Cheese Curds, 4/22: Trading 30 seems likely, but would Packers move up or down?

For some time, the prevailing opinion here at Acme Packing Company is that the Green Bay Packers will trade back from the 30th pick, moving down into the second round and adding some extra draft picks. It’s a move that Ted Thompson made a few times, specifically in 2008 and 2017 when he slid back from late in round one to pick up an early fourth-round pick in the process.

But for Brian Gutekunst, the rules of the game may be a bit different. After all, Thompson made just three trades involving first-round picks in his 13 drafts at the helm of the franchise. Besides the two moves back — when he selected Jordy Nelson and Kevin King in round two — Thompson’s lone move up was to pick Clay Matthews with the 26th pick in 2009. Instead, Ted tended to make more moves involving day-two and day-three picks, climbing and sliding back on the board in the second round several times.

Gutekunst, however, has made three trades involving first-round picks in just two years, and unlike his predecessor, moving up has been his tendency. The lone move back in round one netted the team a future first-round pick, while he has climbed the board twice to go after players at the top of his board.

Given the GM’s recent comments about being aggressive with the draft board, the team could look to go after a highly-ranked prospect once again. But with no extra picks in the first four rounds — they used their extra first and fourth-rounders (the latter coming from the Ha Ha Clinton-Dix trade) in 2019 to get Darnell Savage — the ammunition to climb is a little less than they’ve had before. Still, it will be fascinating to see what happens with that 30th pick, and we only have another 36 hours or so until we find out.

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