Sunday, April 6, 2014

What Do the Packers need to Do in the Draft? (Hint: It's Not Necessarily Take a Safety or Tight End)

I know, I know, it's been a while. I've had an interesting past several months and haven't really had the bug to write. But it bit me today.

For the past several years the Packers have pretty much held fast in free agency and stuck to their draft and develop philosophy. Not so much this year. They knew they needed help along the defensive front and they went out and got their man in Julius Peppers. I can't wait to see what the rush will look like with him opposite Clay Matthews.

But there are still plenty of holes that needed filling. I think the big ones are at safety and TE. I was really hoping Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy would go out and get a guy like TJ Ward or Jairus Byrd to put alongside Morgan Burnett and a guy like Owen Daniels to man TE. I didn't expect them to, but hey, if we didn't have hope, what would we have? It looks like those positions will need to be filled in the draft and most mocks I see have the Packers taking one or the other in the first round.

I'm honestly not sold on that approach though. I think Micah Hyde could be a very good option at safety with the skills he flashed last year. And there have been precious few first round TEs end up being worth the pick. I'm also a big big fan of the BPA philosophy in the early rounds of the draft. There's still lots of talent late in the first round but it's not always at an off season position of need. I say off season because injuries seem to happen so fast and those could make any position one of need quickly.

Look back a few years. Was QB a position of need when the Packers had Aaron Rodgers fall into their laps? Where would we be if the team had reached to fill a need instead of taking the BPA? I for one would be much happier seeing the team going into the regular season with Hyde at S and Quarless at TE knowing that they had added a true first round talent at any position than watching them reach for a S or TE if the top prospects get taken early. No, if my wish comes true, we'll see BPA in rounds 1 and 2 and then see the Packers start to fill needs like S, TE, C, 4th WR, dime CB etc.