Abundance of picks give Packers flexibility in draft

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers will have six of the first 150 selections in the NFL draft, according to the official draft order released Tuesday.

It will mark the second time in three years the Packers have gone into the draft with six of the top 150.

All totaled, the Packers have 12 picks, including the 14th overall.

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Four of the picks are compensatory selections awarded based on the free-agent losses the Packers suffered last year. Another pick — in the seventh round — comes from Buffalo in a trade two years ago of linebacker Lerentee McCray.

The Packers own all seven of their own picks and they pick alternately in the 14th, 13th and 12th spots of each round with Cincinnati and Washington, the other two teams that finished 7-9 last season.

This is the second year the NFL is allowing compensatory picks to be traded so all the Packers’ picks are eligible to be dealt.

At the NFL scouting combine last week, general manager Brian Gutekunst said there is typically no point in the draft where the talent takes a nosedive, so the 150th spot is not a cutoff spot. But he said having all the extra picks allows him a greater opportunity to move around the board.

“We always talk about, ‘Does the board hold up during the draft?’” Gutekunst said. “As you’re building it, you have that in the back of your mind. We kind of have an idea of the numbers we need to have at those spots we’re picking.

“At the same time, where we pick may change drastically from the time the draft starts until the end. I think the big thing is you get the value of the player right and you understand who you’re taking. That’s more important than whether there’s a sharp drop or anything like that.”

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The last time the Packers had six picks in the top 150, they chose Kenny Clark, Jason Spriggs, Kyler Fackrell, Blake Martinez and Dean Lowry with those selections, trading away one of the picks to move up in the second round and take Spriggs.

Here are the Packers’ 2018 selections, by round:

» First (14th overall)

» Second (45th)

» Third (76th)

» Fourth (114th)

» Fourth (133rd) Compensatory

» Fifth (150th)

» Fifth (172nd) Compensatory

» Fifth (174th) Compensatory

» Sixth (186th)

» Sixth (207th) Compensatory

» Seventh (232nd)

» Seventh (239th) From Buffalo