Acme Packing Company
A top-100 mock sees the Packers scooping up a tackle who takes a surprising fall, then building out the interior of the defense and the offensive line with four other picks.
What would NFL Draft week be without a flurry of final mock drafts? Today, we’re here with a three-round mock, looking at the Green Bay Packers’ five selections in the top 100.
For this mock, I used the Pro Football Focus Mock Draft Simulator. I have executed several drafts in this particular simulator, but this particular mock ended up giving me one of the most surprising — but intriguing — scenarios at the 25th pick I have seen to this point.
This may be my favorite combination of prospects that I have found in all of the mocks yet this draft season, however, and I was able to land my #1 prospects at two different positions on defense. All told, this draft class focuses on the trenches on both sides of the football and then building up the middle of the defense.
Let’s move on to the picks.
In this mock, Fautanu is the one top offensive tackle who fell to #25 after a massive run on my potential targets at multiple positions. Picks 20 to 23 were rough for my board, with Graham Barton, Tyler Guyton, Cooper DeJean, and Amarius Mims going in those four straight picks.
However, that left Fautanu still on the board, and I was all too happy to scoop him up here. In fact, I would probably prefer him over at least a couple of the linemen listed in that earlier run. Fautanu has multiple years of experience as a starting left tackle but also has experience at guard, making him a candidate to start at either spot in week one. He’s an elite athlete and although he is a bit shorter than most of the other tackle prospects in this range (6-foot-4), his 34.5-inch arms will give him plenty of leeway to try to stay outside.
The only caveat with Fautanu is his age, as he is 23 years old and will turn 24 in October. The Packers generally go young with their first-round picks, as Devonte Wyatt is the only player older than 22 on draft day that the Packers have picked in round one since 2008. But in this case, he’s easily the top player left on my board and I was more than happy to grab him in this spot.
At 41, I felt great seeing Cooper still on the board, especially with Payton Wilson going off the board at 40 as the first linebacker taken. Although the Packers seemingly have a plan to move Quay Walker from Mike to Will, getting a chance to bring Cooper into the mix as a run-and-chase weak-side linebacker is too good to pass up.
Bullard was a no-brainer here for me, as he has...
