This is the second article in a multi-part series that will attempt to project what the Green Bay Packers’ draft board will look like at each position in the 2018 NFL Draft.

With Ted Thompson as the team’s general manager, the Green Bay Packers have been notorious in their rigidity in regards to athletic testing thresholds, at least at certain specific positions. Prior to the 2017 NFL Draft, the Packers tended to stick to similar requirements for all of their defensive backs, whether cornerbacks or safeties.

As always, Justis Mosqueda’s work last year helped to develop these practical thresholds based on previous draft picks. However, the selection of second-round safety Josh Jones threw one of those cutoffs for a loop.

Justis defined the cutoffs as follows: height at least 5-foot-10 7/8, 40 time of 4.57 seconds or less, and 3-cone time of 6.87 seconds or less, and with other reporting we expect that the height cutoff is actually about 5-foot-10 5/8. However, Jones’ 3-cone time was quite a bit slower than the cutoff, running that drill in a reported 7.05 seconds at his Pro Day. There are some possibilities here; one, the team looked at Jones as a linebacker rather than a safety. Two, the front office was willing to overlook Jones’ slow time in that drill due to his excellent testing in other areas (4.41 40, 37.5-inch vertical, 11-foot broad jump). Finally, the Packers may have taken a flier on Jones because they may have seen him as a falling talent.

In any case, Jones’ selection likely happened with the recommendation of Brian Gutekunst, who was the person who initially scouted Jones and who now sits in the GM chair.

What this tells us is that Gutekunst likely is not entirely hung up on a cutoff for a 3-cone time for safeties, meaning that we do need to consider safeties and potentially corners with slower times in that drill as well. That is a part of the reason why we expended our look out to cornerbacks with cone times up to 6.95 seconds, and for safeties we’re looking as far out as Jones’ 7.05-second time.

The other reason for this expansion is due to the Packers’ pre-draft visits with safeties this year. They have reportedly met with three safeties on top-30 visits, and two of them have cone times that fall above the 6.87-second threshold.

When looking at the top 20 players on each of the free safety and strong safety rankings from NFLDraftScout.com, we find six players in total who meet all of the thresholds Justis defined (using the 5105 height requirement), one more who would be likely to meet all the cutoffs, and six who fall within the expanded range for 3-cone times.