Green Bay Packers: Greatest Draft Class Of The Last 20 Years

The Green Bay Packers have been able to sustain success over the past 20 years. Mostly this is due to the fact that the quarterback position has been solid for the last three decades, with Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers being Hall-of-Fame caliber players. However, the Packers have also been able to find talent in the draft, which has helped sustain success. This leads to the question, what is the greatest draft class for the Green Bay Packers in the past 20 years?

Green Bay Packers Greatest Draft Class In The Past 20 Years

This was actually harder than I thought it was going to be. While the Packers have seen many great players grace the field for them, they all came from varying draft classes. Most of the draft classes have one all-time great Packer surrounded by a bunch of people I (a Packers fan) have never heard of. After doing a deep dive into the classes, I did come up with one that is the best in the past 20 years, the 2009 draft class.

The 2009 Draft Class

Round 1 (9): B.J. Raji DT

Round 1 (26): Clay Matthews LB

Round 4: (109): T.J. Lang T

Round 5: (145): Quinn Johnson RB

Round 5: (162): Jamon Meredith T

Round 6: (182): Jarius Wynn DE

Round 6: (187): Brandon Underwood DB

Round 7: (218): Brad Jones LB

Ignore everyone picked after round four. All of these players made minimal impact on the Packers’ roster. The top three, however, are what make this class the best one. All three of those players were essential to the Green Bay Packers winning a Super Bowl in the 2010 season.

B.J. Raji

Raji is best known for this pick-six, and subsequent touchdown dance, in the NFC Championship game against the Chicago Bears. His stats will never jump off the page, but that is because he played his role so well. He was the stopper in the middle of the defensive line. For years, Gilbert Brown anchored the line and run defense, and Raji was slated to be the next one. He was for the first part of his career but stepped away from football after the 2015 season.

Clay Matthews

You do not have to be a Green Bay Packers fan to know who Clay Matthews is. He played ten seasons for the team and racked up 83.5 sacks, six interceptions, and five fumbles recovered. The biggest of those came in the Super Bowl, where he had a huge fumble recovery that shifted the momentum. He was a fan favorite whose impact on the field was felt all over.

T.J. Lang

Stats are often difficult to quantify for offensive linemen. However, the offensive line of the early 2010s was a huge reason why Aaron Rodgers and the offense were able to put up such staggering numbers. Lang played a total of 119 games for the Packers and started 94 of them.

Impact On The Super Bowl

The main reason why I picked 2005 as the greatest draft class for the Green Bay Packers was the impact these players had in their Super Bowl run. Winning a Super Bowl is the ultimate goal, so drafting players who helped bring a championship to the city is what made this class stand out. Many other players have come through, but not many had this many players that impacted winning.

Other Possible Classes

I want to give you a view of how hard this was to choose. Here are the notable players from each class. The rest of the players in the class flamed out or rarely saw the field. These are just the players that actually did something for the team.

2003: Nick Barnett

2004: Scott Wells

2005: Aaron Rodgers, Nick Collins

2006: A.J. Hawk, Greg Jennings

2007: James Jones, Mason Crosby

2008: Jordy Nelson, Josh Sitton, Jermichael Finley

2010: Bryan Bulaga, James Starks

2011: Randall Cobb

2012: Mike Daniels

2013: David Bakhtiari, Micah Hyde, Maybe Eddie Lacy?

2014: Davante Adams, Corey Linsley, Shoutout to Richard Rodgers here, who caught the Hail Mary against the Lions.

2015: I’m going to pretend this class doesn’t exist.

2016: Kenny Clark, Blake Martinez, Dean Lowry

2017: Jamaal Williams, Aaron Jones

2018: Jaire Alexander, Marques Valdes-Scatling

2019: Rashan Gary, Elgton Jenkins

2020: AJ Dillon, Jon Runyan Jr., and hopefully Jordan Love

2021: Eric Stokes, Josh Myers

Some of them have a borderline three players, but most have two solid players, and the rest are nobodies. To put it in baseball terms, it seems the Green Bay Packers either hit a home run or strike out on three straight pitches that are all outside the strike zone.

The 2022 Class

I wanted to mention the most recent class as I briefly considered them. Quay Walker, Devonte Wyatt, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Kingsley Enagbare all played significant, meaningful snaps last season. They weren’t just on the field, either. All of these players contributed to winning in some shape or form last year. If this class continues to flourish, they will easily take over the title of the greatest draft class for the Packers.

While the classes as a whole haven’t been good, the team has been able to find All-Pro talent nearly every year for the past 20 years (Again, not talking about 2015). This has led the Packers to be able to dominate the NFC North. Will the Packers continue their draft dominance and continue success? The 2023 draft has many interesting prospects, and the Green Bay Packers have significant holes. This draft could see the next wave of great players, especially on the offense.