List of Green Bay Packers first-round draft picks

Headshot of Van Ness
Lukas Van Ness, the Packers 2023 NFL draft selection

The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since 1921, two years after their original founding by Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun.[1] They are members of the Northern Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at Lambeau Field in central Wisconsin.[2][3]

The NFL draft, officially known as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting",[4] is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment.[5] The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings; the teams with the worst win–loss records receive the earliest picks. Teams that qualified for the NFL playoffs select after non-qualifiers, and their order depends on how far they advanced, using their regular season record as a tie-breaker. The final two selections in the first round are reserved for the Super Bowl runner-up and champion. Draft picks are tradable and players or other picks can be acquired with them.[6]

The Packers participated in the first ever NFL draft in 1936 and selected Russ Letlow, a guard from the University of San Francisco.[7] The Packers have selected the number one overall pick in the draft twice, choosing Paul Hornung in 1957 and quarterback Randy Duncan in 1959. They have also selected the second overall pick three times and the third overall pick once. On 14 different occasions the Packers have had two selections in the first round, while on four occasions they have had no selections. The team's eight selections from the University of Minnesota are the most chosen by the Packers from one university.[8] Four first round draft picks by the Packers have gone on to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Hornung, Herb Adderley, Dave Robinson and James Lofton), while two have won an NFL MVP Award (Hornung and Aaron Rodgers).[9][10] John Brockington and Willie Buchanon, the team's first round selections in 1971 and 1972 won back-to-back NFL Rookie of the Year Awards (Brockington on offensive, Buchanon on defense), the only Packers' first round selections to win the award.[11][12] The team's most recent first round selection was Jordan Morgan, from Arizona, in the 2024 NFL draft.[13]

  1. ^ "History of the Green Bay Packers". Packers.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  2. ^ "2023 NFL Division Standings". NFL.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  3. ^ Lewis, Robert (December 4, 2023). "Lambeau Field". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on September 12, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  4. ^ "Index - NFL Draft - ESPNDB". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on November 14, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "NFL 2021 Draft date: when and where is it taking place?". en.as.com. February 18, 2021. Archived from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  6. ^ "The rules of the NFL Draft". NFL.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  7. ^ Christl, Cliff. "Russ Letlow". Packers.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  8. ^ "Green Bay Packers Draft History". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  9. ^ "Packers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: 33". ProFootballHoF.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2023. Retrieved January 4, 2023.
  10. ^ "AP NFL Most Valuable Player Winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  11. ^ "AP Offensive Rookie of the Year Winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  12. ^ "AP Defensive Rookie of the Year Winners". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  13. ^ Kuhagen, Christopher (April 25, 2024). "Packers pick Jordan Morgan in the first round of 2024 NFL draft. Twitter reacts to the selection". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Archived from the original on May 1, 2024. Retrieved April 26, 2024.