Packers 2018 Draft Board Projection: Athletic edge rushers can be found in any round

As we continue our look at the Green Bay Packers’ possible board for the 2018 NFL Draft, we shift our attention over to edge rushers, one of the team’s biggest needs. The Packers, luckily, will find players who fit their recent trends available at all levels of this year’s draft.

The typical athleticism ranges for the Packers’ recent pass-rushing draft picks were defined by Justis Mosqueda last year, as he used adjusted speed and agility scores to account for the varied body types of players at the position. Last year’s lone pass-rusher, Vince Biegel, fit in with these numbers perfectly, as the Packers have tended to draft players with a speed score of -1.21 or better and an agility score of -0.65 or better. The value of those scores is not in and of itself critical, but be aware that the more positive the number is, the better the player’s adjusted score is.

To put together this year’s edge list for all rounds of the draft and into the top levels of undrafted free agency, we looked at the top 40 players on NFLDraftScout.com’s position rankings for defensive ends and outside linebackers, specifically examining the players who are likely to line up on the edge or who have the size to do so — for example, Tremaine Edmunds and Leighton Vander Esch are included despite being considered primarily as off-ball linebackers.

Numbers from both the 2018 NFL Combine and reported Pro Day measurements were considered, with Pro Day results shown with an asterisk. One player on the list (Hercules Mata’afa) fell short of one of the ranges, but it was by one one-hundredth of a point so we included him.

There were two players who we included on the board despite falling outside of those rankings, however: Mike Love from USF and Kendall Donnerson from Southeast Missouri State, both of whom reportedly had pre-draft visits with the Packers. Love has no reported 40 time and his agility score falls well outside of the range that the Packers tend to draft, but we included him because of that visit; meanwhile Donnerson passed with flying colors based on his reported Pro Day results.

Note that this year’s board features players with grades in each round of the draft, and often multiple players within a single round. The first and second round

As a reminder, the board is formatted based on testing success; players who are shown in bold passed all the cutoffs, players in italics did not complete full testing but appear on track to pass, and players with no special formatting were in the borderline range for either height or 3-cone time (with the offending measurement shown in strikethrough). Names in ALL CAPS reportedly had a pre-draft visit with the Packers.

Packers’ Projected 2018 EDGE Draft Board

• TREMAINE EDMUNDS, Virginia Tech; Projected round 1; 6044, 253; 4.54 40, +2.733 speed score; no 3-cone
• Harold Landry, Boston College; Round 1; 6023, 252; 4.64 40, +1.406 speed; 6.88 3-cone, +4.045 agility
• Marcus Davenport, UTSA; Round 1; 6056, 264; 4.58 40, +2.752 speed; 7.20 3-cone, -0.348 agility
• Leighton Vander Esch, Boise State; Round 1; 6042, 256; 4.65 40, +0.884 speed; 6.88 3-cone, +3.761 agility
• Lorenzo Carter, Georgia; Round 1-2; 6047, 250; 4.50 40, +3.044 speed; no 3-cone
• Rasheem Green, USC; Round 2; 6042, 275; 4.73 40, +1.667 speed; 7.24 3-cone, +1.095 agility
• Kemoko Turay, Rutgers; Round 2; 6045, 253; 4.65 40, +0.321 speed; no 3-cone
• Josh Sweat, Florida State; Round 2; 6046, 251; 4.53 40, +2.581 speed; 6.95 3-cone, +1.961 agility
• Obo Okoronkwo, Oklahoma; Round 2-3; 6015, 253; 4.74* 40, -0.231 speed; 6.84* 3-cone, +5.041 agility
• Uchenna Nwosu, USC; Round 3; 6021, 251; 4.65 40, +1.173 speed; 7.05 3-cone, +3.023 agility
• Tyquan Lewis, Ohio State; Round 4; 6030, 265; 4.69 40, +1.786 speed; 7.20* 3-cone, +0.960 agility
• Hercules Mata’afa, Washington State; Round 5; 6022, 254; 4.76 40, -0.811 speed; 7.24* 3-cone, -0.660 agility
• Marcell Frazier, Missouri; Round 6; 6045, 256; 4.65* 40, +0.884 speed; 7.14* 3-cone, -0.035 agility
• Kylie Fitts, Utah; Round 6-7; 6036, 263; 4.69 40, +1.181 speed; 6.88 3-cone, +4.809 agility
• GARRET DOOLEY, Wisconsin; Round 6-7; 6023, 248; 4.62* 40, +1.293 speed; 7.00* 3-cone, +1.866 agility
• Peter Kalambayi, Stanford; Round 7; 6025, 252; 4.57 40, +2.781 speed; 7.13 3-cone, +0.450 agility
• Sharif Finch, Temple; Round 7-UDFA; 6041, 251; 4.65* 40, +0.274 speed; 7.00* 3-cone; +1.512 agility
• MIKE LOVE, USF; Projected UDFA; 6032, 253; no 40; 7.28 3-cone, -1.529 agility
• KENDALL DONNERSON, Southeast Missouri State; Projected UDFA; 6030, 250; 4.44* 40, +5.128 speed; 7.03* 3-cone, +1.434 agility