Morning Buzz: Taking apart Thompson's plan
Welcome to your Post-Draft Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers and the NFL draft from around the web and here at PackersNews.com. Grab a strong cup of coffee and get caught up on everything you need to know about the Packers.
We start with Bob McGinn’s overview of the Packers draft, including an overview of each selection.
The keys to successful drafting are preparation, taking advantage of the strengths of each draft and understanding your roster.
Ted Thompson’s results over the weekend, his 13th draft for the Green Bay Packers, showed a more flexible general manager starting the day before the draft.
If Thompson hadn’t signed guard Jahri Evans on the eve of the draft, he would have been forced to use one of his first four or five picks on the weakest position in the draft. It would have been a complete waste of resources that needed to be allocated elsewhere, especially for defense.
Tom Silverstein’s overview of Ted Thompson’s 13th draft, including a pointed reminder from Packers personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith.
The bottom line is the Packers need more drafted players and fewer street free agents and undrafted rookies.
“Everyone gets excited about the first-round pick, which is 14 percent of the NFL rosters,” said senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith. “The second-round pick is like 20-something percent of your roster. The majority of your roster is going to be third-, fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round picks.
“I think those rounds are the meat of your team. I think if you're going to be a good team, you have to be successful in those rounds. I think why the Packers have been successful over the last 10 years as we look back at our drafts, we've had players in those rounds that have been very successful and have developed into good football players.”
You can find all the Packers selections here.
You can also find our running list of the Packers undrafted free agents here.
Pete Dougherty writes on the perception of the 2017 draft being forever linked to the trade out of the first round and how TJ Watt performs in Pittsburgh.
Pete and I spoke about that idea as well:
Ryan Wood writes on Vince Biegel’s “dream come true”
Eliot Wolf had an early critique of Biegel’s game:
The Packers have brought in some competition for Jacob Schum:
A roundup of what scouts were saying about the Packers selections during the lead up to the draft:
It’s been...awhile since the Packers selected three running backs in a single draft:
Wisconsin had three players sign free agent deals with NFL teams:
Pete Dougherty and I chatted with readers over on our Facebook page after the draft was done:
You may be able to get a hug from Martellus Bennett today, if you're in Green Bay:
Elsewhere, Mike Daniels reminds us all that talent can be found in any round of the draft:
Montravius Adams had a pretty special day:
QB1 paid respect to Jim Taylor, who announced a Packers selection on the second day:
Mike Mayock is a big fan of the Packers’ first selection:
This is simply hysterical:
Great feature on one of the Packers undrafted free agents:
Everyone, and I mean everyone, should read Paul Noonan’s Guide to Grading an NFL Draft.
This is pretty incredible:
Rob Demovsky wonders if the Packers have done enough to fix the defense. He also drops the nugget that Brett Hundley was almost traded.
Cheesehead TV does not mess around:
The Power Sweep has a very good overview of the Packers draft class:
The Ted Bingo card got close to full:
McCarthy's reaction is indeed pretty priceless: