Pack-A-Day: Your Daily Packers Podcast

Have the Packers Changed Their Roster Building Philosophy?!

39 min
Apr 13, 20266 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

The Pack-A-Day podcast discusses the Green Bay Packers' trade of wide receiver Donovan Wicks to acquire draft picks, analyzing how this move reflects a shift in the team's roster-building philosophy under GM Brian Gutekunst. The hosts examine the trade within the context of the Packers' draft-and-develop approach, their evolving strategy during Jordan Love's Super Bowl window, and what it signals about future roster construction heading into the 2025 NFL Draft.

Insights
  • The Wicks trade represents a deliberate shift from the Packers' experimental multi-receiver approach to a more defined role hierarchy, with Christian Watson and Tucker Kraft established as primary pass catchers
  • Brian Gutekunst's philosophy evolves across different eras of quarterback tenure—from aggressive free agency with Rodgers to draft-and-develop with Love, now entering an urgency phase with selective veteran additions
  • Player dissatisfaction in crowded receiver rooms stems partly from lack of role clarity and opportunity to showcase value for future contracts, not just ego or selfishness
  • The Packers' strategy of drafting multiple players at the same position annually creates internal competition that determines who gets retained and who gets traded for value
  • Accumulating draft picks through trades of departing players funds the next cycle of draft-and-develop, creating a sustainable roster turnover model
Trends
NFL teams increasingly using defined role hierarchies and positional clarity to manage player satisfaction and retentionStrategic use of mid-round draft picks and comp picks as currency for roster flexibility rather than pursuing high draft capitalShift toward selective free agency targeting underperforming players from other teams rather than wholesale roster overhaulsMulti-year roster planning cycles tied to quarterback contract windows and Super Bowl windowsTeams drafting multiple players at same position to create internal competition and identify long-term startersTrade deadline becoming more active as GMs pursue urgency-driven acquisitions during competitive windowsYounger rosters supplemented with strategic veteran additions rather than aging out entire core groupsCompensation pick strategy as primary tool for maintaining draft capital while letting players walk in free agency
Companies
Green Bay Packers
Primary subject of discussion regarding roster moves, draft strategy, and organizational philosophy under GM Brian Gu...
Philadelphia Eagles
Mentioned as potential destination for traded player Donovan Wicks in hypothetical fan speculation
People
Dan Kotnick
Primary host leading discussion on Packers roster philosophy and draft strategy
Monty Moore
Co-host providing analysis on Wicks trade and Gutekunst's evolving philosophy
Camille Davis
Co-host discussing free agency approach and draft preparation strategy
Brian Gutekunst
GM whose roster-building philosophy and strategic decisions are central to episode analysis
Matt LaFleur
Head coach whose comments about player role dissatisfaction inform discussion of roster management
Christian Watson
Identified as established number one receiver and key piece of Packers' passing game hierarchy
Tucker Kraft
Emerging tight end expected to be featured more prominently in Packers offense
Donovan Wicks
Player traded away in deal that prompted discussion of Packers' roster philosophy shift
Jordan Love
Quarterback whose contract window defines current urgency phase of Packers roster building
Jaden Reed
Receiver identified as solid number three option in defined hierarchy after Wicks trade
Matthew Golden
Receiver whose 2024 production exceeded Wicks, supporting trade rationale
Micah Parsons
High-profile trade acquisition signaling Gutekunst's urgency and willingness to make big moves
Romeo Dobbs
Former receiver who established himself and secured higher contract elsewhere
Zaire Franklin
Free agent acquisition exemplifying Gutekunst's selective veteran additions strategy
Jonathan Hargrave
Free agent signing representing departure from typical Gutekunst free agency targets
Aaron Rodgers
Former quarterback whose contract window defined previous era of Packers roster building
Ed Policy
Executive who made decision to retain both Gutekunst and LaFleur as package
Quotes
"I was sad to see him go. But I mean, overall, I'm not going to say writing was on the wall in a sense. But if you look at the move itself, I mean, it just makes sense, right?"
