A panel of 11 analysts wasn’t totally sold on the work done by GM Brian Gutekunst and the Green Bay Packers during the 2019 NFL draft. The composite score of grades handed out by the 11 analysts ranked the Packers with the 22nd best draft class in the NFL in 2019, according to Football Outsiders. The analysts include Mel Kiper of ESPN, Evan Silva of Rotoworld, Chad Reuter of NFL.com, Nate Davis of USA TODAY and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire. Take draft grades for what they are: A way-too-early and nearly impossible breakdown of a collection of college players that have never played a down in the NFL. The draft remains the ultimate crapshoot. As hard as it is to evaluate players, it’s equally hard to predict which players will handle the transition to the NFL and develop into good players. Teams get the process wrong every year. So do analysts. The quality of draft classes almost never match day-after grades, especially when two or three years of development are involved. Most of the analysts knocked the Packers for taking boom-or-bust prospect Rashan Gary at No. 12 and then trading up to No. 21 for safety Darnell Savage, who not everyone saw as a first-rounder. We’ll know if they’re onto something in a season or two. The Packers’ rookie class could be franchise-changing if Gary and Savage and one or two of the other picks hit big. It has the potential to be a disaster if neither Gary nor Savage turns into a good player. The simple interpretation here: Analysts don’t have a high level of confidence in the Packers’ draft class becoming one of the best in the class. It’s on the players – and all the coaches and other personnel at Lambeau Field – to prove the analysts wrong, as they often are when grading draft classes.<doc-sep>Devin Bush is a linebacker from Michigan who was named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year in 2018. (0:44) We tracked every first-round trade made leading up to and during the 2019 NFL draft. Here are all of the latest draft-day deals. Follow along with every round here, and track the best available prospects here. Draft-day trades The Pittsburgh Steelers moved up in the draft to select Devin Bush, an athletic, sub-240-pound linebacker who has elite closing speed and toughness. The Michigan linebacker diagnoses quickly and finds the ball -- he collected 194 career tackles, including 19.5 for loss and 10 sacks. The Broncos received the Steelers' No. 20 pick and No. 52 pick in addition to Pittsburgh's third-round selection in 2020, a source told ESPN's Field Yates. SEA trades No. 21 to GB The Green Bay Packers moved up to get safety help in Darnell Savage Jr., who has top-tier speed, awareness, coverage skills and quick-twitch agility. The Seattle Seahawks were had only five picks coming into the draft and multiple needs. The Packers traded picks No. 30 (first round), No. 114 (fourth) and No. 118 (fourth). BAL trades No. 22 to PHI The Philadelphia Eagles want to keep quarterback Carson Wentz upright and traded up to do it. Dillard has a coveted skill set in pass protection with his footwork and quickness. The Baltimore Ravens received the No. 25 pick (first round), No. 125 (fourth) and No. 197 (sixth). IND trades No. 26 to WAS The Washington Redskins traded up to get defensive end Montez Sweat, who was timed faster than 31 of the wide receivers who ran the 40-yard dash at the combine. The Indianapolis Colts traded their first-round pick for the No. 46 overall pick in the second round and a 2020 second-round pick. Colts general manager Chris Ballard hinted of a possible trade on his way out of his pregame news conference Monday. "We'll be together Thursday," he said then. "Or maybe not. Maybe we’ll be together Friday.” The Colts will have the Nos. 34, 46 and 59 picks in the second round Friday. SEA trades No. 30 to NYG The New York Giants moved up to select cornerback Deandre Baker, whose ability to diagnose routes and desire to compete cannot be understated. Baker didn't give up any touchdowns in coverage the past two seasons at Georgia. The Seahawks got the Nos. 37, 132 and 142 picks in return. LAR trades No. 31 to ATL The Falcons made the move to draft Kaleb McGary, an offensive tackle. He was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia early in his college career but had it corrected and went on to start 47 games for Washington. The Rams traded the No. 31 and No. 203 picks for the Falcons' No. 45 and No. 79 picks. Pre-draft trades These are the trades made leading up to the NFL draft, beginning with the most recent: The Kansas City Chiefs added a significant piece to their defensive rebuild during draft week by trading a pair of draft picks to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for defensive end Frank Clark, league sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. The Chiefs parted with their first-round draft choice, and the teams will exchange third-round picks. The Chiefs also will send the lower of their two 2020 second-round draft picks to the Seahawks. The New York Giants traded Odell Beckham Jr. to the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster deal in March. The Giants received the Browns' first-round pick and second third-round pick (95th overall), along with safety Jabrill Peppers. The Dallas Cowboys acquired wide receiver Amari Cooper from the Oakland Raiders for a 2019 first-round pick in October. "I hate to see good players go, but I was on the practice field when [former GM Reggie McKenzie] came to me and said the Cowboys would do this for a No. 1, and I said, 'Let's do it,'" Raiders coach Jon Gruden told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. The Chicago Bears gave up first-round picks in 2019 and 2020, a third-round pick in 2020 and a sixth-round pick in 2019 to acquire pass-rusher Khalil Mack from the Oakland Raiders in September 2018. In return, the Bears also received a second-round pick in 2020 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2020. The New Orleans Saints made a major trade in the 2018 NFL draft to move up in the first round to select defensive end Marcus Davenport with the 14th overall pick. The Saints traded their first-round pick (No. 27), a fifth-rounder (No. 147) and their first-round pick in 2019 to the Green Bay Packers to land Davenport, a former Texas-San Antonio star.