In a two-round mock draft at ESPN.com, Field Yates used the Green Bay Packers’ first-round pick on Georgia edge Mykel Williams. What about the need at receiver?
The Green Bay Packers’ running game was one of the best in the NFL last season. So was their run defense. Where the Packers need to improve in order to compete for the Super Bowl is the passing game on both sides of the ball.
In a new mock draft by ESPN.com’s Field Yates, the Packers selected Georgia defensive end Mykel Williams in the first round and TCU receiver Jack Bech in the second round.
The Packers finished eighth in sacks and 10th in sack percentage last season but were 16th in pressure rate. Rashan Gary is still seeking a 10-sack season and Lukas Van Ness was actually less impactful in 2024 than he was as a rookie in 2023.
Noting that an improved pass rush would allow defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley to diversify his coverage schemes, Yates selected Williams, who fits the Packers’ big-guy mold better than Tennessee’s James Pearce and Boston College’s Donovan Ezeiruaku, who also were available.
“He has the 6-foot-5, 260-pound frame and 34 3/8-inch arm length to get into the chest of blockers and swat passes at the line of scrimmage,” Yates wrote. “He’s coming off an ankle injury that limited him in 2024, and I think major improvement is ahead for the 20-year-old.”
That ankle injury, suffered in the opener against Clemson, limited Williams to five sacks in 2024. He didn’t have any in the first four games but had a pair of two-sack games against Texas.
“Mykel Williams, gosh, I just wish we could have seen him healthy,” NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said before the Scouting Combine. “If he doesn’t get hurt in that Clemson game and we see him at full strength, I think we’re talking about him as another top 10 lock who has a lot of freaky qualities to him, freaky traits to him.
“He can really get off the ball. He’s got a lot of power and violence as a rusher. He can set the edge. It’s just perfection. Hasn’t been great, but that’s because the guy wasn’t healthy all year long.”
What about receiver, which is practically a dire need considering how the group played last season and that Christian Watson is out with a torn ACL?
Yates went with Bech, who had 43 catches as LSU as a freshman in 2019 and 62 receptions for 1,034 yards (16.7 average) and nine touchdowns as a senior at TCU. Beyond the obvious numbers, Bech was excellent in contested-catch situations (65.0 percent) and boasts some of the best hands in the draft (1.6 percent drops).
At 6-foot-1 1/4 and 214 pounds, he did not run a 40-yard dash at the Scouting Combine – speed is not his forte – but his other testing results gave him a Relative Athletic Score of 9.26.
“I just feel like route running and catching the ball” are his strengths, he said at the Combine. “I feel like I have the best hands in this draft class. That comes with just a lot of hard work, you know, after practice, trying to catch the most JUGS, not only on the team but out of anybody in the country, day in and day out. There wasn’t a practice that I skipped, where I wasn’t out there catching extra JUGS balls. That’s just where my confidence comes from.”
He was a star during Senior Bowl week, including the game-winning touchdown about a month after his brother, Tiger, was killed during a terrorist attack in New Orleans.
“Man, it’s simple: My brother has some wings on me,” Bech told NFL Network after the game. “He gave them to me, and he let that all take place. My Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Tiger. Nothing else but them. They’re the reason I did what I did today. I attribute it all to them.”
Stanford’s Elic Ayomanor, another quality receiver option, went one pick later.
The Packers didn’t get a cornerback in this two-round mock. Between their spots at No. 23 and No. 54, Texas’ Jahdae Barron, Kentucky’s Maxwell Hairston, Mississippi’s Trey Amos, Florida State’s Azareye’h Thomas, East Carolina’s Shavon Revel and Notre Dame’s Benjamin Morrison were selected.