- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 424,997
- Reaction score
- 43
With the seventh pick of the inaugural NFL draft in 1936, the Green Bay Packers selected Russ Letlow, who went on to make two Pro Bowls and play seven NFL seasons. Nearly 90 years later, the draft remains the engine that drives the NFL, and the Packers have become one of the most-storied organizations in pro sports thanks to many draft success stories.
For the first time, the draft will come to Green Bay, starting April 24. Any team's draft history is littered with “hits,” “busts” and a wide range in between, but here's a rough outline of Packers lore, as told through the draft.
In the earliest days of the draft, Curly Lambeau became one of the early adopters of developing connections with college coaches, and Packers historian Cliff Christl wrote how connections to Notre Dame enabled him to identify talent such as Brock (from Nebraska) and Larry Craig (from South Carolina).
They were key contributors to Lambeau's team winning the 1939 NFL title. Brock played extensively as a rookie on both sides of the ball (as a linebacker and center). He intercepted eight passes in 1939 and then two more in the NFL championship game, hosted in West Allis, when the Packers defeated the Giants 27-0.
By the end of his career nine years later, he'd been to three Pro Bowls and been part of two Associated Press All-Pro teams. He also had two NFL titles to his name, and though he hasn't been selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he helped form the backbone of Lambeau's best teams.
If not for Tom Brady, he'd be regarded as the greatest draft-day steal in NFL history.
Starr wasn't the most naturally gifted quarterback. He entered the league as a backup for nearly four full seasons before earning the full-time gig. He was the Packers' third-string quarterback at one point, then got benched early in 1960. It could not have been obvious that he'd lead the Packers to NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, then in his 30s lead the Packers to championships in 1965, 1966 and 1967, with Super Bowl MVP honors in the latter two seasons. He was the league's MVP in 1966, as well, and he became synonymous with the rise of Titletown in Green Bay. All told, Starr played 16 seasons with the Packers, won five titles, made the Hall of Fame and even went on to coach the Packers for nine seasons from 1975-83 (a tenure perhaps less memorable).
In theory, he became a Packer because the franchise's luck was … not very good?
Only once have the Green Bay Packers drafted a player first overall, the result of a rotating “bonus choice” system instituted in 1947. The league would draw one of the teams out of a hat and award them the No. 1 overall pick. But no team got the honor twice, so by the time the practice ended after 1958 (pushed along by Congress intervention frowning upon the idea of a “lottery”), each of the 12 teams had gotten a shot once. The Packers were one of the last to go.
They didn't waste the honor, selecting Notre Dame star Hornung, a multi-dimensional player who would eventually land in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Only one other “bonus pick,” Chuck Bednarik of the Eagles (1949), wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Packers also drafted Ron Kramer with their normal first-round pick in 1957, and he's a Packers Hall of Famer who played in 128 games.
We'll keep this to one pick, but in reality, the entire 1958 draft deserves a place of its own.
In his final draft working for the Packers, head coach Lisle Blackbourn went on an unbelievable run, drafting a quality linebacker No. 3 overall in Don Currie, then selecting three Hall of Famers in his next three rounds, with Jim Taylor (No. 15, second round), Nitschke (No. 36, third round) and Jerry Kramer (No. 39, fourth round) taken out of LSU, Illinois and Idaho, respectively.
Only the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers have drafted more Hall of Famers in one draft, with four. Two other teams (1957 Browns and 1964 Cowboys) have drafted three. Ironically, one of the Browns picks that year was Henry Jordan, who spent the bulk of his career with Green Bay.
With personnel director Jack Vainisi helping to drive the boat, Blackbourn finished his career on a multi-year run that included the selection of Hall of Famers in 1956 (Forrest Gregg, Starr), 1957 (Hornung) and 1958, but in a cruel twist, he was fired before he got to coach the 1958 Packers. Two years later, the Packers hired Vince Lombardi; Blackbourn later came back to the organization as a scout.
Nitschke, of course, became the face of the Packers' Lombardi defense. Taylor carried the load on offense and Kramer threw the block in the Ice Bowl that allowed Starr to score one of the greatest touchdowns in NFL history.
The Packers have had a lot of draft hits, but also some major misses.
Clark, a defensive tackle from Penn State, became the No. 4 overall choice but never suited up for the Packers. He had expressed reservations about playing for the Packers, specifically their desire to play him as a nose tackle (he preferred linebacker), though he seemed game when the Packers introduced him at a news conference following the draft. But then he signed with Toronto of the Canadian Football League, leaving Green Bay empty handed.
He played in the NFL two years later and wound up spending eight seasons with the Saints and Chiefs, but never the Packers. It was the type of misfire that set the table for a very long 1980s; the team's only playoff appearances between the 1967 Super Bowl triumph and the Brett Favre era came in 1972 and a strike-shortened 1982 season.
