3 overreactions to the Packers' 2024 NFL Draft class

Eleven total picks, several points to discuss. The Green Bay Packers made a sequence of moves over the last few days, and now that the NFL Draft is finally over, it's much easier to evaluate the state of the roster — and, why not, overreact to some topics about the team.

Better at backup quarterback

Sean Clifford was a fifth-round pick, Michael Pratt is a seventh-rounder. Clifford played relatively well in the preseason last year and had a beautiful regular season pass. But it's not hard to say that the Packers actually upgraded at the most important position in football.

Even though he was drafted later because of the circumstances of the class, Pratt is a much better quarterback prospect than Clifford. According to the NFL Network's draft profiles, for example, Pratt has a 5.88 prospect grade (average backup tier), while Clifford had a 5.54 grade last year (priority undrafted free agent tier).

In 2023, the Packers needed a backup quarterback and had no cap room to sign a veteran. Finding a player in the draft was a must, and Clifford was the last one with a draftable grade on the Packers evaluation, which is why they purposefully reached. This year, Green Bay had a more favorable situation and allowed Pratt to fall until his pick became a great value.

Gutekunst learned his limitations

When Brian Gutekunst took over as a general manager in 2018, he had a frequent desire to move up. He did it in 2018 after trading down, and again in 2019 for Darnell Savage and in 2020 for Jordan Love. Then he also traded up in later rounds for players like Amari Rodgers.

Now, after seven drafts as the GM, Gutekunst understood what really matters. It doesn't matter how good of a talent evaluator you are, the draft is impossibly difficult. For the most part, teams will hit 20%, 30% of their draft picks.

So instead of moving up to get "his guys," Gutekunst learned that the best way to operate is to accumulate picks, taking pressure away from each decision.

The Packers traded up twice on day 3, to be fair, but they only spent the capital they had acquired in a day 2 trade to move down only four spots with the New Orleans Saints in the second round. So Gutekunst ended up with the same number of total picks that he had going into the draft, eleven.

It's easy to know what they want

The draft is a mystery, but the Green Bay Packers have obvious trends and preferences. They just like athletic, experienced, high-end, versatile prospects. If you can look for all or most of these characteristics in a player, he will probably be on the Packers' radar.

And whether Brian Gutekunst admits it or not, he had attacked needs in the draft — and with multiple picks at the same position several times.

That's how it was possible to know how much they would like Jordan Morgan.