Creating the perfect Packers draft (within reason) for 2026

If things were to go perfectly, and they never do, what would a perfect draft for the Green Bay Packers look like this weekend?

The best laid plans of GMs and men often go awry. Or if if basterdizing Robert Burns is too much, we could always go with, “Every GM has a plan, until they punched by the draft.” I’m sure Mike Tyson won’t mind.

There is no perfect draft because we’re dealing with imperfect information and imperfect people making decisions. On Tuesday, Brian Gutekunst admitted draft needs often get factored into how the board is stacked “subconsciously,” but he tries to fight against that urge and take the best player available.

Imperfect. Also, likely inefficient. Needs should matter in the draft. As should historical hit rates, positional value, and consensus boards, because they all affect the likelihood of any one pick hitting or missing.

With all that in mind, let’s go through a mock draft that most closely approaches perfection, which we could also consider reasonable. For the latter, we’ll use the Wide Left Consensus Board as a rubric from which to work. I’ve created a modified version accounting for Packers history and types to help us.

Let’s start with some context for the second round, where I don’t think the Packers are going to find the value they’re looking for. Gutekunst said Tuesday he expects to “add numbers” at cornerback, calling it the team’s biggest need, but all the cornerbacks expected to go in the mid-second round are slot corners. This is a problem we’ve discussed multiple times this offseason.

And the defensive tackles potentially available have either a bad athletic profile (Lee Hunter), or no athletic profile (Christen Miller).

Last week, I laid out the case for why using premium draft capital for a receiver made sense in Green Bay, and this positional context piece can’t be ignored. Moreover, I think the Packers have an appetite to do it, as evidenced by their meetings with Tennessee receiver Chris Brazzell II and Georgia State’s Ted Hurst.