The Packers’ 2022 Draft class continues to pay dividends

Few roles in an NFL franchise draw as much criticism as the general manager, and few teams’ fan bases criticize the GM more than the Green Bay Packers. The expectations are high for this franchise and for its front office, and rightfully so, but one recent analysis shows that the Packers are the best-drafting team in the NFL in the last four years.

Yes, you read that correctly — no team in the NFL has extracted more value from draft picks from 2022 to 2025 than the Packers. The analysis looks at the approximate value metric from Pro Football Reference, which finds the Packers as getting the highest total value from their picks while finishing fourth in AV over expectation based on where players were drafted.

The time frame here is important to note. Players in these four classes likely have played their whole careers on rookie deals with the teams that drafted them. But most importantly, players drafted in the earliest season in that window — 2022 — have had the most opportunities to make an impact and push their AV up.

(Also, before we move on, let’s take a real quick moment to laugh really, really hard at the Minnesota Vikings. Okay. Good to go? Let’s continue.)

This graph makes sense, then, when looking back at the Packers’ picks in 2022. Indeed, the 2022 NFL Draft, and day three of that draft in particular, may go down as Gutekunst’s masterstroke. That class not only delivered several multi-year starters for the team, but it continues to pay off as the team is going to collect multiple compensatory picks in 2027 due to the big free agent contracts that players in that class signed last week. In fact, the Packers are expected to get picks in rounds 4, 5, and 6 in return for players they drafted in that year’s class, while four others should continue to be major contributors for the team on second contracts in 2026 and beyond.

Green Bay made 11 selections in the 2022 NFL Draft, in part because they entered the weekend with numerous selections. The biggest reason was that Gutekunst had traded Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders that March, adding a first-round pick (#22 overall) and a second-rounder (#53) to the haul. They also had additional compensatory picks in the 4th and 7th rounds, and they swapped their sixth-round selection for a 7th in deals with the Houston Texans (acquiring Randall Cobb and trading away cornerback Ka’dar Hollman).

That left Gutekunst with 11 picks coming into the draft. He would make 11 selections that weekend, though the team moved around the board a decent amount to do so. All told, the Packers ended up with three starters on the offensive line, a pair of starting wide receivers, two defensive starters, and another important member of the two-deep at edge rusher. That’s a remarkable impact from a single draft class, with 8 out of the 11 players making a major impact and lasting in Green Bay until at least the end of their rookie deals.

Let’s remind ourselves of how that draft went down pick-by-pick to see just how impactful this draft class has turned out to be over the past four years.

1.22: Quay Walker, LB, Georgia

This was a bit of a surprise selection with the first-rounder that the Packers got from the Raiders, as Green Bay had not drafted an off-ball linebacker in the first round since A.J. Hawk in 2006. Walker was the first linebacker off the board and although he had an up-and-down four-year stint with the Packers, he did establish himself as a decent member of the starting lineup over the past two seasons.

Walker left for the Raiders in free agency this offseason, signing a 3-year, $40.5 million contract. That deal should net the Packers a 5th-round compensatory pick in the 2027 NFL Draft.

1.28: Devonte Wyatt, DT, Georgia

Gutekunst double-dipped with Bulldog defenders in round one, taking Wyatt as an athletic, pass-rushing tackle. He has dealt with injury issues throughout his Packers career, but the team picked up his 5th-year option for 2026, something they did not do for Walker. After a quiet rookie year, Wyatt has flashed that pass-rushing ability when healthy over the past three years, racking up 14.5 sacks, but he has only hit 500 defensive snaps in a single season and has missed 10 games in the past two campaigns.

Green Bay will need Wyatt to stay healthier this season and make an impact on the interior, but he could be a candidate for a contract extension this offseason — if he doesn’t get one, he might end up netting the team a comp pick in 2028 instead if he signs elsewhere next spring.

2.34: Christian Watson, WR, North Dakota State

The big swing on day two of the draft was for Watson, as the Packers traded their two picks at 53 and 59 to move up for him. The team famously traded with the Vikings, who also held the final pick in the first round but did not want to let the Packers have the ability to use the 5th-year option on another player, so they waited out to 34 on Friday of draft weekend.

Ironically, this may have worked out in the Packers’ favor. The team likely would have used the option on Watson last offseason had it been available to them, even with Watson rehabbing a torn ACL suffered late in the 2024 season. Instead, the team signed him to a one-year extension last summer, locking him in for a fifth season in 2026 for a lower number ($11 million) than the option would have been (about $15.5 million).

When healthy, Watson has been a dynamic deep threat and he emerged as a true #1 receiver down the stretch in 2025. Interestingly, the player drafted with the 53rd pick was Alec Pierce, who is of a similar archetype to Watson and who just signed a 4-year, $114 million extension with the Colts; that deal will likely be the basis for negotiations between Watson and the Packers on a long-term deal.

