Brian Gutekunst wrapped up his first NFL draft as General Manager of the Green Bay Packers by taking a third wide receiver late in the sixth round and finally addressing the pass rush in the 7th along with an unprecedented draft choice.
With the 207th overall choice, the Packers selected Equanimeous St. Brown, the colorfully handled wide receiver from Notre Dame who will be re-united with his favorite college quarterback, DeShon Kizer.
As a sophomore with the Irish and with Kizer at quarterback, St. Brown pulled down 58 receptions for 961 yards and nine touchdowns, one of the best seasons ever for a sophomore wideout in South Bend. Kizer was then drafted by the Browns before getting traded this year to the Pack and the quarterback play at Notre Dame really suffered.
St. Brown finished last year with only 33 catches for 515 yards and four scores while starting all 13 games.
He’s a big target at 6-5 and 203 pounds, matching the size of the other two receivers selected earlier by Green Bay.
The first choice of the seventh round finally delivered a defensive pass rusher, James Looney from the university of California.
As you can see, he’s large, 6-3 and 280 pounds. He was the defensive MVP for the Cal defense in each of his last two seasons. He has an NFL pedigree with his brother Joe Looney a six year veteran who is currently with the Dallas Cowboys.
After transferring from Wake Forest, Looney started 35 games for the Bears registering 8 career sacks. He played both inside and outside on the defensive line and isn’t sure where he’ll fit in the Packer plans.
It was the middle pick in the final round that caught everyone by surprise. After drafting a punter, J.K. Scott of Alabama in the sixth round, Gutekunst picked a long snapper with the 239th overall choice. Yes, a long snapper, a position drafted by the Packers for the first time in franchise history.
Hunter Bradley arrives from Mississippi State where he handled the snapping chores without a glitch over the past two seasons.
In 2016, the Packers had a revolving door of snappers, Brett Goode, Derek Hart and Taybor Pepper and if there weren’t injuries, there were precarious snaps that proved costly at times.
Bradley was a walk on tight end with the Bulldogs but learned the snapping trade from his father, who performed the task at Delta State University. Bradley was beset by remarkably bad luck with torn ACL knee injuries before giving up his tight end dream and focusing on the family legacy:
I thought for sure the Packers might trade their final pick of the draft to move up and grab a holder, but Scott apparently did some of that with the Crimson Tide during his career.
Green Bay’s final choice was outside linebacker Kendall Donnerson from Southeast Missouri State. He’s 6-2, 248 pounds and put up 53 tackles with a half dozen sacks in his final season. Outside of the numbers provided by his school, don’t know much about him.
We’ll get a first hand look at the entire class of 2018 later this spring.
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Mark Daniels reporting from Lambeau Field
