Packers: The 2020 draft class has an eye on the future

With the 26th pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers selected Jordan Love. And just like that, the Packers were off and running with a theme of the future.

Every draft has its fans and its critics, you can’t please everybody. But this draft seems to be more polarizing than most.

In what was considered the best wide receiver class since 2014, the Packers passed on the position as a whole and instead focused on the future. Pick after pick, the Packers took players with a starter already in place. In some way, this feels like a wasted draft as it pertains to the 2020 season.

As of the close of the draft, Josiah Deguara is the only one without an established starter in front of him. Even then, the H-back isn’t a full-time position and is used as a more specialized role.

AJ Dillon will sit behind Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams. Kamal Martin has recently-signed Christian Kirksey and Oren Burks in front of him. The three linemen drafted in the sixth round — Jon Runyan, Jake Hanson, and Simon Stepaniak — were drafted for depth and development purposes.

Keep on going down the line and you can see there is a veteran blocking the path of 2020 draft picks.

Which brings us to their first pick of 2020. With their first and most polarizing pick, the Packers traded up to select QB Jordan Love. The Packers gave up an additional fourth-round pick to move up four spots from 30 to 26. Giving up two picks for a player the team hopes doesn’t see the field for two to three years seems like a steep price to pay.

To be fair, there’s a good chance this year’s crop of rookies won’t be able to have much of an impact as it is. The prevention measures for COVID-19 will more than likely delay or shorten training camps if they happen at all, making it an uphill climb for new players coming into the league.

Yet, there is a lot of frustration in Packer Nation over this pick.

Coming off a 13-3 season the Packers seemed to be just a few players short of being able to take the next step. With their first-round pick, the Packers should’ve been able to snag a player that could help them on the field this year. When the notification of the trade came through, many of us thought the Packers made a bold move to get ahead of the Ravens to take Patrick Queen. But instead, the shock came in and the pick was Love.

The immediate thought and argument goes back to 2005 when the Packers took Aaron Rodgers. But this is not the same. The beauty in the boldness of the Packers taking Rodgers was that he fell to them, the team did not give up extra picks to get him. Ted Thompson sat back and let the board fall to him, then made the decision to draft the highest-rated player on his board regardless of needs elsewhere.

To his credit, Brett Favre had been going back and forth about retirement for a couple of years. So it made more sense.

This pick was much more aggressive and spoke to the Packers wanting this player despite having one of the best quarterbacks in the world who has not even mentioned retiring. Much like the Rodgers pick then, this pick has the potential to sour a relationship between a Hall-of-Fame quarterback and an organization.

Rodgers was begging for the Packers to take a player that has the potential to help an offense stuck in neutral and in need of playmakers. Instead, the Packers drafted their possible heir to the throne, giving up a valuable middle-round pick in the process.

If you don’t think that fourth-round pick is valuable, please see Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, David Bakhtiari, and Mike Daniels to name a few.

Unless there are injuries, most of the rest of the draft class may see limited time on the field.

To be fair, it’s unreasonable to expect to fill immediate needs in a draft class. Most rookies need time to develop. Free agency is better suited for that. But with limited salary cap space, the Packers weren’t able to be as aggressive as last season. So, the draft was where they were expected to make their mark.

With a perceived need for playmakers, more specifically receivers, this draft appeared perfect to fill that void. But instead, the Packers planned for the future.

That’s not to say that’s a bad thing, but for those hoping for a player to help push them over the edge, the hope will have to lie in someone already on the roster taking that next step.

It’s possible someone from this class will make an unexpected contribution but the reality is it will be hard for Dillon to overtake Jones without injury. Deguara will more than likely spend the season trying to find his role and everyone else will be trying to find their role on special teams.

This is not a knock on the players the Packers picked. I feel Dillon and Deguara have the potential to do good things in Green Bay. Martin has the speed to help coverage in the middle. And Runyan has the potential to be a swing tackle this year and develop into a solid starter at guard or right tackle.

Just don’t expect those contributions to help in 2020.

More than likely, the measure for this draft class will come down to how the Love pick pans out. Unless one of the other picks becomes a key contributor on a Super Bowl team or a Hall-of-Famer, the success or failure of the 2020 draft will come down to Jordan Love.

And we won’t know that outcome till sometime in the future.