Recent Green Bay 1st Rounders...

Before getting into this year’s NFL draft, lets look at a little Packer draft history. The 5 best and worst first rounders since 1990, the infamous Tony Mandarich draft.

Tony the Turnstile pumped up on roids.

Best – Wow, this is actually pretty hard. A few solid players, but I don’t think anybody in this list is a multiple pro bowler. Barnett and Hawk eventually could be:

1) Nick Barnett – Productive LB for 4 seasons now
2) Vonnie Holliday – Solid DL until Aaron Kampman took his place
3) Tony Bennett – Underrated LB who retired as GB’s 4th all-time sack master
4) Aaron Taylor – Injury prone OG who was a key cog on the Super Bowl teams.
5) AJ Hawk – Should climb this list with every passing year.
Honorable Mention – George Teague for blasting T.O. on the Dallas star back in 2000…who cares if he wasn’t a Packer at the time.

Worst – Plenty to choose from here as Ron Wolf seemed to draft wiser in the later rounds, Ted Thompson’s first pick (Rodgers) is still an unknown, and Mike Sherman was just plain clueless:

1) Jamal Reynolds – Not only was he terrible, Sherman traded picks to move up and draft this bust.
2) Ahmad Carroll – Seemingly got burnt or called for pass interference every time they threw his way. I’m not saying this for effect, either…it was almost EVERY TIME.
3) John Michels – A false start and holding machine.
4) Vinnie Clark – Who? I can’t even picture this guy?
5) T-Buck – Ended up having a pretty decent NFL career, just not with the Pack. In GB, “the Greatest Athlete since Jim Thorpe” was awful…and the #5 overall pick no less.
Honorable Mention: Aaron Rodgers – Could be a serviceable NFL QB, or the next Jim Druckenmiller.

The List....
2006 5 A.J. Hawk LB Ohio State
2005 24 Aaron Rodgers QB California
2004 25 Ahmad Carroll DB Arkansas
2003 29 Nick Barnett LB Oregon State
2002 20 Javon Walker WR Florida State
2001 10 Jamal Reynolds DE Florida State
2000 14 Bubba Franks TE Miami (FL)
1999 25 Antwan Edwards DB Clemson
1998 19 Vonnie Holliday DT North Carolina
1997 30 Ross Verba G Iowa
1996 27 John Michels T USC
1995 32 Craig Newsome DB Arizona State
1994 16 Aaron Taylor T Notre Dame
1993 15 Wayne Simmons LB Clemson
1993 29 George Teague DB Alabama
1992 5 Terrell Buckley DB Florida State
1991 19 Vinnie Clark DB Ohio State
1990 18 Tony Bennett LB Mississippi
1990 19 Darrell Thompson RB Minnesota
1989 2 2 Tony Mandarich T Michigan State