3.92: Sean Rhyan, OL, UCLA

The Packers drafted Rhyan, a college tackle, in the third round, and for some time that pick looked like it might be a bust. Rhyan barely suited up as a rookie and got a six-game suspension for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy, but he started rotating in with Jon Runyan at right guard late in his sophomore campaign. He then took over as the starting right guard in 2024 before moving to center last season after Elgton Jenkins’ season-ending injury.

With the center market a mess this offseason in free agency, the Packers brought Rhyan back on a 3-year deal, which is structured as effectively a one-year contract with two years of team options. It offers the team great flexibility if he ends up not working out, but he will get the opportunity to start full-time for just the second time in his career.

4.132: Romeo Doubs, WR, Nevada

Day three was when Gutekunst and the Packers’ scouts really made their money in 2022. That stretch started with Doubs, who came out of an air raid offense at Nevada but who quickly became a consistent route-runner. With Watson being in and out of the lineup for stretches, Doubs was the steady possession receiver who would show off the occasional big-play ability and who ended up leading the team in receptions and receiving yards in both 2023 and 2025.

With too many bodies in the room and Watson defining himself as the top receiver in 2025, the Packers led Doubs walk this offseason in free agency. However, he got $17 million per year from the Patriots and will pay off the Packers’ 4th-round investment in him with a likely 4th-round compensatory pick in 2027.

4.140: Zach Tom, OT, Wake Forest

How often do teams other than the Green Bay Packers find multi-contract starting offensive linemen in the fourth round or later? The Packers have seemingly cornered the market on that dating back to Ted Thompson’s days, and they plucked Tom out of Wake Forest with a compensatory pick earned for losing another one of those types of players: Corey Linsley.

After working into the lineup a bit late in his rookie season, Tom has locked up the right tackle position for the last three years, only missing time in 2025 due to some nagging injury issues. An elite pass-protector when healthy, the Packers locked him up last season on a new contract, signing him to a 4-year extension that will keep him under contract in Green Bay through 2029. The verdict on this pick is an absolute slam dunk.

5.179: Kingsley Enagbare, EDGE, South Carolina

In the fifth round, the Packers traded back and added another 7th round pick. Once on the clock, they went a bit away from their typical preferences on edge players, taking a productive player who had a middling athletic profile. Enagbare proved to be a very solid edge setter in the run game, however, and he added totaled 11 sacks as a key member of the rotation. He also never missing a game in his four years with the Packers, consistently playing around 45% of defensive snaps while adding 150-200 additional snaps on special teams.

With a bit of a logjam of young pass-rushers coming up from the 2025 NFL Draft class, Enagbare was a luxury the Packers could not afford to keep this offseason, but his 1-year, $10 million contract with the New York Jets should give the Packers yet another comp pick in 2027, this one likely in round six. That’s all a great outcome for a fifth-round pick.

7.228: Tariq Carpenter, S/LB, Georgia Tech

It took until round seven for the Packers to end up with a player who wasn’t at a minimum a key rotational player. Carpenter is the first shrug pick in this draft class, playing just 14 games for the Packers as a special teams piece and being out of the league after 2023.

7.234: Jonathan Ford, DT, Miami

Ford, a massive nose tackle from Miami, was a healthy scratch in every game as a rookie then spent a year on the practice squad before heading to Chicago in 2024. He returned to Green Bay late last year and is on the roster again for this offseason. 7th-rounders are just lottery tickets anyway, so no harm done here, and he still has a chance to make an impact in Green Bay despite a roundabout way to get there.

7.249: Rasheed Walker, OT, Penn State

Getting three years of a starting left tackle out of a 7th-round pick should be classified as an absolute win in any situation, and that’s what the Packers got in Walker. Amid the ongoing David Bakhtiari injury saga, Walker basically got a redshirt season as a rookie and then took over the left tackle job in his second year, playing in every game and starting all but three in the last three seasons.

Yes, the Packers planned for his departure this offseason with Jordan Morgan as the expected starter for 2026. Yes, Walker was a net negative in the run game. But he was still a quality pass-blocker, and that had Packers fans hoping for him to get a big free agent deal this offseason and give Green Bay a better compensatory pick. Instead, it seems that he and his agent overestimated his market and he signed a 1-year, $4 million deal with Carolina that could reach $10 million with incentives.

Don’t let the disappointment of that deal and its impact on comp picks detract from the fact that this pick was a coup by Gutekunst and the front office.

7.258: Samori Touré, WR, Nebraska

The Packers’ final pick in 2022 was a third receiver, and Touré was an athletic, intriguing player. He didn’t really pan out, playing in 22 games over two years with just 13 catches for 160 yards and one touchdown. Still, among the four 7th-round picks, the Packers managed to find a three-year starter at left tackle — and that’s a win.

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