The selection of Campbell, a quarterback out of Cal, with the No. 6 overall pick in 1981 made things worse, and not just because he didn't pan out with the Packers.
Campbell wound up playing only seven NFL games, with zero starts. He'd had some injuries late in his college career and a unique throwing motion, and he never developed as an heir apparent to Lynn Dickey.
Making matters worse was that Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott was selected just two picks later by the 49ers. The Packers, who were considering Lott, had also passed on Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana two years earlier, ignoring the pleas of Midwest scout Red Cochran.
The Packers wouldn't select a quarterback in the first round again until 2005, when they took another player out of Cal.
The 49ers, with Montana and Lott at the forefront, became a late-80s and early-90s empire. The Packers … were not.
But in the canon of draft busts, nothing compares to Mandarich, the offensive lineman out of Michigan State who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “The Incredible Bulk.” After his four-year career in Green Bay ended unceremoniously, Sports Illustrated delivered the sequel cover: “The Incredible Bust.”
Mandarich's journey is complicated. He has admitted to rampant steroid use during his time at Michigan State, but his play declined when he quit the regimen in the pros. He developed an addiction to painkillers, entered rehab, and salvaged a short career with the Indianapolis Colts before a shoulder injury.
The degree of setback for the Packers developed over time. In taking Mandarich second overall, Green Bay passed on three consecutive Hall of Famers taken with the next three picks: Detroit's Barry Sanders, Kansas City's Derrick Thomas and Atlanta's Deion Sanders. Coupled with first overall choice Troy Aikman, the drafted yielded four Hall of Famers in the first five picks.
First-year general manager Ted Thompson found himself facing a wild choice as Rodgers continued to wait in the green room. Would the Packers really select a quarterback at No. 24 if someone of Rodgers' caliber was available, even with a future Hall of Famer (Brett Favre) still playing at a high level?
The answer, of course, was yes. The highly publicized stumble of Rodgers, regarded as a potential No. 1 overall pick, gave the Packers a quarterback who would go on to win a Super Bowl and four MVP trophies, even if he was still a few years away from succeeding Favre. It set the stage for a highly successful era of Packers football.
The selection also caused a brewing fracture with Favre, who naturally wasn't thrilled to see the team use such precious resources on his replacement. History has a funny way of repeating …
But first, we move from Thompson's first draft to his last and a decision that still haunts Wisconsin football fans.With the Packers in possession of the No. 29 pick, fans eagerly hoped University of Wisconsin linebacker T.J. Watt would still be on the board when Green Bay made its choice. Instead, the Packers traded the pick to Cleveland (who selected tight end David Njoku), and Watt immediately went at No. 30 to Pittsburgh. The Packers first pick of the draft then came the next day, at No. 33 in the first pick of the second round, when they drafted Washington cornerback Kevin King.
Pete Dougherty: Do any wide receivers fit the bill as a Packers first-round draft pick?
It's not King's fault that disappointed Wisconsin fans believed, even in the moment, that Green Bay had bypassed an opportunity to keep a local boy at home. It's also not his fault that Watt went on to have a Hall of Fame career, making the Pro Bowl in seven of his eight seasons thus far, five All-Pro teams (four first-team choices) and five top-five finishes in the defensive player of the year voting (one win).
But especially in King's injury-shortened career, when he was limited to just 51 games over five seasons with the Packers, he became the point of fixation for Packers fans who still couldn't believe the Packers would make that call.
The Brian Gutekunst general manager era began in 2018, and he hit home runs with picks like Jaire Alexander and Rashan Gary. But he took his biggest swing yet in 2020.
Just as 15 years earlier, the Packers made the surprising choice to take a quarterback, this time Love out of Utah State. This time around, the team traded up to make it happen, putting Rodgers in the role of Favre: Why not an offensive weapon instead of his eventual replacement? Just as last time, the decision caused enmity between the legendary quarterback and the team.
Rodgers, perhaps galvanized, went on to have MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021, making the Packers' decision to move on all the more difficult. After he re-signed and endured an uneven 2022 season, Rodgers moved on to the Jets and Love was given the opportunity to step in.
This part of the story remains unwritten. Love was excellent as a first-year starter, leading the Packers to a second-half surge and a convincing first-round playoff win over Dallas. Even with injuries in 2024, Love showed the Packers made the right call in anointing him as the successor. Whether history fully repeats and Love becomes an NFL superstar remains up in the air.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The history of the Green Bay Packers in 10 NFL draft picks
Continue reading...
For the first time, the draft will come to Green Bay, starting April 24. Any team's draft history is littered with “hits,” “busts” and a wide range in between, but here's a rough outline of Packers lore, as told through the draft.
