According to general manager Brian Gutekunst, the decision to trade back was made before DeJean’s selection.
The Green Bay Packers made four selections on Friday, which opened up plenty of conversations when general manager Brian Gutekunst and assistant director of college scouting Patrick Moore were made available to the media after the second day of the event. One of the more notable things said was by Gutekunst, who claimed that the team had worked out their trade back from the 41st pick to the 45th pick before the Philadelphia Eagles jumped up the draft to select defensive back Cooper DeJean of Iowa, whom Gutekunst claimed the team had evaluated as a cornerback, safety and nickel back in a previous media availability.
This is interesting, as NFL Network reported before Day 2 of the draft kicked off that the Packers, like the Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars, were interested in moving up early on in the second round. The Eagles moved up. The Packers moved down. The Jaguars stayed put at 48th overall.
If it wasn’t DeJean who was the apple of Gutekunst’s eye, I wonder who they were calling about to arrange a trade. The following players were selected between the first round and the 40th pick:
- WR Keon Coleman
- WR Ladd McConkey
- DT Ruke Orhorhoro
- DT Jer’Zhan Newton
- WR Ja’Lynn Polk
- DT T’Vondre Sweat
- DT Braden Fiske
Beyond trade talk, Gutekunst said that the team had the temptation to move off of a “best available player” approach due to their needs at linebacker and safety, but they didn’t end up dropping a tier to draft their player. I would guess this is true, as they ended up taking the first off-ball linebacker off the board in Texas A&M’s Edgerrin Cooper and the second safety off the board in Georgia’s Jovan Bullard.
On the subject of the position that Cooper and Missouri’s Ty’Ron Hopper will be playing, Gutekunst stated, “All our linebackers are going to be interchangeable.” Based on the team’s need at safety, Gutekunst suggested that the Packers would start Bullard off as a safety, but both he and Moore mentioned that he can play in the slot — a position Bullard took on for the 2022 national title-winning Bulldogs team — too.
As far as versatility talk goes, Gutekunst said that he believes that running back Marshawn Lloyd, the team’s first third-round pick, can contribute to the kick return game, despite not being much of a returner at the college level. Gutekunst also claimed that all four of the selections they made on Day 2 of the draft were picks they had top-two-round grades on, which seems to suggest that the Packers believe there’s plenty of meat on the bone still in this class.
Going into Day 3, Green Bay must still address some depth issues that they have at the offensive line and safety positions, but all the expected Day 1 starters are probably off of the board. Still, they have eight choices in hand, seven of which are slated for the final three rounds of the draft. If the Packers make all their picks on Saturday, they’ll have just five roster spots available to sign undrafted free agents post-draft on their 90-man roster.
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