Monty MooreEarly in episode
"This feels like, like there, we're in a spot now where like the, if, if your role on the team, you're not your role on the team, your value to the team was how much the fan base liked you. These guys would have all been staying."
Camille DavisMid-episode
"It's not that you're going to get fired it's just that you you've baked this thing long enough to a certain point it needs to move to the next stage."
Dan KotnickMid-episode
"I think he's like alright fight it out good luck. And Camille said I have good analogies. I mean I'm not saying this just because it's where we're talking about Don Tavion Wicks here."
Monty MooreLate episode
"There is nothing that beats the NFL draft in terms of strategy and and anything like this it's just a it's a three day puzzle. Right, that's that is so much fun I can't wait for it."
Dan KotnickLate episode
Full Transcript
Oh, it's bad. What? What would the people do it? Mate. Thought you'd be into it, Sam. What, me? No, that's deeply offensive. Harry, you're wearing socks and sandals. In public. Come on. I travel in style. You don't. It's a new low. They're the mullet of footwear. And what's wrong with mullets? Sharing moments you'll never live down. On The Train, you can. Hey, call my wife. Calling UK Wildlife. No, call my wife. Here's a cheese knife, Leicester. Voice assistance, not working for you. With BlackRock Investment Trust's hands-on investing, long-term approach to growth and regular dividends, you have a lot working for you. I live in Kent. Get to know BlackRock Investment Trust at blackrock.com. You have a lot working for you. Capital at risk, marketing material. BlackRock Investment Management UK Limited, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Welcome, everyone, to another edition of the Packaday Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us on another Marvelous Monday. We are one Marvelous Monday closer to the draft. And so, of course, we will be talking and nothing related to the draft on today's episode. Tengentially. We'll probably touch on it a little bit. But it's Dan Kotnick with me as always, the Marvelous Monday crew of Monty Moore and Camille Davis. And guys, I mean, usually we just talk like, you know, we kick off like, how's everybody doing? What's going on? How are we feeling? And a little bit of, finally, a little bit more of a little nugget of Packer news to discuss. I know Andy and Jacob and Nick and everybody have already kind of like gotten most of the meat off of the bone here. But the big news from the past couple of days, Don Tavey and Wicks, no longer a Green Bay Packer. Your just initial thoughts on when the trade got announced. How did you feel, Monty? I was, I mean, I'm a really big fan of Wicks. So like I was sad to see him go. But I mean, overall, I'm not going to say writing was on the wall in a sense. But if you look at the move itself, I mean, it just makes sense, right? He, I mean, obviously wasn't going to be in their long-term plans. They decided to trade him. But apart from that, it's, we know, we know, we love collecting, you know, comp picks, because he loves having ammunition. You're not guaranteed to get one for what Wicks likely would have gotten after after this year, especially considering the Packers are going to have money to spend next off season. And they're probably going to do that. So it's not going to be like this one where they, they didn't really sign anybody and they get the comp pick. So you're not guaranteed to get one for him. We, I mean, we've been saying for three years now that the room's crowded, right? And you know, they're not going to resign everybody. So I guess initial reaction was, oh man, it sucks that Wicks is off the team. And then I was like, but I understand why they made the move. Yeah, that, that just about sums it up for me to that very last part like, dang, I hate that we had to let Wicks go, but I understand the move. And it made me think a lot about what Monty already said, but also thinking about the comments that Matt LaFleur mentioned of how there were guys who were unhappy with their roles on the team last year. And we don't have any concrete proof that we know who those guys were who were unhappy with their roles. But most of the time you can look at that white receiver room because there were just so many. And then there was the conversation of, well, there is a number one receiver on this team. It's just who's open so on and so forth. But these are athletes with some pretty big egos about what they can do. And I think being able to just kind of free up some of that playing time first with the, with Dobbs leaving, which was expected. And now with this trade for Wicks, it seems like you have your top four pretty much set at this point. So it sucks that it had to be Wicks because I did really like his game, but it makes sense for what the Packers are looking to build going forward as well. Yeah, exactly. This feels like, like there, we're in a spot now where like the, if, if your role on the team, you're not your