Green Bay Third-Round Curse Watch: Week 1

There has been some witchy, dark energy surrounding the Green Bay Packers’ third-round draft picks for close to the last decade. The last productive pick of this round to leave Green Bay without burning the bridge was Richard Rodgers, one of their 2014 selections. Rodgers aside, the team’s third-round picks include Khyri Thornton (who? Exactly), Ty Montgomery (productive until that fateful Rams game which resulted in him being traded for a seventh-rounder), Kyler Fackrell, Montravius Adams, Oren Burks, Amari Rodgers, and Terry McLaurin.

Okay, the last one is a joke, it was Jace Sternberger. Of the Packers’ third-round picks from the last decade, three are still on the roster, and these three are all still on their rookie contracts: tight ends Josiah Deguara and Tucker Kraft, and offensive lineman Sean Rhyan. Will any of these guys break the dreaded curse? I’m going to take a look at their weekly contributions and give my final verdict.

Note: We will not be looking at Packers who were third-round picks of other NFL teams, like our sweet Rasul Douglas.

Josiah Deguara

With Josiah’s #1 hater Aaron Rodgers off the team, he looks poised for a more expanded role in the offense, especially as the player with the most pro experience at tight end (and fullback.) He’s also got the trivia-worthy distinguishment of catching Jordan Love’s first-ever touchdown pass. Unfortunately for him, the expanded role didn’t come against the Chicago Bears. Deguara played a total of 32% of offensive snaps and didn’t see a single target. He also played half of the total special teams snaps.

Tucker Kraft

As the days go on, it’s clear Tucker Kraft is more of a project than we had originally anticipated. In just 13 snaps on Sunday, Kraft didn’t see a single target. When it came to run blocking, he was passed over in favor of Ben Sims, who joined the team on August 31. Kraft is likely going to be used in a very limited role, at least for this season.

Sean Rhyan

He didn’t play, so there’s that.

Week One Verdict: Cursed be thy third-round draft pick.

We didn’t see much from these guys this week, which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The Packers are going to be focusing heavily on Luke Musgrave as one of the pillars of their offense, and they seem to have settled on their regular rotation of offensive linemen. Week 2 sees the Packers facing the Atlanta Falcons, who allowed six catches for 43 yards from TEs and accumulated 2 sacks against Carolina.