Sunday, April 27, 2008

Packers draft picks

The Packers traded down to get an extra fourth round pick, so they had no first round pick. Instead, they got the Jets second round pick at #36, just 6 picks below our original pick. With that pick they took Jordy Nelson, a WR out of Kansas State. This pick seems a little odd, what with Donald Drive, James Jones, Ruvell Martin and Koren Robinson already on the team at WR. In addition, after the pick on ESPN the talking heads praised Nelson's speed and said that he had really upped his value when he ran a 4.5, but then ESPN.com's draft tracker said that Nelson isn't "a sexy pick; he doesn't have great speed and isn't elusive." Same company, two contradictory thoughts.

With their second pick of the second round, the Packers took Louisville QB Brian Brohm. I have really been avoiding draft talk in the days leading up to this, but I had no idea that we were considering a rookie to be Rodgers' backup. For all intents, Aaron Rodgers is still a rookie - he hasn't played enough games to fill a rookie season. I was under the impression that Ted Thompson, et al were unflinchingly behind Rodgers - especially after reading this in last weekend's Journal-Sentinel. I don't mind the Brohm pick. He was solid for most of his college career and was brought up under Rick Pitino. Chad Henne's always rubbed me the wrong way and that could just be a Michigan bias.

With the 60th overall pick, the Packers took Patrick Lee, a CB from Auburn. This is the position that everyone thought we would be filling with our first pick. Charles Woodson and Al Harris are not spring chickens and there were a lot of primetime CBs available. There are some questions about Lee as he wasn't a starter until he was a senior, but his size and physicality should allow him to fit in easily. Heading into the draft, there was a lot a talk about how big time CBs don't have to come from big time schools. Maybe that theory can extend to smaller names at big time schools. Brandon Flowers was a sexier pick earlier in the draft, but the talking heads seem to think that we've gotten as good of a player in Lee with better size.

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