson was a four-year starting left tackle at Virginia, Guyton’s 14 collegiate starts at Oklahoma came at right tackle. While Rasheed Walker played well last season in place of Bakhtiari, the Packers might be looking for an elite blind-side performer.

CBS Sports: Iowa DB Cooper DeJean

In Pete Prisco’s first mock draft, the choice was the athletic and productive Hawkeyes defensive back.

“They need help at corner and Cooper DeJean would make sense. He could also move inside to safety if they needed to do that down the road,” Prisco wrote.

At the moment, Xavier McKinney would be joined by Anthony Johnson. So, “down the road” could be Day 1.

CBS Sports: Arizona OT Jordan Morgan

This mock was done by Eric Galko, who is director of football operations for the Shrine Bowl.

“Jordan Morgan is viewed by some as a guard, but he can certainly play offensive tackle in the NFL,” Galko wrote. “In Green Bay, he'll have the chance to earn a starting spot at potentially both spots, with the opportunity to be the long-term replacement for David Bakhtiari.”

The Draft Network (2 Rounds): Alabama OT JC Latham

Latham was a starting right tackle at Alabama. Can he make the move to left tackle for the Packers? That’s the bet by Jamie Eisner in making him the pick over Oklahoma offensive tackle Tyler Guyton, Duke offensive lineman Graham Barton, Clemson cornerback Nate Wiggins and Iowa defensive back Cooper DeJean.

Latham was a two-year starter at right tackle. He allowed zero sacks in 2022 and two in 2023. He was guilty of 18 penalties. But he’s a relatively agile 6-foot-6 and 342 pounds. As the size would suggest, he plays with extreme power.