Packers: Five things Green Bay’s 2020 draft tells us

What did the Green Bay Packers’ 2020 draft class teach us?

The Packers‘ incredibly bizarre nine-member draft class gives us some revealing information on the status of Green Bay’s roster.

Here’s what we learned:

1. Jamaal Williams is a goner

Even though the Packers have gotten some nice contributions from their number two running back over the last two seasons, they drafted A.J. Dillon in the second round out of Boston College. While paying running backs large sums of money looks like a worse and worse idea every year, the Packers might not have any choice but to bring back Aaron Jones.

But there is virtually no way the Packers can keep both Jamaal Williams and Jones when their contracts expire. Green Bay clearly is attempting to prioritize the running game, and drafting Dillon and 647 offensive linemen show they don’t feel they need to bring Williams back. Green Bay has three free-agent running backs next year, and the writing appears to be on the wall for Williams.

2. The Packers still aren’t serious about their defense

The “Green Bay’s defense was buffered in 2019 with all the new additions” idea is a complete lie. The Packers repeatedly were pushed around by more physical offensive lines and finished a dominant 18th in total defense. The 49ers ran over Green Bay as if they weren’t there in the NFC title game, and Green Bay appears to still be completely content with letting that happen all over again.

The Packers, if you can believe it, will still be poor at inside linebacker next season. The “addition” of rookie Kamal Martin in the fifth round out of Minnesota is a dart throw, and Christian Kirksey has played in nine games in the last two seasons.

Green Bay is still trotting out an average Kevin King and inexperienced backups, an awful interior defensive line and a complete lack of depth at edge rusher. Green Bay’s defense will only be any good if King and Kenny Clark dominate in contract years, and Oren Burks suddenly becomes a superstar at middle linebacker.

3. Packers have faith in Jace Sternberger

Not drafting anybody who can catch a pass was as bizarre a draft decision as there has ever been in the team’s history. Whether or not they should be, the Packers are committed to Jace Sternberger, who caught a wonderful three passes for 15 yards in five games. Only in Green Bay is that good enough for a team that won 13 games last season. But having only Marcedes Lewis, Robert Tonyan, and Josiah Deguara on the roster, Sternberger is the team’s main receiving threat at tight end.

Needless to say, that should scare nobody in the NFL, other than the Packers themselves. Brian Gutekunst should be madly looking for tight end help until the trade deadline, as his group is by far the worst in football.

Sternberger injured his foot in a preseason game, only to finish the game and catch a touchdown. He then sat on injured reserve for the majority of the season, until he finally returned against the Redskins. The Packers better have something pretty convincing set up for last year’s third-round pick, otherwise the Packers will go into next offseason needing a tight end like they have the last eight years.

4. Matt LaFleur has more pull than we thought

The Packers draft showed that Brian Gutekunst is essentially willing to adapt the team to whatever the team’s coach, with one year under his belt, wants. The team drafted an H-back, under the guise of a tight end in Josiah Deguara. They then drafted three offensive linemen, all of whom will be in the picture when the team inevitably lets several of its starters walk in free agency next offseason.

Running the ball is clearly a priority of LaFleur’s and throwing the ball off play-action… with Jordan Love, appears to be the main purpose of whatever that draft was about. While a coach and general manager being on the same page over personnel is a great thing, having this much pull this early into his tenure, for a team with so many issues on defense is a problem. Furthermore, setting up the offense to throw the ball with play-action is not going to work in that the team still lacks anything resembling a strong receiving corps.

5. The Packers want Aaron Rodgers gone

If trading up for Jordan Love wasn’t enough of an indication, the rest of Green Bay’s draft was a subtle two-hand shove of Aaron Rodgers towards the door. For however long going forward, Green Bay will need to answer questions about how committed they really are to their future Hall-of-Famer, as if they really had been all these years. Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst clearly have a specific plan for their team that does not include Rodgers, but does include Love.

Setting aside how impossible it is going to be for the Packers to move on from Rodgers for a minimum of two years, the Green Bay brass almost appears to be trying to buy itself as much time as possible by kicking the can down the road with their new quarterback. LaFleur wants to have more to do with the structure of the offense, and having jurisdiction over the quarterback is something no coach is going to be able to do with Rodgers.