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 North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at Lambeau Field in central Wisconsin.[2][3] In 1936, the Packers took part in the first NFL draft of college football players and have participated in every NFL draft since. With the seventh pick of the first round of the 1936 draft, Russ Letlow, a guard out of the University of San Francisco, became the Packers' first draft selection.[4]
From 1936 to 1959, the NFL draft was the only collegiate draft for players of American football, except for the short-lived All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the late 1940s.[5] However, starting in 1960, the newly-formed American Football League (AFL) began a competing draft of the same group of collegiate players. The NFL and AFL competed for the same players from 1960 to 1966, creating a bidding war for signing draft picks and players that threatened the financial sustainability of each league. In 1967, the AFL and NFL announced a merger that would be finalized in 1970. During this time, both leagues implemented a common draft, thus avoiding competition for signing draftees.[6] In addition to the annual draft, special drafts have occurred. This included the 1950 AAFC dispersal draft and the 1984 NFL supplemental draft, where existing NFL teams, including the Packers, were able to select players from other leagues. The AAFC dispersal draft was organized after the AAFC merged with the NFL; three teams from the AAFC were admitted into the NFL, while most of the remaining players from the other five AAFC teams were placed in the dispersal draft.[7][8] The 1984 supplemental draft occurred after the formation of the United States Football League (USFL) with the primary purpose of selecting players that had already signed with a USFL team in a separate process from the annual draft (the Canadian Football League [CFL] was also included in this supplemental draft).[9] In addition to the 1984 supplemental draft, since 1977 the NFL has hosted an annual supplemental draft for players who had circumstances affect their eligibility for the NFL draft.[10] The Packers have only selected a player once in a supplemental draft, taking Mike Wahle in the second round in 1998.[4] With this selection, the Packers forfeited their normal second round pick in the 1998 NFL draft.[11] Additionally, eight expansion drafts occurred, with the most recent in 2002, where newly formed NFL teams were allowed to draft players from existing NFL teams within certain limitations.[12][13]
Throughout the history of the NFL draft, the number of rounds and the number of picks has fluctuated significantly, depending on the number of teams in the NFL. Thus with 32 teams in the NFL since 2002, there have been 32 standard draft picks per round.[14] The number of rounds peaked to 30 in the years during and after World War II, although that number has been routinely reduced down to the current seven rounds per draft.[15] The order of the draft selection is derived from the previous season's final standings, with the worst team in the league selecting first and the champion selecting last.[16] However, for 12 years from 1947 to 1958, the first overall pick was chosen by a lottery, with that selection replacing what would have been the team's original first-round selection based on their record the previous season. When a team won the lottery, they were then removed from the next year's lottery.[17] The Packers won the last of these lotteries in the 1957 NFL draft, using their bonus pick to select future Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Hornung.[18]
Including Hornung, the Packers have selected 13 players who ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.[4] Under the oversight of scout Jack Vainisi, 10 of these players were selected over a 7-year period from 1952 to 1958, culminating in the 1958 NFL draft where the Packers selected future All-Pro Dan Currie and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Taylor, Ray Nitschke and Jerry Kramer successively in the first four rounds.[4][19] This draft has been identified as one of the most successful in the history of the NFL.[19][20][21] Vainisi's guidance also led to the Packers drafting quarterback Bart Starr in the 17th round of the 1956 NFL draft;[21] Starr would go on to lead the Packers to five NFL Championships and became one of the lowest drafted players to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.[22][23] On three separate occasions, Packers draft picks have won the Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award: John Brockington (1971), Willie Buchanon (1972) and Eddie Lacy (2013).[24][25] The Packers have had the first selection in a draft twice, in 1957 with Hornung and two years later in 1959, when they selected quarterback Randy Duncan.[4] Duncan signed with the CFL and never played for the Packers.[26] They have also only had the second pick twice: Mike McCoy in 1970 and Tony Mandarich in 1989.[4] The selection of Mandarich has been much maligned over the years.[27][28] Of the first five picks of the 1989 NFL draft, Mandarich was the only one to not be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders, who were all available to the Packers with the second pick, were chosen after Mandarich with picks three, four and five.[29] The Packers participated in in the most recent draft in 2023, selecting 13 players over 7 rounds, including Lukas Van Ness as their first-round draft pick.[30]