The packers ended their 23-year-old drought of first-round receiver with a speedster at Matthew Golden (5-11, 191), then added a powerful multi-plaque threat to the third Williams Savion round (6-4, 220). Same position, very different players.
“I mean, you cannot train 4.29,” said Lafleur, referring to the 40 times of Golden, adding that the Texas product also has “elite hands”.
Williams is not to be out of speed either, because Lafleur stressed that his time of 4.48 came after only three weeks of training. Even if he is a little “unpaid” as a road runner leaving TCU, his advantage is so attractive that he will test the creativity of Lafleur and his staff to find different ways to make him the ball and see what he can do with it.
“He is so large, so powerful, so explosive, and the guys (trying to make a tackle) just tend to bounce back from him,” said Lafleur. “I think he only scrapes the surface of the playmaker he can become.”
It sets up an ultra-frequented and competitive receiver room, even with the return of Christian Watson to knee rehabilitation in several months. But this is considered a big plus, despite only as many targets to do.
“You can never have enough weapons around the quarter,” said Lafleur. “Our guys must kiss this competition, and if they attack it in the right way, I think that collectively, we will continue to improve.”
The first three choices of packers on Saturday are generally part of this position group, but they bring various types of body and lines to the table.
The Two Edge Rushers, fourth round Barryn Sorrell (6-3, 256) from Texas and the Fifth Tour Collin Oliver (6-2, 240) from Oklahoma State, are certainly not the same.
“A guy wins with a lot of power, length and hands,” said Managing Director Brian Gotekunst about Sorrell, before continuing Oliver. “The other guy has an athletics and a speed that played a little on his feet (second).”
It seemed intentional of the part of the packers to add this variety to the rush to the pass, with Lafleur stressing “we needed a little more speed” as Oliver brings, when he does not improve that Sorrell as a cultural adjustment.
Everyone from Texas to which Packers talked about Sorrell, including Golden, Reld, he was “First Class”, according to Gutekunst. If they asked a member of the Longhorns they take with them to start their own team, “they constantly underlined him unanimously,” said Lafleur.
Sorrell, who came by himself the project and was condemned by chance by Green Bay, was up to all of this, then some during an emotional press conference with his present family.
Add to these two an interior d-Lineman in the sixth round Warren Brinson (6-5, 315) of Georgia, and it is another type of player in advance in defense. Lafleur sees him as a big guy who can do a “dirty work” instead of the Slaton TJ left, while Gutekunst thinks “that he can play from top to bottom” and is not locked in a position.
The main line that the packers have acquired here was the size, with a second round choice of 6-6 and 335 pounds Anthony Belton and 6-4, the seventh round of 322 pounds John Williams. This beef arrives in the signing of Aaron Banks of 6-5 and 325 pounds in a free agency to take over at the left guard.
The variety lies in the positioning of the draft choices, because the two played on the left in college – Belton at NC State, Williams in Cincinnati – but are considered to be the size and skills to play in the tackle or the custody at the next level and on each side.
The additions, in particular a high choice like Belton, are significant given the way in which the depth of the packers, which was not really tested in the regular season due to a fortuitous good health series, did not resist the eliminatory series in Philadelphia when the veteran Elgton was lost early to injure.
“In order to fight some of these teams who have elite rushs, you better protect the quarter-back and run the ball,” said Lafleur. “So I thought I added big guys who can really move, it’s a big positive for us.”
Perhaps if the packers had had one more choice, or had found a way to negotiate to acquire an additional one (Gutekunst wanted it, but said that the valid opportunities did not arise themselves), they would have chosen a second cornerback to join the speedy and sticky in seventh round Micah Robinson (5-11, 185) SKILLS.
This did not happen, and it was somewhat surprising given the current depth painting and the uncertainty surrounding Jaire Alexander that the packers did not write a corner before the last lap.
But no GM can write everyone, and Gutekunst is never one to continue a specific position of need at the expense of better players who strengthen the list and locker room.
Global makeup also counts, because players of good things have the best chance of succeeding. For all the different types of body and skills acquired by packers in the last three days, they were also on the lookout for this intangible.
“You have to do a lot of excavations to find out how not only they like the game, but they need it,” said Lafleur. “I think guys who are truly invested and love it, you will get the most out of it.”
This is the type of “need” to wear the most weight.
“Guys who just need football because they are part of whom they are, is very important to us,” said Gutekunst. “This gives these guys who are thus one step ahead when it comes to fighting for spots and staying.”
