Carl Bradford was the 121st overall choice in the April draft, and he’s motivated to prove he should have been selected sooner. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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Green Bay — He'll keep the list in Green Bay with him this season, the one with 12 names on it.

These 12 linebackers were drafted ahead of Carl Bradford. From Khalil Mack to Anthony Hitchens, Bradford will be watching.

"I keep track of it, man," Bradford said. "And I use that as motivation."

Julius Peppers will attract the summer spotlight. But the Green Bay Packers did add another linebacker this off-season. This one, 13 years younger, could inject new life into Dom Capers' reconfigured defense, too. Ultimately, Bradford says, he's competing against himself. And he repeats there's "nothing but love" for these other linebackers.

But drafted 121st overall in May's NFL draft, in the fourth round, Bradford isn't forgetting the choices other teams made.

He's reading articles about them. He'll inevitably compare himself to them.

"We'll see where I land at the end of all this," Bradford said.

The No. 1 adjustment for the former Arizona State edge rusher? Learning to drop into coverage.

Early last fall, Sun Devils head coach Todd Graham did toy with Bradford in coverage. He got creative with the X's and O's, moving Bradford around. Quickly, Graham realized this was classic over-thinking. Bradford was best teeing off on the quarterback at their "Devil backer" position.

So thinking back, Bradford estimates he dropped into coverage "two or three" times per game, and even those were elementary curl-flat drops. In Green Bay, this is his learning curve, the first step toward making other teams pay for passing on him.

Speeding this transition up starts in the film room.

"Watching, rewinding, watching," Bradford said. "Learning from the vets and just going out there and repping it. I got a lot of reps out here in this minicamp and OTAs, but I know when camp comes around it's going to be more of a mental game for me."

In Green Bay's defense, he added, linebackers need to learn virtually all the drops defensive backs do. Simultaneously, Bradford is trying to learn the drop responsibilities of others for when he passes off receivers mid-play.

True, the Packers drafted Bradford to get the quarterback. That's his forte. At Arizona State, the relentless rusher had 20 sacks his last two seasons.

Yet in the NFL, pass rushers don't have a game-long green light. They're moving forward...and backward.

"It's a little different..., not doing what I'm used to," Bradford said. "It takes some adapting to, but I'm a smart player and I believe that I can learn fast. And that's what I'm doing.

"When I first got here, (my head) was spinning. It was a foreign language to me, just coming in as a rush end. But now that I've got this under my belt, and the film study, I feel way more comfortable."

The reason Bradford slipped into Day 3 of the draft is no mystery. He was a 6-foot-1 OLB/DE prospect with 30½-inch arms. By comparison, Andy Mulumba has 327/8-inch arms and Nick Perry has 33-inch arms. When swiping past offensive tackles, length matters. Measurables matter.

Yet ideal measurables haven't always panned out opposite Clay Matthews. Perry had the scary combination of size, speed and strength, yet has started 11 games in two seasons due to injury. Ricky Elmore was 6 foot 4 and lasted one training camp. They let Erik Walden walk. Many others come, go.

In Bradford, the Packers took the pass rusher that doesn't fit the cookie-cutter, 3-4 blueprint.

Bradford understands why he was the 13th linebacker taken.

"Not tall enough. Arms too short," he said. "I have something in my heart, and that's the will to win."

This is what the Packers are banking on when camp opens July 26. In those telling 1-on-1 drills, they'll know quickly if Bradford can beat NFL-quality tackles.

Heading into the NFL draft, he thought he'd go in the second round. Instead, Bradford went in the fourth.

He'll be keeping that list of linebackers in his dorm room at St. Norbert College through training camp. Bradford wrote down his personal goals, too. "See it, believe it," he says.

"I've always been a sleeper," Bradford said. "Everybody sleeps on me, even in college. I just do what I got to do and I'll get noticed."

This might all sound familiar. Bradford isn't the first Packers linebacker to feel snubbed on draft day.

Moments after going in the fifth round in 2012, inside linebacker Terrell Manning declared himself the best linebacker in the draft. A year of zero defensive snaps later, Manning still believed he was better than Luke Kuechly. He was cut. And from San Diego to Minnesota to the New York Giants, Manning is still fighting to make a NFL roster in Year 3.

Bradford hopes to write a different script.

List in hand.

"I just love competing," he said. "That's the reason I do it — competing."