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It’s obvious to assume that the Green Bay Packers will be looking for pass rush help in April’s NFL Draft. The 2017 version of the team had questions about their depth and inexperience, and players up and down the depth chart dealt with injury concerns throughout the year.
Nick Perry and Clay Matthews might be able to provide decent pressure on the quarterback when healthy, but Perry was anything but this season and Matthews is hitting his early 30s. Furthermore, the players behind them — Kyler Fackrell, Vince Biegel, and Chris Odom — don’t appear ready yet to take on 40+ snaps per game.
Thus, the expectation is that the Packers will look for pass rush help early in the NFL Draft, quite possibly with the 14th overall selection. In this week’s mock draft, SB Nation’s Dan Kadar projects a new name to slip just a bit and land in Green Bay near the middle of round one:
14. Green Bay Packers: Arden Key, OLB/DE, LSU
The Packers need to add an outside pass rusher this offseason, and Key slipped to this point after the Bears passed on him at No. 8. Key can play standing up or with his hand in the ground. Teams will just have to get comfortable with him in interviews after he stepped away from LSU last summer.
One of the popular names to the Packers so far has been Harold Landry, an edge rusher from Boston College. However, the two have very different builds. Landry is smaller, around 6’2” and 245 pounds. Key is a bigger physical specimen at 6’5” and closer to 260. Both are expected to test well at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, and both had massive seasons in 2016 before seeing some injuries sap their production a bit last season.
Packers fans would likely be satisfied with either one, so we’ll have to see if either or both are on the board when Green Bay goes on the clock.