role on the team, your value to the team was how much the fan base liked you. These guys would have all been staying. Like I literally think Rashawn Gary might have been the only, the only person that like the majority of the fan base would have voted okay, that we're, we're fine. We're fine with that. But like Romeo Dobbs, Dantebian Wicks, Rashid Walker, Elton Jenkins, like these are guys that fans love and it's really hard. It was a bit easier to see like Walker and Jenkins and stuff like that walk. But like, especially with, especially with this wide receiver group, it's been a really fun, like four years now of this wide receiver group. They've been so fun to watch that whole experience of what it was two, two years ago when, you know, it was the, it was all the, it was the baby Packers. And, you know, they're playing, everyone's playing over their skis a little bit. And, you know, each month you've got a new number one wide receiver for the month, basically, it kind of endeared us all to, to these, to these guys here. But as Monty kind of alluded to there, it's been a crowd, it's a crowded room. It's been crowded for a while. And at a certain point, you cannot have a successful offense where you're just kind of muddling around with a group of five, six guys, all sort of getting places here and here. I think when you mentioned Matt LaFleur's comments about guys not being happy with their role, part of that could definitely have been that the team wasn't good at defining everybody's role. Yeah. And so I think a lot of people instantly say like, it's, I think you go to like the players and be like, why are the players pissed off? The players aren't getting the catches. They're not doing, you know, they're not getting what they want. It also could very well be that the style of how they've sort of been handling, especially the wide receiver group of we don't have number one, we don't, you know, we don't want this. If you don't give, especially, especially guys like this that have grown up from Pop Warner, high school, college to now, you are this, you do this. Coach tells you to do this. I go do this. They need structure. Players want structure. They need to, they want to know where they fit in the hierarchy of it all. And to be fair, like the players know, just like we do, right? Where we say, you're not going to assign everybody, you're not going to keep everybody. So when it comes to saying, you know, you feel like the players are selfish or whatever adjective you want to use. To an extent, you have to understand that. So if you like, say for instance, you're Don Tavion Wicks, right? You're not getting a huge role on this team. You know, you're probably not coming back to this team, but you're also not getting a chance to showcase yourself for the next team. Right, right. So it's not like, you know, all the Packers are hurting my wallet. It's just more of in terms of at some point, I have to be able to show what I've got and who I am. And to be fair, he didn't always make the most of his opportunities either. He didn't maximize every chance he got, but just to the broader point of you're always auditioning for either the team you're playing for to resign you or the next team. And if you're not getting chances to do that, I get being frustrated. And to what you said to Dan about, you know, it was a fun experiment. They tried it. Like, to be fair, I mean, we have to tell some people that, you know, some people have the right to say told you so because there, there have been some, you know, fans that have been wholly against this type of approach. I've always been for it with a young team just because I feel like not only does it help not knowing where the ball is going to go, you know, 40% of the time or whatever number you want to use. But I also feel like guys growing together, playing receiver kind of helps, you know, with quarterback chemistry and stuff like that. But it was an experiment that they tried and it seemed like it was working for the most part until there was like one or two injuries every year. And that guy that was number three or four is now number, the guy that was like five and six is now number like three or four in the hierarchy. And they just weren't ready yet. So they tried it. It didn't work to the extent that we thought it would. And now we're kind of seeing the fall out from that. I do wonder to if part of the, I don't want to say desire to create more defined roles, but I guess that's the wording I'm going to use here because I can't think of any other way to say this. I wonder if the calculus changed at all with what they know they have in Tucker Kraft now and understanding that he actually might be with Watson like this is our top target that we're actually looking for at this point now. So the way we thought we were actually going to be running this offense going to be a little bit different because we have to feature Tucker Kraft a bit more once he comes back from injury. So with that understanding and also with seeing that Christian Watson really just kind of came in and took that number one job back upon coming back from injury. Is it one of those things to have like, okay, we've tried this process for the last few years now. And now we have guys who have started to define their roles themselves based on their play. So going forward, we actually want to highlight Tucker Kraft and Christian Watson a bit more in the passing and going forward. We love what we have in our rookie. We want to make sure we get golden on the field. We want to get, why am I playing on his name right now? Saving out on the field a little bit more often like we have guys that we want to get on the field, but we also kind of have this hierarchy that was defined by play. So let's kind of reward that going forward too. I wonder if that had any calculus in the trade as well, but also I mean, they got good value back for Wix as well. So that helps helps out a lot. Yeah. And I think when we talk about, if we talk about this in the scope of how this trade fits into everything else that's happened in the off season here before the draft and think of it in the scope of how it fits into the Brian Gudekun's overall philosophy with how he runs a team slash how Matt LaFleur wants to organize and prepare his team from a personal standpoint. I think what's happened so far this year, the way everything has happened fits in exactly to how Brian Gudekun wants to run the organization. So, trade guys that have any sort of trade value to them to regain comp picks guys who you know aren't going to be around let them walk for the highest possible value to get comp picks and guys that you're bringing in are guys that you have wanted, like Dylan who they've targeted, at least we know once once before, and and hard grave. Those are guys that come in and don't affect the the comp pick formula. And with the Dantabian Wix situation in the wide receiver room. This sets up exactly how this team handles player contracts and player development on a on a multi year scale right. Think back to 2022. They draft Christian Watson. The year after that it's Tucker Kraft, Dante, Jaden read. Dante, David and Wix and Wix was the year. Yeah, Wix was 2023. Yeah, 2023 was, they got Wix, they got Wix read Musgrave craft and crafts. So you draft all of these guys now. And I kind of I kind of pushed back a little bit Monty on what you were saying about how other like the the the naysayers are the people that want to hold stuff against Brian Gudekun's for for whatever reason. I don't necessarily think he was wrong or that it was this this whole like you know the way it was all kind of the way all kind of played out was wrong because you're trading guys or you're letting guys walk or you know whatever. This is just how they kind of how they kind of run and the Wix and the Wix move is the next step in in that process. You've figured out that Christian Watson Tucker Kraft are for sure your number one and number two past catchers right. You've seen now that Jaden read over his couple of his his first two years or first three years has the potential to be a solid number three Matthew Golden, who last year, if you want to compare head to head out gained Don Tavion Wix that might surprise some people. 361 yards to 332 yards to for for Matthew Golden over over Don Tavion Wix. So it was, it's pretty clear that that's your form moving forward. And so now instead of I was I was on Ohana Packers with Iowa Joe and Mike Coano last week talking about the wide receiver draft class like how it fit into that. And we were talking about this idea of will a wide receiver be traded before the draft. Because that obviously will affect how they move forward in the draft. Sure. And I actually I made the comment I made the comment, the silly comment that I don't think they're going to trade anybody, because I think they roll into next season, they like Wix and and just will let things happen after this year. But this showed you. They did. I'm the. But this this this trade here makes a lot more sense from the Brian Goodacoun draft and develop perspective. Wix isn't going to stick around after this year. You're committing to Jaden Reed, at least for this year, probably more depending on how he plays in this you know he basically is playing for you know the next contract this coming year. But you trade Wix for a fifth round pick this year and a next and a pick for next year. You're using some of those picks now to draft the next on Tavion Wix, the next Jaden Reed, you're you're trading you're trading the wide receivers that didn't stick around to get some value back to now draft the next guys who come in and develop and hopefully take over other spots. While your other wide receivers, I think I saw like five of the six wide receivers, five of the seven wide receivers that are on this on the team right now don't have contracts through the end of this year. So, so you're making these decisions now. You're going to get you're probably going to lock up guys like Christian Watson before the start of the start of the year. And then you draft, and you hope that the next guy grows into something so you don't overpay for the wide receivers. Third contract for three years down the line. So it fits exactly with the philosophy of it. But I want to hear you guys this perspective with the the Wix move and then everything else that's happened the Zaire Franklin trade, Jonathan Hargrave coming in, you know, letting Emmanuel Wilson walk to keep Chris books around. How do all these decisions in your mind reflect on what this philosophy is now as a whole for the Packers team as they they enter this the heart of this Micah Parsons Jordan Love Super Bowl window. We'll be right back. I think that we have seen that Goody still follows the Packer way. When it comes to how he drafts by defining here's some traits we want in our guys to kind of take out some so we don't have to evaluate an entire draft class of like we know we want our corners to be between, you know, six feet and whatever the case may be. Continue to have those parameters in place when drafting and still making sure that the Packers are a team that leans on draft and develop. But I feel like Goody's been a lot more willing to take those shots and free agency of like, OK, we are weak in this point. And we see this now draft. All right, whatever. But let's go out and get this free agent. Let's go and throw this money out here. He's shown to be a lot more willing to do things even to the point now where come trade deadline. I'm not just acting like oh who cares what day the trade deadline is. I'm like, is Goody going to do something? Not that he's shown that he has but he's done enough to the point where I don't ignore the day anymore. So I think he has just shown a greater or a greater desire to see what the free market or free agent market has and he's not hesitant to use it if he can find a deal that he thinks fits this team properly. And also the urgency. You can tell he's operating with that sense of urgency like that. Micah Parsons trade to me just said that like, yeah, we're trying to go for it at this point. So I think it's the same but just a little bit more aggressive with the free agents and maybe that's just a more modern approach of what the Packerway will look like in 2026 as opposed to the 90s when you know Ron Wolf was putting this together. Yeah, I mean this isn't like a complete 180 on the Packerway right. I mean they're like Camille said they clearly still have you know threshold in a process that they like. I just think that he is doing. This is maybe his neck. This is Goody's next step in his comments about sense of urgency and it's trying to get back time to get back to winning championships because obviously again he hugely kickstarted that by trading for Micah Parsons. You know, Micah Parsons got hurt. We know how the season ended and fall out from all that but he was obviously very upset at the way things finished because obviously he thinks they have a Super Bowl roster. And obviously the decision to bring both back him and Matt you know together as a package was made by Ed policy but for Goody specifically it's okay I took the big swing traded for Micah Parsons. What else do I need to do right now to kind of tweak it and you know they're still going to be among the youngest teams in the league. I don't know if they will be the youngest anymore. So that streak might come to an end but they're still going to be I'm sure in the top five of the youngest teams in the league. So it's more can I can I start augmenting those young pieces that I've got with just like some very select players that are kind of outside of the the mold that I normally go for and because we know he targets when it comes to free agents. He likes to target guys coming off of if he's going to sign a free agent it's going to be a guy coming off his rookie deal that didn't quite live up to what they were expected to on their first team that he thinks they're going to break out and he broke that mold this year like we talked about with both Franklin and Hargrave. So I think I don't think Packers fans overall are witnessing some sort of philosophical change. I just think that maybe we're seeing him be a little bit more flexible than the past few years because he's realizing you know where that urgency needs to needs to come from. Yeah. And I think too. I want to I want to sort of clarify what you're saying there Monty from how I how I sort of view it too is I think there's a chance people hear what you say there of like the sense of urgency and that it's like it's a policy holding Brian Gudekunze and Matt LaFleur's feet to the fire and saying like you got three years or you guys are gone like this is I don't think it comes from I don't necessarily think the sense of urgency comes from that that is there. You know they're fighting for their jobs or they think they need to prove something. Obviously they want to be the most successful versions of what they're doing every single year. I think what it speaks more to is something that we all discussed a couple of times as we were going through our March Madness Brian Gudekunze era player draft or bracket for the last couple of weeks there. And if you didn't listen to that you can go back and listen to all those very fun episodes. But we kind of talked about how Brian Gudekunze takes over in 2018 right and you can almost kind of start to split up the overarching Brian Gudekunze era into like kind of these smaller little epochs you know or or something you know where you know like 2018 to 2021 you're in that real final true window of Aaron Rodgers right as as this is our last push to get a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers and it's also the beginning of Matt LaFleur's 10 years so you're trying to you're starting to see what Matt LaFleur wants to do and how he wants to build a roster. And then you go into those first couple of years like 2021 2023 where it's okay what do we have in Jordan Love. What is what is our move with Jordan Love is he going to stick around. Is he the guy that we are officially saying is my quarterback moving forward. And now I think you start last year and as 2024 2025 now this year the true Super Bowl window of Jordan Love opens up and you can see how he kind of changes his philosophy in each of those in each of those eras. 2018 2019 he's making a huge free agent swings. Yeah to go out and try to and just try to flush as much talent as possible in there to push Aaron Rodgers over the line one more time. Right. And then you start to move into that those first couple of years of widespread draft and develop bring guys up see where they're at and now we're reaching that next level of the first crop of draft and develop guys have all reached maturity who's sticking around who's moving on where we took our big swing with Micah Parsons to really crack this window wide open and now the philosophy changes here again as you move into that second half of that. So it is a sense of urgency but I think it's more about you don't you don't draft the same way every single year you don't run the team the same every single year because it's a living growing organism and then an NFL roster right. So I think that I think that kind of that's how I sort of view your comments Monty when you say that about like terms of sense of urgency. It's a sense of urgency is it's the same sense of urgency as when you like put a cake in the oven and you start to smell it burning. It's not it's not that it's not that you're going to get fired it's just that you you've baked this thing long enough to a certain point it needs to move to the next stage. Now right now. I like that. Now I want to take it at nine. Yeah, um, you know something here just as we kind of we kind of start to put like a little bit of a bow on this. Something I noticed here as I was looking at the rock the stats from last year and this is this is again not I'm not trying to not trying to bag on Dante in Wix, but I think more just kind of a realization of where he sort of because I saw, I saw several people be like after after the trade yesterday, or on Saturday, where it's. Oh, so we're finishing last in the division now we're just giving up. And it's like, guys, guys, Josh Jacobs had 50 less receiving yards than Dante Wix last year. Part of the. Yeah, I think part of it is just when it comes to a player like this, we've seen the flashes right that they don't obviously his best game as a pro was that game against the Lions and Thanksgiving like touchdowns sealed the game on fourth down like we've seen those kind of is only two touchdowns of the entire season. Yeah, by the way, like we've seen it so like we know what the potential is it's just that. Again, they took two receivers last year, a guy that's been here for three years that hasn't put his foot down and said I'm one of the best for you got right can't you can't take me off the field. Like he, you know, he's complicit in that too because he didn't he wasn't consistent enough because again what we've seen if you show that you're consistent enough, the way they went about things and earned your spot. Like you're either going to get re signed, or if you're going to get more money elsewhere which is in Romeo Dobbs case, because again, Dobbs obviously put his foot down as one of the best for. But we know he had the the episode of him, you know, not showing up to work like that factors in he got paid more elsewhere but it's just fans are frustrated because I think this is a fan mentality right. Every, every fan that saying that assumes he's going to go to the Eagles now and be like a great receiver and have like 1000 yards and six touchdowns next year like if we would have just held on to him he would have done that here like that's not necessarily the case. And you always, you can't project a young player getting better just because they left and not any growth from the guys that you did decide to keep. That's a great point because even when you look at like how the Packers draft and how Goody has done it. Like he normally picks multiple at the same but like when it's a position of need and