Thoughts on the Packer Draft? Immediate grade: B

Packergeeks invites your comments/thoughts on this past weekend’s draft. Just to recap for reference sake, our 9 picks:

1. Jordy Nelson – WR
2. Brian Brohm – QB
3. Patrick Lee – CB
4. Jermichael Finley – TE
5. Jeremy Thompson – DE
6. Josh Sitton – G/T
7. Breno Giacomini – T
8. Matt Flynn – QB
9. Brett Swain -WR

Some of the reaction to the draft has been interesting. Some are ticked that we took 7 offensive players. Some are ticked we took 2 WR and 2 QBs. Some don’t like the attitude of Giacomini. Some think Patrick Lee is very mediocre. One guy (“Sparky” on WSSP) really didn’t like the draft and believes TT really blew this one. Doug Russell on WSSP earlier in the morning loves the draft. One of the guys at ESPN Milwaukee Radio is ticked at anyone who grades drafts saying you have to wait 3 years to know the true grade of a draft in the NFL. Yet, they then dissected the positive and negative points about the draft. It’s really the same thing fellas, you just didn’t assign a letter to it.

If I had a leaning at this point, overall I would fall in favor of his selections this past weekend. While I did not classify WR as a need position prior to the draft, our #4 (Robinson) and #5 (Martin) receivers are really only OK and could possibly be upgraded. Obtaining Jordy may not be a bad pick if he indeed has the upside TT and the staff believe he has. To be consistent, I have to support picking a bigger/possession-type WR as I have been asking for one for years. The Brett Swain pick is a bit more mysterious unless they have special teams thoughts for him or perhaps think he may be a Wes Welker-type slot receiver. Patrick Lee was a need pick, regardless of TT’s claim that he only picks the best player – TT knew we needed at least another corner to compete behind Harris and Woodson. I’m fine picking the 2 QBs, especially Brohm. He is a really good player – you gotta wonder how the draft would have turned out had Petrino stayed at Atlanta – would he have taken Brohm #3 – probably. (I do wonder if TT has a notion to develop Flynn and Brohm and try to deal one of them down the road, especially if one of them sees some back-up action and plays well – like Matt Schaub). I really like the TE pick-up: a young guy who is coachable, has tremendous athleticism, is a great receiver and at the same time someone who can be developed. And, some fresh blood at DE in Jeremy Thompson might help out what became a worn down pass rush by year’s end lasts year. And, we need bodies to compete on the O-Line – and importantly, once we decide who will play, we need to coach them hard and give them a chance to succeed. I don’t want this back-and-forth crap like last year.

I do wish TT had angled harder to pick up a viable RB (and/or a FB). Grant is very good and I am fairly confident he’ll continue to play well. But I don’t like the guys behind him. I heard Homer on ESPN radio over the weekend reminding us to not forget about Noah Herron. Listen, I like Herron because he’s from Milwaukee, but I don’t like him on the Packers and I really don’t like his hair. But I fear the Packers’ brass likes him because he’s solid, doesn’t make mistakes and works hard. I’m sorry, sometimes there’s more to football than working hard. It’s interesting really, with the RB position, we have Herron who works too hard with limited results, Jackson who works pretty hard with OK results, Morency who works sort of hard with nothing-nothing-nothing-big run-nothing, and then Wynn who doesn’t work hard at all and has decent results. I still believe we should have pulled something to pick up Rashard Mendenhall when he was in that brief, inexplicable free-fall in the first round. Or, Steve Slaton. We need some excitement back there and I want a viable 1-2 punch. That said, I will allow for the possibility that TT and MM have seen something from these other RB guys in the off-season I haven’t and that perhaps we may be more stable there than most of us presently think.

What are your thoughts on the overall draft by the Pack?

UPDATE: Forgot to add that I think we should have picked up a linebacker – even a 7th round guy to be a competitive body in camp. With 9 picks, TT should have been able to find one RB and LB who could contribute.