Official day 3 of the 2023 NFL draft thread

[run pMc]

Overall, this was a draft for a team with a poor pass rush, nothing for TE, and short on WR. Aka, last year's Packers. Unfortunately, this means that they were drafting for the holes they have, instead of the holes that will be coming up in a year or two.

Possibly. They had no cap space and in many cases no bodies at some of the positions. I suppose you could say they drafted for need, but I would counter that they tried to read the board for when runs would happen and generally did well.
They could have taken JSN but went for what they thought was a better player with LVN, got two of the top TEs before they were gone, etc.

I don't think it was a bad draft, but we won't really know for a couple of years. This team had talent, but it had a lot of holes and vacancies. It was bound to happen that they'd address needs... imagine if they drafted Will Levis and waiting until Day 3 to take a pass catcher

I guess I'm somewhat agreeing with you, but I don't think they really had any other option, and I don't think they necessarily reached except on 1 or 2 picks.

[King Friday]

Two straight years of drafting three WR, some of them will stick.

Also: GB took five pass catchers in this draft. If you don't think they got JLove any help I don't know what to tell you.

The majority of those pass catchers won’t amount to much of anything in 2023. Helping Love 3 years from now isn’t much of a help.

[RashanGary]

Interesting receiver room

Watson is an outside vertical threat and has the ability to take screens and jet sweeps to the house.
Doubs is an outside prototype do everything kind of guy
Reed is a slot with jet sweep and screen ability
Wicks is a James Jones sort of size / short area possession type without deep speed
Dubose is in the James Jones mold too
Toure is in the Driver mold


I like that the top 3 have such different strengths. Kind of an ideal mix of talent types. Then the possession guys are a nice change up, and Toure has a chance. Pretty sure we got two good ones last year. If we get one good one this year, that makes 3 good young ones and that’s a nice start. Receiver room replenished.

[RashanGary]

Rasheed Walker is very intriguing to me. Last year in preseason, and I think he played a couple snaps in the regular season…. He looked so natural and balanced out there. He never got to test because of injury. I wonder what kind of upside he has and how good he could be. I would not be the least bit shocked if we somehow lucked into a 7th round starting LT.

[Bretsky]

Interesting receiver room

Watson is an outside vertical threat and has the ability to take screens and jet sweeps to the house.
Doubs is an outside prototype do everything kind of guy
Reed is a slot with jet sweep and screen ability
Wicks is a James Jones sort of size / short area possession type without deep speed
Dubose is in the James Jones mold too
Toure is in the Driver mold


I like that the top 3 have such different strengths. Kind of an ideal mix of talent types. Then the possession guys are a nice change up, and Toure has a chance. Pretty sure we got two good ones last year. If we get one good one this year, that makes 3 good young ones and that’s a nice start. Receiver room replenished.

Love the look of the room as well

We are rebuilding and we have a LOT of needs.

I think trading back and picking up volume was what this team needed.

I just hope Jordan Love looks good so we don't have to start the ship all over at QB

With or without Karen we weren't winning it all so it was undoubtedly time to move on

[red]

And they are already on to signing UDFA's.
https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2...-agent-tracker

i think they started doing that around round 5

[RashanGary]

Love the look of the room as well

We are rebuilding and we have a LOT of needs.

I think trading back and picking up volume was what this team needed.

I just hope Jordan Love looks good so we don't have to start the ship all over at QB

With or without Karen we weren't winning it all so it was undoubtedly time to move on

If Love stinks, I hope we bomb out bad. Worst team in the league bad so we get a shot at the best QB

[Bretsky]

If Love stinks, I hope we bomb out bad. Worst team in the league bad so we get a shot at the best QB

Agree; and not the end of the world if we struggle but Love shows promise.

Hopefully he's either bad or great; in the NFL Purgatory is having an average starting QB

Top 2 QB's coming out next year seem to be really really elite. Good year to have 2 1sts

[RashanGary]

Agree; and not the end of the world if we struggle but Love shows promise.

Hopefully he's either bad or great; in the NFL Purgatory is having an average starting QB

Top 2 QB's coming out next year seem to be really really elite. Good year to have 2 1sts

Two firsts is good, but if those two guys are as good as advertised, it’s gonna take one of the top two picks. And no one will trade out if they think they have a franchise guy.

So yeah, let’s hope Love is great or horrible. I agree with the NFL purgatory thing, having a middle of the road QB. Let’s lose them all if we’re gonna lose.

[MadScientist]

Possibly. They had no cap space and in many cases no bodies at some of the positions. I suppose you could say they drafted for need, but I would counter that they tried to read the board for when runs would happen and generally did well.

