Surprises abound in the draft April 27, 2009
Posted by Ross - a.k.a. The Fat Man in : Good , 4comments
No surprise here with their top pick, Green Bay picks up B.J. Raji from Boston College. As we have discussed, Ryan Pickett was absent for most of last year and the need for a massive stuffer at nose tackle is absolutely necessary in the 3-4. Raji fits the bill. The most surprising part of this pick was not the fact that Raji was chosen, but that Thompson didn’t move down in the draft when there were surely offers to trade since Michael Crabtree was still available at this pick. More on this later. I love this pick and believe our defensive front is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
Clay Matthews wasn’t an overly surprising pick either except with the how and where. Ted Thompson made a shocking move to go UP in the draft for Matthews and paid a hefty price to get him. I wasn’t sure we weren’t looking at AJ Hawk with the hair and physique and maybe Ted wants to confuse offenses even more with the Hawk look-a-like. Who knows.
Walking away from this draft tells me something that I haven’t felt since the Ron Wolf era: we are ready to win NOW. The aggressiveness of the picks, the hiring of Capers and the apparent choice to say “we don’t need those rebuilding draft picks in rounds 2 and 3″ tells a lot to Packer fans. The Packers were 2 pieces away from being a superbowl contender.
Let’s hope this is true. Of course, the other thing TT is depending in is Justin Harrell….
