Packers' draft history includes Rodgers but also QB busts
BEST FIRST-ROUND DRAFT PICK: QB Aaron Rodgers. When the Cal star took a draft-day plunge in 2005, the Packers scooped him up with the 24th overall selection. The two-time MVP has led the Packers to one Super Bowl title and three other NFC championship game appearances. Rodgers seems a lock to join Paul Hornung (1957), Herb Adderley (1961), Dave Robinson (1963) and James Lofton (1978) as Packers first-round picks who reached the Hall of Fame.
BEST SECOND-ROUND PICK: OL Forrest Gregg. Vince Lombardi once described Gregg as “the finest player I ever coached.” The 1956 second-round pick from SMU and Hall of Famer played on six championship teams and was named All-Pro six times from 1960-67. He gets the slight edge over Jim Taylor, part of the Packers’ 1958 draft that featured three Hall of Famers (Taylor in the second round, Ray Nitschke in the third and Jerry Kramer in the fourth).
BEST LATE-ROUND PICK: QB Bart Starr. The 1956 17th-round pick from Alabama led the Packers to five NFL championships and was the MVP of the first two Super Bowls during a Hall of Fame career. He was the the league MVP in 1966.
WORST FIRST-ROUND PICK: OT Tony Mandarich. The No. 2 overall pick in 1989 from Michigan State made 63 NFL starts but didn’t play a game for the Packers after 1991. The three players taken immediately after him all made the Hall of Fame: Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders. QB Rich Campbell of Cal also merits attention as a No. 6 overall pick in 1981 who never started an NFL game. He was taken two picks before the 49ers selected Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott.
WORST SECOND-ROUND PICK: QB Brian Brohm. The former Louisville star got beaten out by seventh-round pick and fellow rookie Matt Flynn of LSU for the right to back up Brett Favre during the 2008 season. One year later, Brohm was cut. Brohm made two starts for Buffalo in 2009-10.
BEST DRAFT TRADE: The Packers traded a first-round pick (No. 19 overall) to the Atlanta Falcons in 1992 to acquire Favre, who had been selected in the second round a year earlier. Favre became a three-time MVP and Super Bowl champion in a Hall of Fame career. The Falcons used that pick on running back Tony Smith, who finished his career with 329 yards rushing — none after his rookie season.
WORST DRAFT TRADE: Green Bay traded two first-round picks, two second-round picks and one third-round selection to the Los Angeles Rams to acquire 34-year-old quarterback John Hadl in October 1974. Hadl threw 29 interceptions and nine touchdown passes during his Green Bay stint and made just 19 starts with the Packers.
DID YOU KNOW THEY ONCE DRAFTED?: QB Daryle Lamonica. The Packers selected Lamonica out of Notre Dame in the 12th round in 1963, but he went to the AFL’s Buffalo Bills instead and ended up facing Green Bay in the second Super Bowl as the Oakland Raiders’ starting quarterback.
LAST YEAR’S PICKS: (Round, Name, Position, School): 1st, Rashan Gary, LB, Michigan; 1st, Darnell Savage, S, Maryland; 2nd, OG Elgton Jenkins, Mississippi State; 3rd, Jace Sternberger, TE, Texas A&M; 5th, Kingsley Keke, DT, Texas A&M; 6th, Ka’dar Hollman, CB, Toledo; 6th, Dexter Williams, RB, Notre Dame; 7th, Ty Summers, LB, TCU.
