Green Bay Packers: Ted Thompson’s top 30 draft picks of all-time

5. Mike Daniels (Ray’s pick)

As a rookie in 2012, Mike Daniels played in 14 games and made a splash with two fumble recoveries … one that he took 43 yards for a touchdown on Sunday Night Football against the Detroit Lions.

While that particular play put him on the NFL map, he was still just a rookie and had much to prove. After all, in that first year he had just two sacks and 12 tackles.

However, his star began to rise in 2013.

He played in all 16 games his second year and even started a game. During that sophomore year he picked up 6.5 sacks, had 20 tackles and eight assists – numbers that began to turn heads around the league.

Gaining confidence, Daniels became a media darling for his brazen talk and sharp interviews heading into his third season with the Packers in 2014.

But he backed up that talk with his play on the field. It was his breakout season, if you will.

Daniels played in and started all 16 games in 2014, racking up 5.5 sacks, 30 tackles and 17 assists, all while playing 696 snaps.

According to profootballfocus.com, Daniels was ranked as a top 10 defensive end. His ranking as a pass rusher was +10.8 and his ranking against the run was +9.4.

In 2014, he also had 11 quarterback hits and 24 quarterback hurries. Daniels had just six missed tackles and had a total of 31 “stops.” A stop is defined this way: “The cumulative amount of solo defensive tackles made which constitute an offensive failure.”

In being ranked throughout the 2014 season, Daniels had minus rankings by profootballfocus in just three games: Week 4 against Chicago (-1.4); in week 15 against Buffalo (-3.9); and in the NFC Championship Game at Seattle (-1.9).

His shining moment in 2014 came on a huge third down sack of Tom Brady that helped seal the Packers win over the eventual World Champion at Lambeau Field in Week 13.

Heading into the final year of his rookie contract, there was much talk about the Packers targeting him for a new contract before Daniels hits the free agent market in February of 2016 — and that’s exactly what Ted Thompson did.

Rewarding Daniels was easy for Thompson, who signed Daniels because of his consistency. Daniels had 27 tackles and 22 assists in 2015, as well as four sacks, one forced fumble, two passes defensed and an interception.

As for Daniels, this will undoubtedly be another huge year for him.

Next: No. 5 (Freddie's pick)