we know the Packers don't try to draft for me they try to just go best player available but when they have a need and the best player available quote unquote lines up. We have seen them take multiple guys at the same position in the same draft. I mean even to the point of the witch draft like Jaden Reed was taken in the second round while he was in the fifth round. And then they took great two poles in the seventh round in that draft to but it's the idea of just we're going to keep throwing things at the board for a little bit here and see which one of you stick. I mean even in the Jair draft his very first one. The first two picks were cornerbacks. Only one of them panned out but that was the idea behind it and even with Tucker Kraft and Luke is Musgrave where it's like both of them in the same draft. So I think for the Packers to and the idea of like hey maybe guys don't have the opportunity to do this. I think it's like hey actually what we're going to do is we're going to give you the chance at whichever one of you come out on top is the one that comes out on top. If contracts come up in a similar situation to like the Dobs thing of like we just can't pay this right now but we do appreciate your work. Then the idea is well let's get some value out of this as much as we can. So I don't really have a problem with the approach that the Packers have taken so far in this off season. To the point of people saying we're going to be less in the division now like there is still a lot of time to continue to put this roster together. There's still a whole draft that we have to get through and then training camp and then you continue to go from there. So Goody I think he doesn't write with the idea of like hey let's get multiple guys in the same position and kind of like a battle royale to a certain degree of like who comes out on top. That's who's going to continue to be a Packer as long as it continues to fit in with what we're looking for. Yeah he picks like one position group every season to do the Joker in the Dark Knight thing with the pool queue. I think he goes into the off season like okay because we've seen it's been at safety, it's been at receiver, it's been at tight end. I think he's like this year who knows maybe it's offensive lineman right because we know like there's some depth questions there so it seems like every year he picks one he's like alright fight it out good luck. And Camille said I have good analogies. I mean I'm not saying this just because it's where we're talking about Don Tavion Wicks here. I think there's a good I think there's a decent chance that wide receiver becomes that position group this year that he overvalued or you know over targets if you want to if you want to call it that there's a lot of guys there's a lot of depth at wide receiver this year once you get into the once you get into the later rounds. There's a lot of guys that are very Don Tavion Wicks coated, especially. Which I think just adds again to to everything here is if you get Don Tavion Wicks cheaper and three years younger. Why don't you why don't you do that you it makes it makes too much sense not to. Well guys this is this I cannot believe. And I double checked to make sure I was I was accurate. Our second to last show before the draft. I literally like a couple days ago I'm like. Oh it's not it's still not like a month away it's yeah it's it's basically two and a half weeks a week away at this point I can't believe it what is where what is your guys is feeling sitting here right now. Thinking about the draft excitement level it's the first time since if I was a good host I would know the last time the Packers didn't have a first I know going in. Monty because because it's the first time in my entire lifetime because I was born I was born the year they didn't have one which was 86. Wow. Monty so this is literally the first time in my that since I've been alive that they haven't had a first rounder. Here I am learning that Monty is older than I thought was the oldest one on this pie. That's crazy I have been operating like I'm the oldest person on this podcast but you got me by a couple I'm a I'm a 89 baby so. Okay yeah no I'm saying same same wheelhouse here I'll be I'll be big for oh in July so. A whole party. Yeah the overall I think this draft is going to be interesting for the Packers because like Dan said they don't have a first round pick but we're going to see if how much of an of they're going to go for need or best player available because we know they've got some key like depth issues at some at some places. So I just think that overall you know offensive line is going to be an interesting one. But they only got he's got eight picks now because they picked one up with this wick steel. He likes having a lot of picks. So we know they're loaded up next year with like the comp picks they got. So I wonder if he's going to use some of those to work into this draft and see if they can maybe pick up some some more picks because the whole you know let's just continuously trade down