Not a fan of this pick. In fact, of all the Day1 & 2 picks I like this the least.
I think it was a reach. LBs were flying off the board though, so I get taking another. I just think Cedric Grey was a better prospect.
Supposedly this guy is a really good dude, hard worker, team captain. Not afraid to take on blockers (as opposed to running around blocks like a lot of LBs do now) even though he's supposedly undersized.
If he's actually able to play at 230 instead of 220 then I feel a little better about it. Maybe he's depth and a future replacement for McDuffie (who is in his last year of contract)? I suspect he could wear the green dot.
LBs and RBs get beat up, improving depth and competition is fine. I think they could have gotten this guy on Day 3, is all. If all he becomes is a ST stalwart and LB depth it might be a bit expensive for R3 (i.e. Oren Burks).
I haven't watched this guy a ton and I'm more than willing to give Gute and Co. the benefit of the doubt, after the last 2 drafts. They're the professionals. He's a Packer so I'm rooting for him to do well and prove the doubters wrong.
according to lindy's (which i buy every year even though it sucks)
hopper is the top rated guy we drafted. the magazine gave him a 8.0 rating, as an OLB
interesting
Probably the biggest head-scratcher and least popular Packers’ pick with the fans this year.
He seems like a project. Luckily, he’s got the wise, intelligent, and level-headed examples of Quay Walker and Edgerrin Cooper to learn from.
He might end up being undersized and out-of-control, but we might all get some occasional pleasure watching him if he plays with the attitude of Wayne Simmons.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
I have noticed that after this pick there are fewer fans of the Rasul Douglas trade than there were a few days ago.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
I'd have preferred they just trade it for a 2025 R2 pick to some stupid team. They really like Hopper and had him highly rated on their board - which is definitely not some consensus board - so maybe being the pros at this they know something we don't.
I wasn't super impressed or depressed by what little I saw of him (only watched one game so far). He's... ok. If he's just a guy to push McDuffie for LB3 and play ST then it's not the worst pick. Not the best pick either. It's just...meh.
And yes, I had higher hopes for the pick based on trading Rasul.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
Agree. I mean, what's done is done and he's a Packer so I'm rooting for him. They needed ILBs and he's not an awful pick. I just think he'd have been there on Day 3 and there was an opportunity cost.
While I do like referring to a consensus board vs. one single draft "expert's" board, it's not meaningful within the context of a specific team's board. I suspect Peyton Wilson was off GB's board completely for medical and age reasons. Kool-Aid McKinstry was probably off their board because of that toe issue which supposedly can be a chronic problem. Some guys probably were higher or lower because of scheme fit or what was between the ears in interviews. They have access to a LOT more info than Schefter or Rapaport or Pauline or any of those guys.... the medicals and character stuff matters a lot.
All of this to say that most teams whittle down their board to approx 120 players, and Gute indicated that he got players "inside his top 50" with his Day 1 and 2 picks. That's a win I guess? Here's hoping so.
WHO they actually picked doesn't even enter into my opinion about the trade. The trade was solely about an opportunity. They got someone they really wanted, apparently.
Clearly, they valued this guy much higher than most of the published "experts" did, who seemed to think he would have still been available to the Packers a round or two later. GB surely didn't feel that way, selecting him when they did and choosing him over other players I thought they might want. I hope they are right.
In my opinion the justification for that trade was a little weak. They thought they'd lose Rasul, and he was getting older. Well if they lost him after his contract expired, there would have been a compensatory pick. I'm not sure if Bufallo's 3rd rounder was that much better than a compensatory pick. Rasul graded really well, and some folks thought he was their best defensive player in 23 prior to the trade. I was thinking about his ascension into Al Harris territory as far as Packer history goes.
The timing looks pretty bad in retrospect - it looked like Brian was throwing in the towel on the season. I saw Jaire's interview after it happened and he looked devastated. I don't know if that had anything to do with him acting out later in the season when he crowned himself a team captain, but it wouldn't shock me if it did. All that said they managed to make it work pretty well with the other guys on the roster.
I think who they chose with the trade pick is irrelevant, and shouldn't be compared to Rasul. Two separate transactions.
I think Brian is really, really good at his job. But even the greats are lucky to bat .500 in this business.
Last edited by Scott Campbell; 05-01-2024 at 11:50 AM. Reason: Grammer.
Be cazy if this guy develops into a high-caliber starting linebacker. That'd be cool, and it would offset what seems like one of Guter's biggest "oopsies": Amari Cooper.
"The Devine era is actually worse than you remember if you go back and look at it."
KYPack
At the time. Douglas was under contract through 2024, for $11.6 million in 2024. I think the Packers were planning to release him this off season for the cap savings, in which case they would have gotten nothing in return. If that was their plan, the trade made a lot of sense. The question is, should that have been their plan?
GB had just lost 4 in a row, and the season seemed like it was going nowhere. I will always wonder if they would have made that trade if they had known how the rest of the season would turn out. I suspect they would not have.
LIFE IS ABOUT CHAMPIONSHIPS; I JUST REALIZED THIS. The MILWAUKEE BUCKS have won the same number of championships over the past 50 years as the Green Bay Packers. Ten years from now, who will have more championships, and who will be the fart in the wind ?
I agree Bretsky. He has a 7.38. I read an article that the average NFL player scores a 7.19 coming out. So if you’re a dead average athlete for the league you want something to hang your hat on.
What are we looking at here? He was a team captain… great, that’s nice.
But small, not real fast, looks lost in coverage, doesn’t take great angles, really bad tackler. I mean, team captains are nice, but ultimately we’re trying to win football games here. If you’re taking an anverage athlete, he better be hard nosed, smart ball player who does everything right. And this guy doesn’t.
Looks like a 3rd round bust. I agree.
Oren Burks might be best case here.
Formerly known as JustinHarrell.
You guys with your RAS shit acting like it will make or break. Would be great to see info from the last 5 years of how many low scoring players are still in the NFL.
We can't know everything that went into the decision to trade Rasul. Maybe he was so sick of Barry that Gute was afraid he was becoming a malcontent. Certainly Campbell did. At any rate I still don't think the pass defense got noticeably worse after the trade as Valentine and Ballentine played pretty well.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
Andy Herman had Rasul as the top graded player on the entire D at the time he was traded last year. I think he was easily earning his money - unlike Devondre Campbell. And to a lesser extent, unlike Jaire. I don't believe you cut a guy like that. He clearly had trade value with his 2024 cap hit at $11.6M, or Bufallo wouldn't have traded for him. The Bills have already restructed his contract and knocked $2.5M off that cap number for this year. Theoretically, we could have done the same thing.
I haven't heard anything other than positives about his locker room presense since the Packers rescued his career. Though I guess that doesn't mean he wasn't griping behind the scenes. We don't know.
My ultimate point is this. I think Brian threw in the towel on the season, and was simply converting older player assets into picks. And that's because the Packers were playing poorly, and it looked like our window to contend wasn't going to be open until the 2025 season at the earliest. 2024 is still loaded with a dead money boat anchor dragging the roster down. Rasul and some others may not have been around for the opening back up of the window for contention, and converting those guys to picks potentially helped load up the roster for when that window opened back up. Rasul happened to be the guy Brian was able to move, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were other older guys he shopped.
And then that glorious turnaround happened. Because our window is somewhat unexpectedly open right now, I think Brian made a mistake with Rasul. But I would not trade Brian for any other GM in the league. Mistakes happen.