On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers are finally back in the win column with a victory over Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams. Not only did the Packers finally break their streak of losing on Daylight Savings Time weekend, but we finally saw the type of progress we’d like to see from this young team.
Make no mistake, this victory was still flush with mistakes. Too often did they try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But we saw elevated by the play of the 2023 draft class — especially on defense, where Green Bay’s latest draft class shouldered the victory.
While Lukas Van Ness, Carrington Valentine, Colby Wooden, and Anthony Johnson Jr. all stood out, Karl Brooks particularly jumped off the screen for me. The Bowling Green State University legend keeps making plays week after week, but he’s an anomaly as far as Green Bay’s drafting philosophy is concerned. Instead of being an athletic monster who needed some refinement, Brooks is a ready-made wrecking machine whose dominance in the Mid-American Conference has him making an immediate impact.
The Packers certainly have a type when it comes to the draft. As former general manager Ted Thompson put it, the good lord only made so many athletic big men. The Packers have pretty strict standards for size in many positions, and they’ll generally go for high athletic measurements. While the team has their own metrics, for us, that means they tend to go for high Relative Athletic Scores. Traditionally, the team also likes Power Five team prospects. However, they’ve gone for smaller-school prospects in the early rounds recently.
Generally, Green Bay’s biggest draft busts fall outside their athletic preferences. Recent examples from the first three rounds include Jace Sternberger (5.18), Amari Rodgers (5.37), and Josiah Deguara (6.66). RAS doesn’t guarantee a player will be good. But the Packers generally believe that you can’t teach athletic ability, but they can make gifted athletes into stars.
Rashan Gary‘s selection in 2019 is a perfect example. Gary’s 9.95 score is otherworldly, but his college production didn’t match his athleticism. Still, Brian Gutekunst chose Gary over “Day 1 ready” edge rushers, focusing on Gary’s potential ceiling. That selection has paid off handsomely. Gary is now one of the best pass-rushers in the league.
In Green Bay’s 2023 draft class, nine of their 13 selections have an RAS over 8.0, and seven of those are over 9.0. That’s a very athletic class by this metric.
Yet the member of the class with the lowest score constantly caught my eye. Brooks has a modest 5.87 score, yet the BGSU product looks like a ready-made defender and is making splash plays on a weekly basis.
Brooks impressed draft analysts thanks to being a titan in the MAC. He wasn’t just one of the conference’s better defenders — he was an absolute monster. His game tape showed a defender ready to challenge at the next level.
“The tape still is the tape,” director of player personnel Milt Hendrickson said following Brooks’ selection. “What he was able to display, even against the knock, there’s something you turn on the tape, and he’s a man amongst boys.”
Yes, expectations generally aren’t going to be sky-high for a Day 3 interior defender expected to play a rotational role, so any progress is a good thing. But Brooks has played 202 defensive snaps, good for 37.06%. The rookie is playing over a third of defensive snaps and doing a lot with them.
On the season, Brooks has four passes defended, two sacks, seven solo tackles, three tackles for loss, and two QB hits, according to pro-football-reference.
Some of Brooks’ best plays won’t show up on the stat sheet, like the one below.
Brooks was a terror on Sunday. Despite PFF giving him a low score (55.3), he was constantly making impact plays, like the one above or when he knocked down Brett Rypien‘s passes. Brooks made good plays against the run despite that not being his strength. Brooks is at his best as a pass-rush specialist but has held up better than expected against the run.
Through the midway point of the season, Brooks looks like a valuable rotational piece for the Packers. It’s a small sample size, but it’s a good one.
Will this entice the Packers to be more aggressive in finding players outside their usual metrics? As mentioned, their picks tend to bust when they go outside of these metrics. Yet there is value in getting a player ready to actually contribute while on their rookie contract. Green Bay has molded some gifted pieces of clay into star players. But that process takes time and often doesn’t come to fruition until those cheap rookie years are almost over.
Green Bay’s draft philosophies have mostly had good results. But this team could use a more varied approach to roster building. Bringing in more ready-to-compete players who might not have the most eye-popping athletic numbers is a way to ensure that important roles are filled now.
As an admittedly biased BGSU alumnus, I loved the Brooks selection. If you’ve ever had a Pollyeyes breadstick or a Brathaus legal joint drink, you’d be thrilled to see someone representing the small-town university in the league leagues. And Brooks is certainly making himself a name to watch this season.
