A six-week review of the NFC North's 2021 draft class seems to suggest Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst did pretty darn well without the help of Aaron Rodgers and his overinflated sense of personnel expertise.
Coming off consecutive 13-3 seasons and trips to the NFC Championship Game, the Packers presumably went into this year's draft with the strongest of the four 53-man rosters. And yet their rookie draft picks now lead the division in games played (43), snaps on offense/defense (1,068) and are tied with Detroit's class for most starts (15).
One would expect Detroit to have 15 starts and 1,055 non-special teams snaps from rookie draftees. The Lions were 5-11 last year and are still full of holes as the NFL's only winless team this season.
But the Packers? They were the NFC's No. 1 seed a year ago. They are 5-1. They have won five in a row, joining the Ravens (5-1), Cowboys (5-1) and Cardinals (6-0) as the only teams with winning streaks of at least five games.
The Bears, who made the playoffs at 8-8 last year, had a seven-man draft class that's down to a division-low four players still on the active roster. Those four have 447 non-special teams snaps, 18 games played and six starts. Quarterback Justin Fields has six of the games played, four starts and 272 snaps.
The Vikings, who went 7-9 last year, drafted a division-high 11 players. Six of them haven't played. The five who have played have posted division lows in starts (one) and non-special teams snaps (126).
Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman was asked Tuesday if he is disappointed with the early lack of production from this year's draft class.
"I wouldn't say disappointed," he said.