Friday NFL Scouting Combine Review: WR/TE interviews, DB workouts

This safety class is SLOW

When we asked our readership which position was the Green Bay Packers’ biggest position of need entering the 2023 offseason, 37 percent of you said safety — the top vote-getter. While this safety class of draft prospects wasn’t expected to be particularly strong, there were still high hopes that a few of them would break out in Indianapolis on Friday.

Unfortunately, they — as a group — had the worst performance of any position group at this year’s combine, at least so far. According to Hayden Winks of Underdog Fantasy, the average 40-yard dash time of a drafted safety is 4.52 seconds. Among the 13 highest-rated safeties on the consensus draft board, including two who actually worked out at cornerback (Alabama’s Brian Branch and LSU’s Jay Ward), only one safety ran a better-than-average number: Illinois’ Sydney Brown.

Brown measured in under 5’10”, which is shorter than any Packer drafted under either former general manager Ted Thompson or current general manager Brian Gutekunst — outside of the running back position. To say the least, the chances that Green Bay addresses the position early on in the draft diminished on Friday, despite the fact that Adrian Amos and Rudy Ford — two of the Packers’ top three safeties — are set to be unrestricted free agents in a little over a week.

Live from Indianapolis, the Acme Packing Company crew talk about the status of the safety class following their on-field performances, if the Packers can pivot to cornerback by switching Rasul Douglas to safety and which tight ends and receivers are interesting to keep track of ahead of their Saturday workouts.

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