The Green Bay Packers pick No. 25 in the 2024 NFL draft; these are the players to remember (and forget) taken there in the past
The Green Bay Packers will have the No. 25 pick in the 2024 NFL draft, the same slot where Santonio Holmes, Brandon Aiyuk and Tim Tebow were once taken.
Here's a look at a brief history of NFL draft pick No. 25.
The 2023 draft pick at No. 25: Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo
Kincaid was a player who many mock drafts had connected to the Packers at No. 13, but the Utah tight end tumbled to this spot and had a solid first year. Kincaid caught 73 passes for 673 yards and two touchdowns, ranking 10th among tight ends in yardage in the NFL. The down side: second-rounder Sam LaPorta of Detroit became the clear-cut best tight end in the draft, with 889 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns, en route to second-team All-Pro distinction.
The 2022 draft pick at No. 25: Tyler Linderbaum, Baltimore
The center out of Iowa immediately became a force for the Ravens and has started 32 games out of a possible 34 in his first two years. He made the Pro Bowl in 2023 after finishing with offensive rookie of the year votes in 2022 − not easy to do for an offensive lineman.
Eleven other interesting players taken at No. 25 in the NFL draft
Travis Etienne, Jacksonville (2021)
The running back from Clemson had an excellent 2023 season, garnering offensive player of the year votes after rushing for 1,008 yards and 11 touchdowns, plus logging another 476 yards receiving. It marked his second straight 1,000-yard season after he missed all of what would have been his rookie season because of a Lisfranc foot injury suffered in the preseason.
Brandon Aiyuk, San Francisco (2020)
Aiyuk made second-team All-Pro at receiver for the 49ers in 2023 after catching seven touchdown passes and racking up 1,342 receiving yards. Aiyuk, who played at Arizona State, has had a productive four years in the league and represents an interesting sliding door for the Packers; if San Francisco hadn't jumped ahead of the Packers in the 2020 draft and taken Aiyuk, it seems likely Green Bay would have selected him; instead, Green Bay traded up to grab quarterback Jordan Love.
Shaq Thompson, Carolina (2015)
The linebacker has now spent nine seasons with the Panthers, starting 108 games and racking up 717 tackles, although he was limited to just two games last season.
Xavier Rhodes, Minnesota (2013)
The three-time Pro Bowl cornerback out of Florida State also made first-team All-Pro in 2017 and has 13 career interceptions and 92 passes defended. He stayed with the Vikings for seven years and then played with Indianapolis in 2020 and 2021.
Dont'a Hightower, New England (2012)
The linebacker spent nine years in the NFL, all with the Patriots, after getting selected out of Alabama. That included 117 games played, two Pro Bowl appearances, a second-team All-Pro nod and 569 career tackles.
Tim Tebow, Denver (2010)
The Heisman Trophy winner at Florida had a brief NFL career but not a small place in the NFL consciousness, thanks to his controversial prospect acumen, his media-friendly personality and a notable playoff thriller in 2011 in which he led the Broncos to an overtime win over Pittsburgh.
Jon Beason, Carolina (2007)
The linebacker out of Miami made an instant splash, taking second in the defensive rookie of the year voting, then made first-team All-Pro in his second year, with a second-team season to follow. He made three Pro Bowls in all during a huge four-year start to his career, but a torn Achilles short-circuited his career thereafter.
Santonio Holmes, Pittsburgh (2006)
The Ohio State wide receiver never made a Pro Bowl but did make one of the most memorable catches in Super Bowl history to give the Steelers a victory over Arizona in the 2008 season. In nine years with the Steelers, Jets and Bears, he caught 36 touchdown passes.
Ted Washington, San Francisco (1991)
A four-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle drafted out of Louisville, he made first-team All-Pro once and second-team another time, clogging up the middle for the 49ers, Bills, Broncos, Bears, Patriots, Raiders and Browns over a 17-year career. In 2003, he won a Super Bowl at age 35 with the Patriots.
Stanley Morgan, New England (1977)
The wide receiver out of Tennessee made four Pro Bowls, spending all but one of his 14 years in the NFL with the Patriots. He led the league in yards per reception three straight years from 1979-81.
Boyd Dowler, Green Bay (1959)
The two-time Pro Bowl pick out of Colorado became a Packers Hall of Famer who was named AP rookie of the year in 1959. He evolved into an underrated part of the Packers dynasty, with five championship rings to his credit. He set a career high in receptions in 1967 with 54, a season capped with a title in Super Bowl II.
Other Packers taken at No. 25 in the NFL draft
Ahmad Carroll (2004). The defensive back from Arkansas collected three interceptions in two years with the Packers but ultimately didn't work out, and he was gone midway through the 2006 season and out of the league after 2009.
Antuan Edwards (1999). Drafted out of Clemson, he stayed in Green Bay through 2003, finishing with seven interceptions and 167 combined tackles. But like Carroll, he's regarded as a miss in Packers first-round history.
Don Horn (1967). The quarterback from San Diego State spent four years in Green Bay as Bart Starr's backup and did see the field in 20 games (six starts), winning four of five that he started in 1969. He had a 410-yard passing game in 1969 in a win over the St. Louis Cardinals, with five touchdowns. He was on the roster for the Ice Bowl and subsequent win in Super Bowl II.
Loe Ferry (1949). The defensive tackle from Villanova played in 12 games for Green Bay in 1949 but spent the rest of his six-year NFL career elsewhere, including four seasons in Pittsburgh.
Bernie Scherer (1936). The end from Nebraska played in 35 career games, including 26 over three years in Green Bay, with 193 receptions as a Packer and three touchdowns.
Four NFL draft ‘busts’ at No. 25
Calling a player a “bust” is often a dicey proposition, but there are plenty of players who haven't worked out.
William Joseph, New York Giants (2003). The Giants selected the defensive tackle out of Miami, and he lasted six seasons in the NFL, but he didn't have production that equated to a first-round pick. More than that, the picks that immediately followed included Kansas City running back Larry Johnson, Green Bay linebacker Nick Barnett and Oakland cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, all of whom became elite players.
Jon Harris, Philadelphia (1997). Future Packers coach Ray Rhodes was responsible for the selection of the defensive end out of Virginia, and even said that Packers general manager Ron Wolf had raved about Harris. But Harris was surprised to be taken so early, and the 6-foot-7, 300-pounder spent only two seasons in the league, with eight starts and two sacks.
Billy Milner, Miami (1995). The offensive tackle taken out of Houston played all 16 games as a rookie and made nine starts, then appeared in the playoffs, but he lost his starting job the following year and was dealt to the Rams in his sophomore season. A neck injury limited his career to just two seasons.
Tommy Maddox, Denver (1992). Dan Reeves intended to groom Maddox, a quarterback out of UCLA, as the eventual replacement for John Elway. But Reeves was fired after the season, and the Broncos traded Maddox to the Rams in 1994. Elway went on to win two Super Bowls, and Maddox was out of the league in 2005 (but was an MVP in the XFL and started 32 games for the Steelers over the next five seasons).
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Packers pick No. 25; here's good, bad taken with that NFL draft choice
