The final bow has been put on the trade that sent quarterback Aaron Rodgers from the Packers to the Jets last season.
Green Bay came into the 2024 draft with the Jets’ second-round pick, but they wound up dealing away the selection — No. 41 — to the Saints for the 45th, 168th and 190th picks. They took linebacker Edgerrin Cooper at No. 45 and then traded the 168th pick to the Bills to move up five spots to select center Jacob Monk.
The Packers then traded the 190th pick to the Jets and the Jets traded it to the Eagles for the 171st pick. They took former Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis at that spot.
Rodgers, the 15th and 170th picks in the 2023 draft went to the Jets for the 13th, 42nd, and 207th picks in 2023 as well as the 2024 second-rounder. The Jets took edge rusher Will McDonald at No. 15 and traded the other pick. The Packers added edge rusher Lukas Van Ness, tight end Luke Musgrave, and kicker Anders Carlson with their 2023 picks.
In the end, Detroit saw Nashville’s 600,000 and raised it. By a lot.
Per the NFL, “over 775,000” attended the three-day draft. That surpasses the prior record, from 2019, by nearly 30 percent.
Next year, Green Bay gets its turn. The fact that a division rival drew so many people will surely be regarded as a challenge by Green Bay and all of Wisconsin to match or exceed it.
It feels like, somewhere, the draft will hit one million for the three days, sooner than later. It’s come a very long way from Radio City Music Hall, where the first night was magical and the second night was OK and the third day featured tons of empty seats. (I was present for each of the last five drafts held there.)
The league left in 2015 because of a scheduling conflict. The draft went to Chicago for two years and then to Philly and it will never look back.
The next time it’s in New York, it won’t be in Radio City Music Hall. And it will feature a lot more people. Hell, it might be held in Times Square, turning New Year’s Eve into a three-day affair.
Regardless, look for the draft to keep on moving. And look for it to keep on getting bigger and bigger.
The Packers drafted Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt with the 245th overall pick.
He joins Sean Clifford and Alex McGough on the team’s depth chart behind Jordan Love.
Pratt, 22, started 44 games in his four-year career at Tulane, finishing with a 60.6 completion percentage and 9,603 yards with 90 touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
Pratt also ran for 1,145 yards and 28 touchdowns on 447 career carries.
He is the school’s all-time leader in several categories, including total touchdowns and total offense.
In 2023, he earned AAC offensive player of the year honors despite missing two games with a left knee injury. He completed 65.4 percent of his passes for 2,406 yards with 22 touchdowns and five interceptions. Pratt also rushed for 286 yards and five touchdowns.
Several teams coveted Texas A&M linebacker Edgerrin Cooper in the second round. It was the Packers who got him.
Green Bay used the 45th overall pick on Cooper, the first linebacker off the board.
He is a three-down linebacker who had 17 tackles for loss and eight sacks last season in earning first-team All-America honors. Cooper also is a core special teams player, with 585 career snaps.
He ran a 4.51 in the 40-yard dash at the combine at 230 pounds.
Cooper, 22, should be a Day 1 starter for the Packers.
The Packers bolstered their offensive line with their top pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.
The team selected tackle Jordan Morgan with the 25th overall pick. Morgan is the seventh offensive lineman to be selected so far on Thursday night.
Morgan made starts at Arizona as a true freshman in 2019 and remained the starter at left tackle for the rest of his time at the school. He tore his ACL during the 2022 season, but returned to play 12 games and make the All-Pac 12 team last year.
The Packers released David Bakhtiari this offseason after several injury-plagued years. Rasheed Walker started in his place, but Morgan could wind up being the man to kick off his rookie season in Green Bay.