The Green Bay Packers could go a number of different directions with their first-round pick in this year’s draft. Receiver, edge rusher, tight end, offensive tackle, and cornerback are all in play. However, based on the strengths and weaknesses of this draft class, addressing offensive tackle right away might be the prudent move.
Darnell Wright, Paris Johnson and Broderick Jones are the top three tackles in this class, and anyone of them could be an option for the Packers at pick No. 13. However, beyond those three, the talent level at this position group drops off.
If we look at other needs that Green Bay has, one could argue that the strength of this draft at edge rusher, receiver, tight end, and interior defensive lineman is between Rounds 2 through 4, where the Packers should have viable options at each position. Meaning that if Green Bay doesn’t address any of those needs in the first round, they’ll be able to later on.
In theory, this approach makes sense–if there are only a few good players available, take one while you can. However, as Brian Gutekunst mentioned on Monday, teams have to be careful with this mindset as well. Feeling that you have to take a specific position at a particular point in the draft can lead to over drafting a player, and that can result in what is commonly referred to as a bust.
“You’re always looking at your board and trying to understand where it’s strong and where it’s weak,” said Gutekunst. “You work really hard to try to have an understanding of where players may be available and where they might not be available. There’s been times in past drafts where it’s ‘if we don’t take this position right here, we won’t have the opportunity to take this position.’ You have to be careful there, you can make mistakes that way. It’s very rare where you have a bunch of players there that are equal. I’d rather have volume, where moving back is an option.”
The need for an offensive tackle in 2023 certainly isn’t a must either, with David Bakhtiari, Yosh Nijman, Zach Tom, and, if needed, Elgton Jenkins as options. However, if we look ahead to 2024, there becomes a lot more uncertainty at one of football’s most important positions.
At that time, Bakhtiari could be released in favor of salary cap savings while Nijman is set to be a free agent. Green Bay also has Caleb Jones and Rasheed Walker on the roster, but expecting one of them to take over as a starter, given their limited experience is a very risky move.
So taking an offensive tackle this year would allow Green Bay to get ahead of that potential uncertainty. With that said, selecting either Wright, Johnson, or Jones isn’t only a move for the future, as any of them could compete right away for playing time at right tackle. This, in turn, would give the Packers added flexibility to have Zach Tom compete for playing time at center, which is where Gutekunst and the Packers thought that he was at his best coming out of Wake Forest or even at right guard. Tom very well could be an upgrade at both positions.
As Matt LaFleur often says, it’s about putting the best five offensive linemen on the field, and having added competition at right tackle gives the Packers even more flexibility to accomplish that, not to mention that the depth of the interior unit greatly improves as well with Tom being a part of that equation. While the Packers absolutely need to put more playmakers around Jordan Love, any potential success he sees this season will begin and end with the play of the offensive line.
Of course, all of this depends on how Green Bay views the offensive tackle position as it is currently constructed. Perhaps they are comfortable with Tom at one of the tackle positions long-term and plan to extend Nijman at some point, along with having Jones and Walker. Although there are a lot of assumptions made in that statement, something that NFL teams shouldn’t operate on, and even so, the depth of the tackle position could still be a concern in this scenario.
It’s never easy trying to figure out how Gutekunst is going to approach the draft, but when it comes to Green Bay taking an offensive tackle at pick 13, it’s an idea that checks a lot of boxes for the Packers. It’s a premier position. It’s potentially a big need in 2024 and can provide value in 2023. There are also very few high-end players in this class, while other positional needs have greater depth.
If I were to guess right now, I suspect that the Packers take one of the three aforementioned offensive tackles with the 13th pick.