thing. It kind of changes the landscape when you don't have the first to work with so that'll be interesting. Yeah I'm just I'm just excited for every year for the draft is just like well who are we going to get because my draft prep normally starts end of March so there are so many people who are in it far longer than I am who have so much more information about it. I mean you can see it on on packet a just the amount of detail that goes into prepping for the draft and I come in late like hey guys like what's been going on here. And especially now with the the Buc season coming to a miserable end merciful miserable all the things at this point like this is the week where I can really dive into it. Shout out to everybody who puts out like the packer draft guys to kind of dig into so for me I feel like I've been in college like the last week and I could continue to for the next week while studying prospects and trying to figure out. Okay I kind of like how this sounds or like what I saw in this tape so it's always like a fun but hectic time leading into the draft for me, but I'm really curious to see what the packers do and if we see them try to move up or even maybe move down in this draft anymore try to accumulate more draft picks or bundle some to have less to get a play that they really want so I'm just really curious to see what moves end up making. Yeah, I'm excited about it I mean I just love the. I know that. There are there are people that kind of criticize criticize the draft. In terms of, you know, it being the, you know, everything else, everything else in sports around sports is so capitalism meritocracy, and then the draft is like this big socialism thing that they have in everywhere and it's like it's the only type of socialism that Americans love is the draft, and I understand the, the, the nuance and complexity behind all of that however you want to think of it but from just a perspective of strategy. It's this is this is there is nothing that beats the NFL draft in terms of strategy and and anything like this it's just a it's a three day puzzle. Right, that's that is so much fun I can't wait for it. You mentioned the draft guides, I always shout out the cheese at TV draft guide. It, there's a there's a lot of there's a lot of great contributions from some of our people here at pack a day, especially on there, the three of us have connections to cheese at TV as well. So, you know, give a little boost over there but I think I've bought the cheese at TV guide. The last, like, six, seven years, me to point it's, it's my Bible when it comes to it when it comes to the draft. So, yeah, and I think this that you guys mentioned the idea of like what he what he does looking forward to the draft and what this means in terms of that this the Don Tavino Wicks trade and accumulating these picks and whatnot. There's a lot of there's there's a little bit more chatter and some of these mock drafts that come out each week about Brian Goodagoon's moving up. Yeah, they keep getting brought up of moving up from 52 into the high 30s into the low 40s. Don't be surprised if he does that. I think you know something else to mention to the Colby wooden trade for his I year Franklin hope like fits right into the idea of the Brian Goodagoon's philosophy to go back to that trading away a player who was not going to be here for a player that you wanted you're not losing any draft capital to get this to get this player the pure the pure Brian Goodagoon smooth. But yeah, I think the Packers have set themselves up perfectly now to draft for best player available at wherever whatever spot that is I think probably leaning towards the draft board, at least early on probably best player available, skewed by those heavy positions of needs so don't be surprised if that's you know where they're targeting but yeah I think we pretty much covered here exactly how that how the Wicks deal fits into this overall philosophy and what we're setting up for when it comes to the draft here. Yeah, just over just over a week at this point. So that will do it for us on this marvelous Monday episode we will be next week our last episode before the draft. I hope that you stick around to talk about it with all of us then and then of course the whole week leading up to the draft. Tons of content day of the draft make sure you're following all of us at pack a day podcast on all the socials. Make sure you're on the YouTube side as well and he's got the videos every single day over there. Completely separate from the podcast here so you're getting tons of content everywhere across the pack a day network. All three of us are on social media as well. I'm on blue sky at Dan on the mano guys where can people find you. You can find me on blue sky as well and I'm on Twitter I'm at for Turgus and FERD to our GSON and you can find me on blue sky Instagram and the website formerly known as Twitter at Camille Monet C A M I L O E M O N A E. Perfect. We will see everybody next week. Until then, as always stay safe and go pack go go pack go. .