Paul Bretl | 4/27/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — NFL teams aren’t going to bank on their seventh-round selections being starters at key positions one day. However, the Packers have two examples on their current roster of how a prospect’s draft status can take a back seat when a team brings in a player who is the right fit for what they want to accomplish on and off the field.
Rasheed Walker, the 249th overall pick in 2022, has started 32 games at left tackle for the Packers over the last two seasons. Then there is Carrington Valentine, the 232nd overall pick in 2023, who has appeared in 32 games over the last two years, which includes 19 starts at cornerback.
Tulane cornerback Micah Robinson, the 237th pick overall in this year’s draft, and Cincinnati offensive tackle John Williams, the 250th overall pick, begin their journey in Green Bay and hope to find themselves on similar paths as Walker and Valentine.
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“I am familiar,” said Williams about Walker’s path. “That was one thing I really loved about Green Bay was how they like to develop players. That was a big thing for me when I visited.”
At just under 5-11 and weighing 183 pounds, Robinson doesn’t have the size and length that we often see from Packers’ cornerbacks. But as GM Brian Gutekunst described after the NFL draft, Robinson’s footwork, ability to play off-man coverage, and his speed–he ran a 4.38–is why the Packers were comfortable selecting him.
“He’s got great feet, he can play off-man coverage, which is one of the harder things to do,” Gutekunst said. “He took up a step from Furman to Tulane, and really played really, really well in his first season there. So I think as he gets more reps against really better competition, I think he’s going ot continue to improve. He doesn’t have elite size, but I thought his speed and his ability as an athlete to stay with guys, particularly from playing off coverage which is so hard, and he’s got great ball skills.”
Robinson spent his first four college seasons playing at the FCS level with Furman. He then transferred to Tulane for the 2024 season. Now up against FBS competition, Robinson had a career year in many respects. According to PFF, he allowed a completion rate of just 47% on 47 targets and held opponents to a modest 11.5 yards per catch lining up on the boundary.
Throughout his career, he’s had strong ball production as well, with seven interceptions and 15 pass breakups over the last three years.
“I can play any position,” Robinson said on a conference call. “I can play nickel. I can play corner. I can play safety as well as special teams. I’m physical at the line of scrimmage. I feel good playing off-man coverage. I also come up and I travel, I’ll hit.”
Robinson may end up having as good of a chance as any seventh-round pick to make the 53-man roster in Green Bay. At cornerback, there is the uncertainty around Jaire Alexander’s future, and then on the depth chart beyond Valentine, Nate Hobbs, and Keisean Nixon, there is almost no NFL experience.
Williams, meanwhile, comes to Green Bay after starting at left tackle for Cincinnati the last two seasons. From Year 1 to Year 2 as a starter, Williams made massive strides. He went from allowing 14 pressures and two sacks in 2023 to just eight pressures and one sack in 2024. In fact, among all FBS tackles, Williams finished last season ranked fifth in pass-blocking efficiency.
“I think my pass protection has grown an immeasurable amount in these last–honestly in just this last year,” Williams said. “If you just watch the tape from 2023 to 2024 it’s like a completely different player, and I think that’s really what’s going to translate. Our O-line coach Nic Cardwell has done such a great job implementing an NFL style system for all of our pass protections and it’s just paid off in, I don’t even know how to describe how much.”
Williams measured in at 6-4 and weighed 322 pounds. All of his snaps at the college level have come at the tackle position, but not surprisingly, the Packers believe he has the skill set–and intelligence as an Aerospace engineering major–to move inside to play guard.
“He’s got great length, exceptionally bright,” said Gutekunst of Williams. “Really, really, really smart. He’s got the versatility to play left tackle and guard. He probably could play center because he’s smart enough to, he’s one of the few guys who can really play with full extension with his hands, and is moving his feet at the same time.
“We were down there in the seventh round, and it’s unusual for a guy who can tackle and guard, play four spots for you, to be down there at that spot.”
Adding Williams to the mix along the Packers’ offensive line will improve the depth of this unit, something that was needed after what we saw in Green Bay’s playoff loss to Philadelphia. As Gutekunst has mentioned, you never want to overreact to one game, but the data also tells us that having seven-plus offensive linemen that can be counted on is a near necessity.
Williams’ presence in 2025 can raise the level of competition on the middle to back-end portion of the Packers’ offensive line depth chart, and have them better prepared for 2026, when Walker, Sean Rhyan, and Zach Tom are all set to be free agents.