As the Green Bay Packers’ reconnaissance philosophy remains the same as Ron Wolf’s time, a rather strong grasp has been established in terms of athleticism and other characteristics in various positions during the draft.
However, exceptions are made every year, and boundaries are bent. These deviations from norm can be small or important, and there are many this year.
In the 2025 draft, Green Bay deviated from their usual criteria in seven of their eight draft picks, but also fitted with its core principles. Here is how packers bend their general guidelines this year:
Golden has the most limited sports profile drafted by the Packers in the first round since 2001, running only 40 strokes, skipping Vert and Broad Empls, and agility testing.
It seems more than ever that some players have been selected, if not all pre-test tests, which may prompt this exception.
Many believe that Green Bay generally does not have to care about sports testing this year due to the widespread lack of testing.
This is not the case. Every player selected by the Packers did at least some athletic tests, and although they did carry some incomplete players, they didn’t draft anyone who skipped the 40-yard dash.
Gutekunst talked about the pre-sourcing, discussing how skipping tests can hurt players more than they can help, and clarified its cloud or even change the prospects assessment if they don't test it. He is loyal to his words, sports testing will continue to be an important part of Green Bay draft philosophy.
Along these lines, they did not succumb to the players who brought true elite speed at true elite speed in the first round.
Since Brian Gutekunst took over as general manager, he has nine out of nine of the ten first-round picks based on the “elite” speed level of the relative sports score (RAS) system. Jordanian love is the only exception.
Golden also expanded the small range they were willing to go, at least in terms of non-stage receivers.
At 5-11 and 191 pounds, he is the minimum height/weight combination of any boundary receiver drafted by Gutekunst, and then back to the Ted Thompson era, he is smaller than Greg Jennings’ college.
Jennings just over 5-11, weighs 197 pounds, was a floor for the receivers that had been spent by packers over the past two decades.
Belton weighed at 336 pounds and was the heaviest offensive lineman to draft 15 pounds, even dating back to Thompson's era.
He actually performed heavier in college, and whether Belton was actually constantly losing weight to get closer to the usual range of Green Bay in the 320s, which was low in the 320s.
When he spoke in the media for rookie mini camp, he mentioned losing another 10 pounds, but his weight is not yet known.
The 336-pound list comes from the combine, so whether he will gain weight since then, want to lose it again, or still be on the weight, but want to get lighter, is a mystery.
The Belton Pick class is not to say that they don't actually care about the player being "too heavy" than the packer's exception or change their preferences.
There are rumors in Green Bay that would opt for offensive tackle Darnell Wright instead of Lukas Van Ness if he had been there in 2023. Wright was selected by the Bears before the Packers had a chance to seize him, and was also a big man, weighing 333 pounds.
The assumption that Green Bay is far from ridiculous offensive tackles from a height and weight perspective because you have a limit on size and still be able to bend, swing leverage and have the potential to play in it for a ball.
This assumption may be true, but it seems that the key factor is height rather than weight. Belton was 6-6, the highest offensive winger drafted in the Gutekunst/Thompson era, while Wright was less than 6-5⅓.
As long as they are not too tall, like Wright and Belton, it seems that the packers don't care about their heaviness to a certain extent. Gutekunst even joked after the draft that he often laughed at him as a scout of an oversized man in his days.
There is still something unknown about how people outside nail the Packers’ player type. It seems that this is one of them, and it is important to remember in the future that there has been a change in the team.
Contrary to common belief, packers do care about production, especially in skill positions. Savion Williams is the recipient of the lowest productivity drafted by Green Bay during the Gutekunst/Thompson era, a true recipient in terms of production.
In his best season, he only had 611 yards. The previous low for the best season was Christian Watson, who had 801 in his last year in North Dakota.
Williams does have some impressive sprint pieces to make up for this, though, he took 322 yards on the ground, tying his yards from total to 933 yards, and he also played 12 touchdowns in 2024, six touchdowns in the air and six touchdowns on the ground.
Williams' role as a Swiss Army Knife in the TCU offense, whose supplemental statistics may ease concerns about his lack of real receiver production.
Sorrell's arms are shorter than any edge-sided Gutekunst's weapons, but they are drafted at 32.5 inches, although they are longer than the Clay Matthews' in the first round pick Clay Matthews'.
If Oliver is considered edge, then his size for the Packer is a huge outlier in less than 6-1⅔ and 240 pounds.
He is 10 pounds lighter than any edge Gutekunst (although he weighs the same as Matthews), and even including Thompson Era, Nick Perry is also a previous low.
But if he was considered the body type of the defender, Oliver wouldn't break any rules, which might be what makes Green Bay comfortable, knowing that he's at least likely to play some off-ball guard, not just designated pass rushers.
In terms of 40 and 10 yard splits, Bollingson was slower than any defensive tackle, while Gutekunst's drafting fell behind Karl Brooks in 40 and 0.02 seconds apart of 40 yards, both of which are completely negligible.
Robinson weighs lighter than any corner kick drawn since 2011.
If Belton had the heaviest offensive wingman drafted by Green Bay in the Gutekunst/Thompson era earlier one day, the award would be given to John Williams, though he was only a pound heavier than Sean Rhyan and Derek Sherrod.