Packers: Why tight end is the team’s biggest need this offseason
Most Green Bay Packers fans would tell you that their biggest draft need is at pass rusher. While edge rusher is a huge need, I feel the biggest need is at tight end.
For the last few years the Green Bay Packers have thrown money at the position in free agency with the likes of Jared Cook, Martellus Bennett and most recently, Jimmy Graham. With little to show for such transactions it may be time to take a different approach.
The Packers haven’t drafted a tight end since 2015 (Kennard Backman) and that was their last pick of the draft in the sixth round. This is the year to use a high draft pick on a young, play-making tight end to help Aaron Rodgers and the offense.
Unlike Mike McCarthy’s offense, Matt LaFleur’s offense will thrive with a duel threat at tight end. LaFleur wants to mirror the pass game with the run game, and what better way to disguise that than with a duel-threat tight end? The ability to keep your best run game personnel on the field as well as your best playmakers would be a luxury to the offense.
In an interview last month, Matt LaFleur spoke with The Fan 107.5:
“That tight end position is such a critical position because you can really isolate and get great matchups whether it’s on a safety or a linebacker on the inside,” LaFleur said. “I’ll take as many good tight ends as we can get.”
If LaFleur and his staff are looking for a player that is just as good blocking as they are as a receiver, then they are in luck with this draft class with guys like T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant from Iowa and Irv Smith Jr. from Alabama at the top of the class. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah believes Hockenson is a top-five overall player in this class.
Most tight ends take a few years to develop in this league, especially as a blocker, but in my opinion Hockenson would step right in and be a top-five run-blocking tight end as a rookie.
His teammate at Iowa, Noah Fant, is a different player as he is better as a receiver than a blocker, but he is an underrated blocker. I believe both Iowa tight ends are first-round picks and I wouldn’t be upset at all if the Packers were to use the 12th overall pick on Hockenson or the 30th on Fant if they go in a different direction at 12.
At pick 30 or 44, the team could look at Alabama’s Irv Smith Jr. Smith had to be a good blocker to get on the field for the Crimson Tide, and he was also a very good receiver this past season. Jon Ledyard of The Draft Network wrote that as a receiver, Smith is “slippery and elusive post-catch”.
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You could argue all day that edge rusher is a bigger need for this team, but I believe that position can be addressed in free agency or with one of the top-44 picks they have. In my opinion, a young, talented tight end that can grow with this changing offense should be a top priority for once.
In the immortal words of Kevin Greene: “IT IS TIME”.