BLOGGER VS. FAN
THE
THE
BRAZEN BLOGGER
FRUSTRATED FAN
By: JACOB WESTENDORF
By: JACKSON BAILEY
Let’s go back to April 2020. The world is in flux because of Covid-19. Sports have been on pause since the middle of March. Everything is uncertain.
I remember waking up in a great mood the morning of the 2020 NFL draft. There are so many great players projected in the late-first/early-second round that the Packers cannot possibly mess their pick up. All day, I’m working outside without a cloud in the sky, the sun is shining bright, and the smile on my face can’t be wrestled away. Little did I know, by the time the 26th pick happened, not enough sun in the world could pierce through the thickness of gloomy clouds the Packers front office had placed over Packer Nation.
We finally have a distraction: the NFL draft. The Green Bay Packers were set to pick near the end of the first round, with needs along the defensive front, at linebacker, and, of course, at wide receiver. The prevailing thought was that a team that was one game away from the Super Bowl the previous season would continue to add around its future Hall of Fame quarterback. Instead, Brian Gutekunst made his legacy pick: Jordan Love, quarterback from Utah State. Gutekunst talked all offseason about how the Packers would not pass on a potential franchise quarterback if they believed one was available. It was kind of his way of saying that there was one that they liked. We later found out the Packers did a lot of homework on Love. Matt LaFleur met with him and his former coaches. They wanted to know everything about the Utah State product. What I’m here to tell you is that the selection was a good one. Draft analysis always gets easier in hindsight. Aaron Rodgers responded to the Love selection by winning his third MVP award. That has led to even more gnashing of teeth over the pick. That being said, it’s impossible to view that pick through that lens. You can only view it through what information was available at that time. The reality that nobody wants to admit is that while Rodgers was able to put up some impressive numbers, most notably taking care of the ball, there was evidence that his play was slipping. If you look at December 2019, that is when Rodgers’ play looked to be hitting a bit of a wall. He started off with a bang with a four-touchdown performance in the Meadowlands against the New York Giants. From that point forward, his overall numbers looked OK, but his play did not match the box score.
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The 2019 Packers were good but not great. 13–3 is fine and dandy, but most of us were not sold on them being true contenders. However, if you don’t lose any key players and you improve a few positions, contenders now become the NFC favorites. Those positions were wide receiver, linebacker, and slot corner, or just about anything other than kicker, punter, and…you guessed it, quarterback. The Packers’ needs aligned with the top talent at that point in the draft. I was a fan of multiple receivers, including Tee Higgins, Laviska Shenault Jr., and Chase Claypool. There were also some drool-worthy defensive backs still available. Trevon Diggs was begging to be drafted, while Antoine Winfield Jr. might have been the biggest miss in the draft. Whether or not you think he would have helped the Packers, if they had drafted him, he wouldn’t have been on the other side to torture the offense in the NFCCG. But out of all players available, one that stuck with me was Patrick Queen. Queen was a linebacker who followed in Devin White’s footsteps at LSU. Most know White as the most dominant defensive player in this year’s playoffs, but what most don’t know is that Queen was statistically better in each of their final years at LSU and also better in their NFL rookie years. Queen had 106 total tackles to White’s 91 while also having more sacks and more tackles for loss. Instead of these options, Green Bay decided to draft a quarterback, even though they already have future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers. History shows that late-first-round quarterbacks don’t generally pan out. Here is the complete list of quarterbacks taken in the latter half of the first round (15th or later) since Aaron Rodgers was drafted: Jason Campbell, Brady Quinn, Joe Flacco, Josh Freeman, Tim Tebow, Brandon Weeden, EJ Manuel, Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, Paxton Lynch, Lamar Jackson, Dwayne
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