It's the lack of bodies a positions that bothers me. We could all see holes coming at WR, and that they haven't had a good TE in forever. Yet instead of picking for the future in those positions in previous drafts, Gute waited until the situation was desperate. Very few players make a splash in their first year, so Gute should be drafting where the holes will be in 1-2 years from now to keep the team performing at a high level. Hopefully they won't have a gaping hole somewhere (OL perhaps) in a year or two.

[Fritz]

It's the lack of bodies a positions that bothers me. We could all see holes coming at WR, and that they haven't had a good TE in forever. Yet instead of picking for the future in those positions in previous drafts, Gute waited until the situation was desperate. Very few players make a splash in their first year, so Gute should be drafting where the holes will be in 1-2 years from now to keep the team performing at a high level. Hopefully they won't have a gaping hole somewhere (OL perhaps) in a year or two.

The obvious problem is that if you draft for two to three years down the road, you've still got the current giant holes to fill. So he more or less had to draft a couple players at positions of need - a couple DT's, a few wide receivers, a couple of tight ends. But that's his fault in a way for having drafted turds like Jace Sternberger, Amari Rodgers, and the like.

I am not sold on Gute. At all. But now that his co-GM is gone, the team really is his - no more Rodgers to mollify, but also no more Rodgers to make the team look better than maybe it was. So let's see what he can do.

Same with MLF. I'm excited to see his offense now, but he also better have a much better defense, given the resources invested in that defense. It's ridiculous how many first round picks are out there on the field, and despite that they've mostly been lousy or mediocre.

I think Special Teams is actually going to be the strongest of the three units this year, though that kid Carlson looks terribly inaccurate. I read that he's been hurt, and maybe the Pack thinks that's why his percentage was not very good at all.

[run pMc]

I agree with drafting for areas a year ahead and not having to start a lot of rookies, but let's remember this team was basically all-in the last 2-3 years. That probably impacted their draft strategy somewhat and definitely impacted their FA/cap work.

I think they will be much more upside and long-term with their picks, the general idea is draft best players available and fill in the remaining holes in free agency. They can't really do that because of their cap situation.
As for pass catchers, they drafted a lot which is good because some will have to play and they need better talent than the Juwann Winfrees of the world. You can't realistically expect a rookie WR to catch more than 30-40 passes, but with the lack of veterans at WR/TE you never know.

I don't want the team to stink and don't think they will, they actually have some pretty good talent on the roster and I think MLF is at least an ok coach. Between where they and the Jets probably end the season, i suspect they could package both R1's (I assume Ar plays 65%+) to move up into the top 5 if they really wanted to.

[Fritz]

One thing I think Guter has learned from TT, who learned from Wolf, is that if you have a deep hole at a particular position, you are really taking a risk if you draft one guy from a draft to fill that hole. You draft at least two, and see if one pans out. Sometimes, like Wolf did with corners in '99 when he was trying to combat Randy Moss, you draft three in a row - in the first three rounds. In that draft, the third round guy proved to be the best of the bunch (Mike Mckenzie), and the second-round guy got traded for some fumble-prone running back named Green.

Thompson did it with great success in 2017 with Jamaal Williams (fourth round) and Aaron Jones (fifth round). He did it with a modicum of success in 2018 with J'Mon Moore, Equanimeous St. Brown, and Marquez Valdez-Scantling. He did it and completely bombed with Damarious Randall and Quentin Rollins in 2015.

Mike Sherman pooped the bed twice in 2004 with Admad Carroll and Joey Thomas.

So I think Guter went down that same road this year with tight ends and receivers, and even DL (didn't he draft two guys - in the fourth and sixth?).

Not a bad strategy. Maybe next year he'll do the same with safeties.

[smuggler]

The majority of those pass catchers won’t amount to much of anything in 2023. Helping Love 3 years from now isn’t much of a help.

Pretty important to help Love in 2-3 years because ideally that is the start of our championship window. We are not contenders in 2023 short of a miracle. If Love ends up being a whiff, we will need help in 2024 for when we sign Garoppolo anyway.

[run pMc]

Was there any rookie receiver likely to make a huge impact right away? JSN was the most highly touted and he's a slot who went #20. It was a bad year for WR.
i don't think anyone is going to amount to a ton right now.

Fritz- agree with your point. Gute has loaded up on WR two years in a row now (Watson, Doubs, Toure and now Reed, Wicks, DuBose). It's a nice group of young athletic potential, I'd expect a few to pan out and be very good by 2024/5.