2025 NFL combine: One draft-specific question for each Packers position on offense

Paul Bretl | 2/25/2024

GREEN BAY, Wis. — With the 2025 NFL Combine beginning this week, let’s take a look ahead to the NFL draft in April with one big draft-specific question that faces each Packers’ position group on the offensive side of the football.

The Packers will enter the 2025 NFL draft with eight selections–seven plus an additional compensatory draft pick. As GM Brian Gutekunst said after the season, it’s time for the Packers to start competing for championships, and with that, needs to come a heightened sense of urgency throughout the team.

Of course, the draft-specific questions being asked right now could change depending on how free agency plays out for the Packers. But these are the big unknowns, given where things currently stand.

Quarterback: Will Gutekunst take a late-round swing at this position?

Quarterback certainly isn’t a need for the Packers. The team, of course, has Jordan Love, along with Malik Willis still under contract for the 2025 season, and Sean Clifford back as well. But with stability at this position, Gutekunst said during last year’s NFL combine that he wants to get back to “drafting multiple quarterbacks.”

A late-round addition could create competition for that third quarterback role with Clifford–something we’ve seen Gutekunst cultivate for several seasons now, constantly churning that final spot on the depth chart. In 2021, it was Kurt Benkert. In 2022, it was Danny Etling, followed by Alex McGough in 2023, and then Clifford last year.

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Also, as we look ahead to 2026–which the draft is about–Willis is a free agent and, I would guess, playing elsewhere, leaving the backup quarterback job at that point potentially up for grabs. If the Packers want to get a jump start on having an answer there, then bringing in competition for Clifford and providing the time to continue to develop into that role may be the prudent move.

The trickle-down from an addition here is that then puts four quarterbacks on the offseason roster, and as Matt LaFleur has pointed out previously, getting that many quarterbacks the required reps over the summer can become difficult. So, do the Packers attempt to push Clifford with competition or continue to invest into him and give him another year to develop on the practice squad?

Running back: Will the depth be too good to ignore?

With Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd, Emanuel Wilson, and Chris Brooks all returning for the 2025 season, running back certainly isn’t a big need for the Packers. However, will the depth of this year’s draft class be too much for Gutekunst to ignore?

ESPN draft analyst Jordan Reid recently mentioned that he had a whopping 33 running backs with draftable grades. And with that much talent comes a variety of skill sets to choose from, giving Green Bay the ability to find what they exactly need for their offense.

The addition of a running back to the current room would create a logjam with three players–Brooks, Wilson, and the incoming rookie–competing for one roster spot come cutdown time. With that said, competition has been a catalyst in recent years for this Packers team, and while Brooks and Wilson proved to be quality contributors last season, neither has solidified themselves as a long-term option quite yet.

Particularly as the draft goes deeper into Day 3, you can never rule out a team taking the best player on the board, which very well could be a running back, given the depth of this year’s class. However, if there’s one position the Packers don’t need to add to, it’s this one.

“Luckily for us, we do have confidence in those other two backs,” LaFleur said of Brooks and Wilson after the Packers win over San Francisco last season.

Wide receiver: How aggressive do the Packers get here?

One of the difficult aspects of the Packers potentially searching for a true No. 1 target at receiver is that there just aren’t a lot of those players out there. And this year’s wide receiver class does not have the depth nor high-end talent of past years. SI’s Albert Breer recently wrote that the receiver group is “not what we’ve become accustomed to over the past decade.”

While there are certainly starters and solid contributors that can be found, but that isn’t exactly what the Packers need either. They have a depth chart full of those players, so adding another player of that caliber to the mix doesn’t necessarily move the needle for Green Bay like many hope an addition would.

“I think we’re certainly looking for these guys that we have currently to take a step into that role where they are more consistent on the down-down basis,” said Gutekunst after the season. “Certainly if there’s somebody outside of our building, whether it’s the draft, free agency, that makes some sense for us, we’ll certainly look to do that, but we’re also looking for these guys to continue to grow and hopefully grow into that space.”

Now, what the Packers do need is a vertical presence in Christian Watson’s absence. If defenses don’t respect the deep ball, they play closer to the line of scrimmage, which limits the amount of space to attack on short to intermediate routes and over the middle. With more players near the ball, that can also impact the run game as well.

That element, however, can often be found in the middle or even latter portions of the draft, again, potentially reducing the likelihood that we see the Packers spend a premium pick on this position.

Tight end: Is this a sneaky position the Packers add to?

Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave are still on their rookie deals for two more seasons. Green Bay also has Ben Sims under contract and I would anticipate that John FitzPatrick is brought back as a restricted free agent. So tight end isn’t exactly a pressing need.

However, I could see it being a sneaky, under-the-radar type of addition that Gutekunst makes, especially with this year’s tight end draft class being one of the deeper position groups.

The primary reason I mention this is that while I wouldn’t expect an early-round draft pick on a tight end, by any means, Sims’ and FitzPatrick’s blocking-heavy roles are upgradeable. I don’t consider it a given that they are roster locks if there is someone who could push them for playing time.

While PFF’s grading system is far from the be-all-end-all in terms of evaluation, for what it’s worth, Sims ranked 59th out of 84 tight ends in run-blocking grade and FitzPatrick often played just a few snaps per game. When it comes to featuring Tucker Kraft more prominently within the offense, the Packers need a stronger blocking presence on the roster to handle those duties if Kraft is going to have more pass-catching opportunities.

“For a lot of reasons,” said Matt LaFleur after the season when asked why Kraft wasn’t featured more in 2024. “It just depends, going back to who you’re playing. A lot of times, especially in known passing situations, we were trying to help certain spots and typically I would say it’s usually the tight ends and the backs who get a bunch of that (blocking) responsibility. That’s part of the reason.”

Offensive line: Not if, but rather, how many draft picks will Gutekunst invest into this group?

The need here is two-fold for the Packers. For one, continuing to add competition on the back-end of the depth chart should be a priority. While I’m sure the hope internally is that Jacob Monk, Kadeem Telfort, and Travis Glover all take big steps in 2025, there’s no guarantee that will happen either. And while, as Gutekunst said, you don’t want to overreact to one performance–particularly against a defensive front as good as the Eagles have–the Packers’ depth was exposed in the playoffs.

But in addition to that, there’s a lot of uncertainty around this unit in the near future. Not only this offseason is Josh Myers heading to free agency, potentially providing a shake-up along the Packers starting offensive line, but just one year from now, Sean Rhyan, Zach Tom, and Rasheed Walker are all set to be free agents as well.

I think we can agree Tom will get a new deal at some point, but other than that, three starters from the 2024 season could all be elsewhere by 2026.

Adding heavily to the offensive line has been in Gutekunst’s DNA already. In three of the last four drafts, he’s selected at least three offensive linemen, so doing so again wouldn’t be outside the norm for him. But while much of the attention is on the defensive line, I believe that the recipe is again there for the Packers to add somewhat heavily to the offensive line as well.

“We’re going to continue to lean on versatility,” said Gutekunst of the offensive line. “We’ve got three or four guys on our line that could probably play five spots, and that’s, I believe in that. I think every coach that I’ve been around believes in that and I think that’s an asset that we have that not all teams have.”

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