<doc-sep>Gary is enormous, fast (4.58 40), strong (26 bench press reps) and able to jump (38-inch vertical, 120-inch broad). He’s aggressive and disruptive and he seems like he should be dominant. But after three years of Gary simply trying to plow his way through the line — a strategy that resulted in just 9.5 total sacks — it is safe to say that his technique could use some refinement. The disparity between what it seems like he should do and what he has done created a fairly enormous rift in which some evaluators considered him a top-10 player while others had him in the late teens or early 20s. How he fits: The Packers continue to avoid first-round skill players at all costs — the team hasn’t drafted one since Aaron Rodgers in 2005 — and go with Gary, a combine star who has never played as well as people have expected him to. Coach Matt LaFleur will be worried about installing a new offense, but Green Bay will have to find a way to coach Gary in a way that unlocks his enormous athletic potential. 13: Miami Dolphins: Christian Wilkins, DT Clemson 6-foot-3, 315 pounds A quick player who rarely makes the wrong move, Wilkins is limited by his need to stick in the scheme he prefers, with another tackle taking up space to make up for Wilkins’s lack of length and overall strength. But in the right spot he can make an enormous impact, often making head’s-up plays to swat down passes — a skill you’d expect to see in a taller player with longer arms. Wilkins graduated college in just two and a half years and has the personality to be embraced by a fan base and locker room, but first he needs to prove he can play. How he fits: Dwayne Haskins is in a bowling alley currently and he likely is very confused. The Dolphins, a team that badly need a long-term solution at quarterback passed up the best thrower in this draft, choosing to go with Wilkins, a terrific interior defender who is a worthy selection in the first half of the night but doesn’t fill nearly as big of a need as Haskins would have. 14. Atlanta Falcons: Chris Lindstrom, G Boston College 6-foot-4, 308 pounds From a family of offensive linemen, Lindstrom is big enough to handle life in the pros but is far more athletic than a typical guard. One could quibble with his length, and he could stand to increase his overall strength, but he has experience as a tackle, adding some versatility, and everything at the scouting combine suggested that his tape is an accurate portrayal of a guard who will thrive any time he is asked to move into space.<doc-sep>
Hitting on players in the later stages of the NFL Draft is critical to the success of any NFL team. It’s something that former Green Bay Packers general managers Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson did for years — turning picks in the third rounds and later into steady with regularity. Wolf was especially productive in round three over his tenure in Green Bay. Of the 14 third-round picks the team made with Wolf calling the shots, he found nine players who were multi-year starters for the team and several who have been inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame. Check out this list: Robert Brooks Earl Dotson Antonio Freeman Brian Williams William Henderson Tyrone Williams Mike Flanagan Cletidus Hunt Mike McKenzie Meanwhile, Thompson made his best hay in rounds four and five, particularly in the trenches. Brady Poppinga, Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, Mike Daniels, JC Tretter, David Bakhtiari, Dean Lowry, and Blake Martinez were all fourth-round picks in the Thompson era, and he found Corey Linsley, Micah Hyde, Marshall Newhouse, and Aaron Jones in the fifth. Meanwhile, the 2018 Draft seems to have Brian Gutekunst off to a decent start in the later rounds, thanks to some impressive rookie seasons from a pair of day-three wide receivers. However, he is also earning early praise for two picks in this year’s draft. Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner listed the 15 most underrated picks in rounds three and up from this April’s selection meeting, and two Packers picks are on his list. Interestingly, the two were college teammates in 2018. First up, Renner is excited about the selection of third-round tight end Jace Sternberger, taken with the 75th overall pick: Sternberger played just 49 snaps in his college career before last season at Texas A&M, and it’s safe to say he was worth the wait. After transferring from Kansas to A&M, the 6-foot-4, 250-pounder earned the highest receiving grade among all tight ends in FBS. He had seven more big-time catches than any other tight end last season. Sternberger might not be a great athlete, but he makes up for it with fantastic ball skills and crisp routes. Although PFF grading weighs heavily into this analysis, it’s easy to see from the tape why Renner gets so excited here. And while tight ends usually take a while to make an impact in the NFL, waiting until round three to draft one ensures that the team does not need him to become a game-changer as a rookie. Renner then mentions Sternberger’s Texas A&M teammate, Kingsley Keke, as the other great value that Gutekunst found: The Senior Bowl was made for players like Keke. He’d flashed talent at Texas A&M, but he played a role there that likely wasn’t going to best suit his talents at the NFL level. Over 60 percent of Keke’s snaps last season came outside the tackle. At 288 pounds, he’s far more suited for the 3-technique defensive tackle in the NFL. Rushing from that position at the Senior Bowl, Keke had the highest win rate and grade of any player in the pass-rushing one-on-ones. This is a fascinating point about Keke, one that goes along with the discussion about his ideal playing weight. It’s interesting to wonder where Keke might have been drafted had he not dropped weight and moved out from nose tackle to end as a senior, or perhaps if he had only cut a little bulk and played in the B gap instead. It’s entirely possible that the Packers may have found the next Mike Daniels in the fifth round this year, and the timing could not be better with Daniels’ contract due to expire. For now, Packers fans will be waiting another week to see these players work into OTAs with the rest of the team, as rookies have the week off. However, starting next week the rookies should start to see their roles defined a bit in practice, and in less than three months they’ll get to finally start strapping on the pads for full-contact practices in training camp.