You must be registered for see images attach
Charley Brock (second round, 1939)
In the earliest days of the draft, Curly Lambeau became one of the early adopters of developing connections with college coaches, and Packers historian Cliff Christl wrote how connections to Notre Dame enabled him to identify talent such as Brock (from Nebraska) and Larry Craig (from South Carolina).
They were key contributors to Lambeau's team winning the 1939 NFL title. Brock played extensively as a rookie on both sides of the ball (as a linebacker and center). He intercepted eight passes in 1939 and then two more in the NFL championship game, hosted in West Allis, when the Packers defeated the Giants 27-0.
By the end of his career nine years later, he'd been to three Pro Bowls and been part of two Associated Press All-Pro teams. He also had two NFL titles to his name, and though he hasn't been selected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he helped form the backbone of Lambeau's best teams.
You must be registered for see images attach
Bart Starr (17th round, 1956)
If not for Tom Brady, he'd be regarded as the greatest draft-day steal in NFL history.
Starr wasn't the most naturally gifted quarterback. He entered the league as a backup for nearly four full seasons before earning the full-time gig. He was the Packers' third-string quarterback at one point, then got benched early in 1960. It could not have been obvious that he'd lead the Packers to NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, then in his 30s lead the Packers to championships in 1965, 1966 and 1967, with Super Bowl MVP honors in the latter two seasons. He was the league's MVP in 1966, as well, and he became synonymous with the rise of Titletown in Green Bay. All told, Starr played 16 seasons with the Packers, won five titles, made the Hall of Fame and even went on to coach the Packers for nine seasons from 1975-83 (a tenure perhaps less memorable).
You must be registered for see images attach
Paul Hornung (1st round, 1957)
In theory, he became a Packer because the franchise's luck was … not very good?
Only once have the Green Bay Packers drafted a player first overall, the result of a rotating “bonus choice” system instituted in 1947. The league would draw one of the teams out of a hat and award them the No. 1 overall pick. But no team got the honor twice, so by the time the practice ended after 1958 (pushed along by Congress intervention frowning upon the idea of a “lottery”), each of the 12 teams had gotten a shot once. The Packers were one of the last to go.
They didn't waste the honor, selecting Notre Dame star Hornung, a multi-dimensional player who would eventually land in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Only one other “bonus pick,” Chuck Bednarik of the Eagles (1949), wound up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Packers also drafted Ron Kramer with their normal first-round pick in 1957, and he's a Packers Hall of Famer who played in 128 games.
You must be registered for see images attach
Ray Nitschke (third round, 1958)
We'll keep this to one pick, but in reality, the entire 1958 draft deserves a place of its own.
In his final draft working for the Packers, head coach Lisle Blackbourn went on an unbelievable run, drafting a quality linebacker No. 3 overall in Don Currie, then selecting three Hall of Famers in his next three rounds, with Jim Taylor (No. 15, second round), Nitschke (No. 36, third round) and Jerry Kramer (No. 39, fourth round) taken out of LSU, Illinois and Idaho, respectively.
Only the 1974 Pittsburgh Steelers have drafted more Hall of Famers in one draft, with four. Two other teams (1957 Browns and 1964 Cowboys) have drafted three. Ironically, one of the Browns picks that year was Henry Jordan, who spent the bulk of his career with Green Bay.
With personnel director Jack Vainisi helping to drive the boat, Blackbourn finished his career on a multi-year run that included the selection of Hall of Famers in 1956 (Forrest Gregg, Starr), 1957 (Hornung) and 1958, but in a cruel twist, he was fired before he got to coach the 1958 Packers. Two years later, the Packers hired Vince Lombardi; Blackbourn later came back to the organization as a scout.
Nitschke, of course, became the face of the Packers' Lombardi defense. Taylor carried the load on offense and Kramer threw the block in the Ice Bowl that allowed Starr to score one of the greatest touchdowns in NFL history.
You must be registered for see images attach
Bruce Clark (first round, 1980)
The Packers have had a lot of draft hits, but also some major misses.
Clark, a defensive tackle from Penn State, became the No. 4 overall choice but never suited up for the Packers. He had expressed reservations about playing for the Packers, specifically their desire to play him as a nose tackle (he preferred linebacker), though he seemed game when the Packers introduced him at a news conference following the draft. But then he signed with Toronto of the Canadian Football League, leaving Green Bay empty handed.
He played in the NFL two years later and wound up spending eight seasons with the Saints and Chiefs, but never the Packers. It was the type of misfire that set the table for a very long 1980s; the team's only playoff appearances between the 1967 Super Bowl triumph and the Brett Favre era came in 1972 and a strike-shortened 1982 season.
