Green Bay Packers: Ranking the top five draft picks of all-time

Herb Adderley: Fourth best all-time draft pick by the Green Bay Packers

In 1961, the Green Bay Packers used its first round pick in the NFL Draft (No. 12 overall) to select Herb Adderley.

At the young age of 22, Adderley came to Green Bay as an offensive player, but it didn’t take long for Vince Lombardi to decide what to do with the talented player from Michigan State – he moved him to defensive back, where he stayed for the entirety of his 12 years in the league.

He played his first nine years in the league, until 1970 when he made the move to Dallas.

In his nine years in Green Bay, Adderley was one of the best in the league. He played in 125 games with the Packers, pulling down 39 interceptions and returning them 795 yards and taking seven to the house for touchdowns. His longest went for 80 yards.

Adderley  helped solidify the Packers defensive backfield during the 1960s when passing continued to gain a foothold in the professional game. Quarterbacks were smarter, and could find ways to pick apart the defenses of the time. But with a player like Adderley, defenses also thrived – most notably the Packers of the 1960s.

According to Wikipedia, here are some of his career accomplishments:

Herb Adderley’s career statistics, courtesy of profootballreference.com: