Packers Mock Draft 2018: EDGE Marcus Davenport to Green Bay in Mel Kiper’s first mock

If the pick that Mel Kiper projects for the Green Bay Packers in his first mock draft ends up coming true, Ted Thompson would no doubt be proud of his replacement, Brian Gutekunst.

That is because Kiper has projected the Packers to select a player from a smaller school with the 14th overall pick in the draft. That player is edge rusher Marcus Davenport, who played his college ball for the Roadrunners of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Kiper notes that the Packers will indeed be looking for pass-rush help in his discussion of the pick:

Yes, Green Bay has Clay Matthews and Nick Perry, but Matthews will be 32 when the 2018 season begins, and he hasn’t had double-digit sacks in a season since 2014, and Perry didn’t replicate his breakout 2016 season and had only 13 quarterback knockdowns. The Packers need a young pass-rusher. There has been a buzz about Davenport, who has a huge 6-6 frame and rare quick-twitch traits off the edge. He’s one of the best pure pass-rushers in this class, and we’ll get to see him against better competition at the Senior Bowl.

As Kiper notes, Davenport is a large man — UTSA lists him at 6’7” and 255 pounds, though we’ll get his official measurements from the Senior Bowl weigh-in next week. Davenport put up very good numbers in his four years, totaling 21.5 sacks, 37.5 tackles for loss, and six forced fumbles. He also had an excellent senior season, posting 55 total tackles, 17.5 for losses, and 8.5 sacks to go with three forced fumbles.

Check out a few highlights of Davenport below that show his versatility and athleticism, both as a pass rusher and in coverage:

UTSA’s football program began playing in 2011 as an FCS school, and moved up to the FBS ranks for the 2013 season when they joined Conference USA. Tight end David Morgan was the program’s first player taken in the NFL Draft, picked by the Minnesota Vikings in round six of the 2016 draft.