You must be registered for see images attach
Rich Campbell (first round, 1981)
The selection of Campbell, a quarterback out of Cal, with the No. 6 overall pick in 1981 made things worse, and not just because he didn't pan out with the Packers.
Campbell wound up playing only seven NFL games, with zero starts. He'd had some injuries late in his college career and a unique throwing motion, and he never developed as an heir apparent to Lynn Dickey.
Making matters worse was that Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott was selected just two picks later by the 49ers. The Packers, who were considering Lott, had also passed on Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana two years earlier, ignoring the pleas of Midwest scout Red Cochran.
The Packers wouldn't select a quarterback in the first round again until 2005, when they took another player out of Cal.
The 49ers, with Montana and Lott at the forefront, became a late-80s and early-90s empire. The Packers … were not.
Tony Mandarich (first round, 1989)
But in the canon of draft busts, nothing compares to Mandarich, the offensive lineman out of Michigan State who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “The Incredible Bulk.” After his four-year career in Green Bay ended unceremoniously, Sports Illustrated delivered the sequel cover: “The Incredible Bust.”
Mandarich's journey is complicated. He has admitted to rampant steroid use during his time at Michigan State, but his play declined when he quit the regimen in the pros. He developed an addiction to painkillers, entered rehab, and salvaged a short career with the Indianapolis Colts before a shoulder injury.
The degree of setback for the Packers developed over time. In taking Mandarich second overall, Green Bay passed on three consecutive Hall of Famers taken with the next three picks: Detroit's Barry Sanders, Kansas City's Derrick Thomas and Atlanta's Deion Sanders. Coupled with first overall choice Troy Aikman, the drafted yielded four Hall of Famers in the first five picks.
Aaron Rodgers (first round, 2005)
First-year general manager Ted Thompson found himself facing a wild choice as Rodgers continued to wait in the green room. Would the Packers really select a quarterback at No. 24 if someone of Rodgers' caliber was available, even with a future Hall of Famer (Brett Favre) still playing at a high level?
The answer, of course, was yes. The highly publicized stumble of Rodgers, regarded as a potential No. 1 overall pick, gave the Packers a quarterback who would go on to win a Super Bowl and four MVP trophies, even if he was still a few years away from succeeding Favre. It set the stage for a highly successful era of Packers football.
The selection also caused a brewing fracture with Favre, who naturally wasn't thrilled to see the team use such precious resources on his replacement. History has a funny way of repeating …
You must be registered for see images attach
Kevin King (second round, 2017)
But first, we move from Thompson's first draft to his last and a decision that still haunts Wisconsin football fans.With the Packers in possession of the No. 29 pick, fans eagerly hoped University of Wisconsin linebacker T.J. Watt would still be on the board when Green Bay made its choice. Instead, the Packers traded the pick to Cleveland (who selected tight end David Njoku), and Watt immediately went at No. 30 to Pittsburgh. The Packers first pick of the draft then came the next day, at No. 33 in the first pick of the second round, when they drafted Washington cornerback Kevin King.
Pete Dougherty: Do any wide receivers fit the bill as a Packers first-round draft pick?
It's not King's fault that disappointed Wisconsin fans believed, even in the moment, that Green Bay had bypassed an opportunity to keep a local boy at home. It's also not his fault that Watt went on to have a Hall of Fame career, making the Pro Bowl in seven of his eight seasons thus far, five All-Pro teams (four first-team choices) and five top-five finishes in the defensive player of the year voting (one win).
But especially in King's injury-shortened career, when he was limited to just 51 games over five seasons with the Packers, he became the point of fixation for Packers fans who still couldn't believe the Packers would make that call.
You must be registered for see images attach
Jordan Love (first round, 2020)
The Brian Gutekunst general manager era began in 2018, and he hit home runs with picks like Jaire Alexander and Rashan Gary. But he took his biggest swing yet in 2020.
Just as 15 years earlier, the Packers made the surprising choice to take a quarterback, this time Love out of Utah State. This time around, the team traded up to make it happen, putting Rodgers in the role of Favre: Why not an offensive weapon instead of his eventual replacement? Just as last time, the decision caused enmity between the legendary quarterback and the team.
Rodgers, perhaps galvanized, went on to have MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021, making the Packers' decision to move on all the more difficult. After he re-signed and endured an uneven 2022 season, Rodgers moved on to the Jets and Love was given the opportunity to step in.
This part of the story remains unwritten. Love was excellent as a first-year starter, leading the Packers to a second-half surge and a convincing first-round playoff win over Dallas. Even with injuries in 2024, Love showed the Packers made the right call in anointing him as the successor. Whether history fully repeats and Love becomes an NFL superstar remains up in the air.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The history of the Green Bay Packers in 10 NFL draft picks
Continue reading...
