GREEN BAY − The 2026 NFL Draft prelims are over for the Green Bay Packers.
Without a first-round pick, general manager Brian Gutekunst could only watch as 32 players come off the board Thursday night, April 23. Of that group, only one or maybe two had anything approaching a realistic chance of getting near the Packers’ selection at No. 52.
One of them was Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks, who was one of the big surprises of the first round when the Minnesota Vikings nabbed him at No. 18 overall. In conversations with several scouts over the past couple of weeks, Banks was uniformly described as classic boom-or-bust because of his impressive physical gifts but with major questions about his health (two foot surgeries in the past eight months) and grit.
There was good reason to think Banks would go in the middle of the second round or later, and that Gutekunst might have to decide whether to take that big swing. Turns out he will not.
Odds were a lot lower that Notre Dame running back Jadarian Price was going to make it to 52, but Seattle ended any doubts when GM John Schneider selected him with the final pick of the first round.
That still leaves a lot of players with high grades available but also with another 19 of them still to come off the board before Gutekunst’s selection at No. 52. For the Packers, the action really starts Friday afternoon, April 24, when teams get serious about trade talks for the second round.
“The top of the second round is always a little chaotic,” Gutekunst said after the first round was completed. “Everybody has a whole night to sleep on things, and people get panicky and there’s all kinds of trades at times at the top of the second round. There always has been.
“It will be interesting how the first 10 to 15 picks happen tomorrow and see if anybody gets close enough we feel we may want to go up. But we feel pretty confident we can stick where we’re at and pick a good player.”
Even with Banks and Price off the list, there are plenty of players remaining who presumably interest Gutekunst.
Only two cornerbacks (LSU’s Mansoor Delane and San Diego State’s Chris Johnson) went in the first round. At least two others, the Tennessee duo of Colton Hood and Jermod McCoy, probably will go in the first 10 to 15 picks of the second round, though there’s always the chance McCoy could slide because of long-term concerns about his post-surgical knee (ACL tear).
Other cornerbacks still available are South Carolina’s Brandon Cisse and Clemson’s Avieon Terrell. There’s a decent chance one of them will be on the board at 52.
Indiana’s D’Angelo Ponds could get taken before 52 as well, which Gutekunst surely would welcome because it’s all but a given the 5-foot-8⅝ Ponds is too short for the Packers’ height minimums for his position and is off their board.
At defensive tackle, Ohio State’s Kayden McDonald still is available, but he was a potential first-round pick and a safe bet to go in the first 10 picks or so in the second round. Texaxs Tech nose tackle Lee Hunter also probably won’t last long, though you never know because he’s a pure run stopper who will offer nothing as a rusher. If Gutekunst is OK spending a second-round pick on that kind of player, Hunter could interest him.
And Georgia’s Christen Miller remains on the board. If he’s still available in the early to mid 40s, he’s a versatile interior defender who could be a target for a Gutekunst move up.
At edge rusher, Clemson’s T.J. Parker and Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell more likely than not will be gone before 52. The same probably is true of Missouri’s Zion Young. But, like Miller, if Young is still around in the mid-40s he might get Gutekunst on the phone looking for a trade up.
Other interesting edge rushers who could make it close or to 52 are Oklahoma’s R Mason Thomas, Illinois’ Gabe Jacas and Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton.
Thomas is not Gutekunst’s type because he’s undersized (6-2¼, 241 pounds) for an edge defender, so there’s good reason to doubt the GM would spend a second-round pick on him. But pass rushers win games, and if Gutekunst sees enough pass-rush potential, you never know.
Jacas (6-3⅝, 260) and Dennis-Sutton (6-5⅝, 256) are more in Gutekunst’s wheelhouse, and it would not surprise if either turned out to be his pick.
During his brief post-Round 1 news conference, Gutekunst sounded open to any option at 52 – moving up, back or staying put. He’s said in the past that a pick in the top 100 probably means he’ll get a player in the top 50 on his board, so if the math holds, at 52 he should get a player among his top 30.
“Close to that,” he said. “We don’t really stack one to 35, right? It’s more horizontally by position. I know some teams do that, we’ve never done that here, we’ve never stacked from one to whatever.
“But we’re confident we’re going to get a really good player if we stick at 52. Even if we move back, we feel really good about how the board is and that we’re going to get a good player who will help us. I know we’re all itching after sitting through that today.”
He also said that if he moves up, he’d prefer it to be with an extra pick this year and not from among the 11 he’s likely to have in 2027.
“Those picks next year are going to be important for us, so I wouldn’t say that,” he said of using a ‘27 pick. “Again, if the right player is there and that’s what it takes, we’ll consider it. But I think I’d prefer to do a pick this year.”
It was a long wait for Gutekunst and his scouts sitting through a first round in which they knew the cost was too high to move into. Now the action starts.
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Will Packers’ Brian Gutekunst wait until No. 52 or move up? Pete Dougherty
Reporting by Pete Dougherty, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
