clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Green Bay Packers brought in two Penn State Lions for top-30 visits leading up to the draft

Tackle Rasheed Walker and safety Jaquan Brisker are expected to be drafted on Day 2.

NCAA Football: Illinois at Penn State Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

According to David Wyatt-Hupton of The Daily Jets Newsletter and Justin Melo of The Draft Network, the Green Bay Packers have met with Penn State safety Jaquan Brisker and Penn State tackle Rasheed Walker in Green Bay on official top-30 visits. Brisker is the first true safety that the Packers have met with, though they did invite potential undrafted free agent signing Tariq Carpenter, who split duties between safety and linebacker at Georgia Tech, to Green Bay. The team has met with two other bookends, Washington State’s Abraham Lucas and Utah’s Bam Olaseni, in Title Town.

Brisker is one of five very talented safeties who make up the top end of this year’s safety class, alongside Notre Dame’s Kyle Hamilton, Michigan’s Dax Hill, Georgia’s Lewis Cine and Baylor’s Jalen Pitre. According to the consensus draft board, Brisker is the 52nd prospect in the class, meaning he should be coming off of the draft board right around when the Packers are on the clock in the second round.

At the moment, it appears that Green Bay is set at the safety position, with their third-safety role slowly being phased off of the field following their game against the Baltimore Ravens last season. Henry Black, who played that role, was not given a restricted free agent offer this offseason. With that being said, their starting safeties, Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage, do not have long-term contracts with the team. The team has yet to make a decision on Savage’s fifth-year option, which is available to them after selecting him in the first round of the 2019 draft, and when the team needed to move around Amos’ money they chose to add on void years to the end of his deal instead of extending him.

Walker is an interesting prospect because he chose not to work out at either the combine or Penn State’s Pro Day in March. The Packers have fairly strict offensive line thresholds they tend to stick to, so they might have brought him in to get some official numbers down on paper. At the moment, the team is desperate for tackle bodies, with just David Bakhtiari, Yosh Nijman and Cole Van Lanen ready to play Week 1 following the release of right tackle Billy Turner and the injury to guard/tackle hybrid Elgton Jenkins. Walker is expected to be a third- or fourth-round pick next week.

Along with the invite of Fresno State defensive tackle Kevin Atkins, reported by Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network, 17 of the Packers’ 30 visits allotted for this pre-draft window are now known. Atkins, a four-year starter who was a three-time All-Mountain West honorable mention lineman, is not expected to be drafted next week.