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640 - Safety Help May Be Hard to Find in the 2023 NFL Draft
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The Packers have an enormous, obvious, incredible need at safety. It might be the weakest position on the entire roster, with the possible exception of tight end. Is there anybody in this year’s draft that can fix things?
The Packers’ GM and head coach both weighed in on the Packers’ offseason at the NFL’s annual meetings. Gutekunst had a lot to say about Aaron Rodgers, while LaFleur touched on Jordan Love, the future of the Packers’ secondary, and other things the Packers need to do to get ready for the 2023 NFL season.
We’re changing our methodology a little bit as far as how we’ll approach the NFL Draft, pulling our prospect list from the inimitable Mock Draft Database and talking through the top prospects.
For each position group moving forward, we’ll talk about every player at that position within the top 200. Why the top 200? That should take us through every player who’s likely to be picked before about the middle of the 6th round or so, and if you’re going much later than that, chances are you won’t be a big NFL difference-maker anyway.
As far as the other criteria, here’s what we’re looking for as far as identifying key prospects: Relative Athletic Score of 8.0 or higher, a coverage grade from Pro Football Focus of 70 or higher in their final college season, and 20 or more career ballhawks (our combined metric of sacks, interceptions, passes defensed, and fumbles forced).
So who are the top safeties in this year’s draft? And how do they stack up with our metrics? Here’s the list we talked about, along with their positions in the consensus mock draft:
- Brian Branch - Alabama (19)
- Antonio Johnson - Texas A&M (44)
- Sydney Brown - Illinois (70)
- Jordan Battle - Alabama (72)
- Christopher Smith - Georgia (73)
- Jammie Robinson - Florida State (82)
- JL Skinner - Boise State (88)
- Ji’Ayir Brown - Penn State (99)
- Jartavius Martin - Illinois (111)
- Brandon Joseph - Notre Dame (143)
- Daniel Scott - California (156)
- Jay Ward - LSU (168)
- DeMarcco Hellams - Alabama (195)
- Rashad Torrence II - Florida (196)
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