Why do the Packers seem to be blind to Badger football players when they are so close to Green Bay.

They would love to have Russell Wilson on their roster today.

Well i'm sure they know about these guy's, it's just a matter of if they want to draft a guy from Wisconsin if the guy from Georgia Tech is better at the position of need. For example ...say we have a guy like Nick Toon vs a guy like Stephen Hill. As a gm you know that when you evaluate stephen hill he is not only a better athlete but a better pro prospect than Nick Toon as well so of course you are going to go with the better prospect no matter what school they are from. I get your point tho, i'm sure if they knew Graham Harell would look as bad as he does they would have took a harder look at drafting a qb earlier.

I personally think the Packers should have first right of refusal for any Badger entering the draft.

The packers always have a visible presence at their pro day. I wouldn't be so quick to judge anything before the season starts though.

It's weird that we don't have any badgers on our team but have plenty of OSU guys, but honestly I'd much rather they took everything out of the equation apart from "who can help us win". Better to win with whoever than lose with badger guys.

That's because us guy's from OSU are studs haha.

Maybe next season...(Montee Ball)

lol well let's hope we're not picking that high as i project Ball to go in the top 5

I have a hard time seeing ball as a top 10 pick. And wasting a first round pick on a RB? Uhhh please no.

I don't envision the Packers picking much higher than 25, so Ball likely is not an option. However, I wouldn't think TT was crazy if he spent our 1st pick on a RB that could contribute in 2-3 years. I know that everyone always expects 1st round picks to perform right away, but you don't have to let the fans run the team.

I agree with the majority that GB does its diligence and picks the best players to fit the greatest needs. I'm sure that we'd love to have Carimi and Watt on the team, but you just can't reach for players out of your draft position. When it's your turn to pick you'd better be right. If you move up in the draft or trade down you'd better be extra right, or the fans and media will especially crucify you.

JJ WATT would look damn good in green & gold!!
I am not a Baidger fan by the way.

I thought Wilson looked pretty smooth out there last night for the Seahawks.
Trapped

Why are people from Wisconsin so sure that Badgers players are so much better than every other college player (rhetorical) and If they are so great doesn't it make sense that they would be gone before the Packers get a shot at them?

I have Ball as late 1 or early 2. He occasionally runs a bit upright (which leads to injuries) and doesn't have real burn out speed, but does seem to be a match for our system. Just out of curiosity, what position would you draft first? Our most glaring needs (in reference to starters) at the moment are S (Nickel/Dime), C (after Saturday leaves), and RB. C can be addressed in the later rounds. S is a feasible option, but the young safeties may end up surprising us. The only other position I could see us taking in the first besides RB and maybe S is WR and then only if Jennings and Driver leave and the possible #6 man is a complete disappointment. DL is always in vogue though and we could use someone else to back Raji in our 3-4 (plug for NT but back-ups can go later)

I don't have any reason to believe the Packers avoid selecting Badgers in the draft. I think it was Starr as GM who said he avoided Badgers because of they would experience extra pressure staying in-state.

As to Wilson, IMO it would have been a mistake for Thompson to select a backup QB in the first half of the draft unless he was the only player in a higher talent tier when the Packers picked. IMO it's too early to go out of their way to spend a high pick on Rodgers' successor. If Wilson had ended up in Green Bay, he likely would have found greener pastures as Flynn did before Rodgers was ready to retire.

Regarding that particular draft, Wilson was selected at #75 in the third round. The Packers went into the draft with picks #28, #59, and #90. Thompson traded up from #59 to #51 to get Worthy and from #90 to #62 to get Hayward. I suppose he could have hung on to pick #90 and waited until the beginning of the third round and traded up to get Wilson but again, I just don't think that would have made any sense at this point in time.

Thompson would have only had to jump up a few spots in the first round to grab Carimi. Depending on how far up he went that may have cost the pick used to select Cobb, Green, or House. The Bears are in need of someone to take over the LT spot and Carimi is being used exclusively at RT. Of course at the time of that draft, the Packers already had Bulaga.

Russell Wilson is still a NC State Wolfpack guy to me! His one year sabbatical to Wisconsin won't change that. ;-)

I thought this was the best Packer draft in a long time although Russell Wilson would look good in green and gold today.

He does run upright, isnt fast, and isnt big enough to take an NFL pounding. White his back up might have a better nfl career as crazy as that sounds. Only due to his speed though.

Its too early for me to focus on a position but I dont like drafting WRs or offensive linemen in the first unless its late, but yeah mostly secondary. D line would be nice, a great D tackle can do wonders for a MLBs career (Ray Lewis, Singletary, Lambert, ect). I wouldnt mind another TE if an elite one is available.

TE is a good option, I hadn thought about that one.

Next draft will be safety, maybe oline, maybe linebacker. No need to spend on a running back whose main job is 20% to get yards when the defense is looking pass and 80% to read and block blitzes.

Really? We have excellent depth at LB, why would we draft another? This confuses me, please explain.

Well, for one I'm not convinced that we have "excellent depth", as we haven't seen how Smith holds up over a whole season and aren't sure who Hawk's backup will be. For another thing, if we look at, say, the 49ers who have Navarro owman and Patrick Willis in the middle, we certainly have room for improvement.

I would also love to have Worthy or Casey Heyward, our potential starting rookie corner. Sometimes, you have to draft for needs. We needed a ton of help on defense. We aren't going to draft a quarterback, that we don't need, in the 2nd or 3rd round. Look at Matt Flynn. We got him in the 7th round. We can't go and draft someone like Wilson (Who I love) just because he is from the Badgers.

how about any of the stud Wisconsin linemen to help our woeful line depth.

but JJ Watt would be nice

Ok which one and how would we acquire said player?

JJ watt... Ok so we were picking at 32... We want to move to 10th or 11th to select JJ Watt ... That would have required us at a minimum to trade our first 3 picks.