Green Bay has found their starting safety of the future to pair with free agent signing Xavier McKinney.
Potential safety convert Cooper DeJean of Iowa was all the talk for the Green Bay Packers with their first two selections in the draft. In the first round, it was that they passed on him for Arizona tackle Jordan Morgan. With their first pick in the second round, it was that the Philadelphia Eagles traded up one pick ahead of the Packers’ selection of linebacker Edgerrin Cooper to nab DeJean.
Packers fans, rightfully, wanted the team to address the safety position early in the draft, as their three most-played veterans all left in free agency this offseason. Sure, Green Bay signed Xavier McKinney, but the question of who would start next to him lingered.
That question was answered on Friday when the Packers spent the 58th overall pick on Georgia’s Javon Bullard, just the second true safety selected in the draft behind Minnesota’s Tyler Nubin. Bullard, who ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash time at the combine, was able to earn All-SEC honors in 2023, his first full-time starting season as a safety. In 2022, Bullard was featured as mostly as a slot defender for the Bulldogs’ national championship team.
Not only is Bullard athletic, but he was able to fit the run game well from depth in Georgia’s quarters-based system. There will be some schematic transitions that he’ll have to face to hit the ground running under new single-high defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, but he is one of the few safety prospects in this class who has the potential to play single-high safety or as a dropdown safety on any given down.
Based on what McKinney has said to the press, the plan is to play both starting safeties in both roles based on the offense’s formation. Back in March, before the combine where Bullard ran his quick times, APC draft analysts Justis Mosqueda and Tyler Brooke both had Bullard ranked as a top-three safety prospect for the Packers’ scheme.
According to the consensus draft board, Bullard was the 59th-ranked player in the class and the second-ranked true safety, only behind Nubin.
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