Sports

The Pack did what, and then took who?

Love him or hate him, Green Bay’s selection of quarterback Jordan Love – and the rest of the team’s draft picks for that matter – got Packers’ fans talking. And posting. Tweeting, too.

Jeff Goetz wondered if Green Bay’s general manager threw darts at a board to make his picks and Kyle James claimed the Packers’ president only cares about filling seats.

Jon Henseler compared the unfavorable draft grades’ the so-called experts gave the Packers to those he got his last semester in college and Jacob Zastrow vented on social media as if giving his followers a play-by-play of his disapproval.

*Zastrow, a 2006 graduate of Sheboygan South, started his Facebook posts April 23 by writing “DRAFT DAY” followed by four emojis – including a cheesehead – and then “Go Pack Gooooo.”

However, his spirits changed shortly after Green Bay’s first-round pick of Love: “What in the absolute hell, we didn’t trade up to get (Aaron) Rodgers help, we did that? Goodnight.”

Four minutes later: “We’ve never drafted or helped Rodgers with skill players, we’ve never done anything to help him, and we trade up to draft a quarterback. Morons.”

And just before 11 p.m.: “Tampa Bay signs Gronk, moves up in the draft to get Brady protection; Packers move up to get a quarterback. Smart.”

Posts continued the following day, only this time about the second-round pick of a running back: “Angry, baffled, wow.”

And then exactly two hours later, after Green Bay’s selection of a tight end: “Stop lol this is ridiculous now. We drafting a backup offense lol.”

To Zastrow’s credit, his next post came the following morning to wish his wife a happy birthday.

*Goetz, a high school quarterback who graduated from North in 1979, not only posted GM Brian Gutekunst must have been using a dart board, he also felt Love would have still be available in lower rounds.

“You have a quarterback that you have for four years yet, probably, arguably one of the best – if not, top five – in the whole National Football League and is still very, very good at what he does,” Goetz said. “My question is, is (Love) the best quarterback that’s going to be along in the next three, four years? That’s my biggest thing. I’d never heard of this guy before.”

Goetz, who also felt running back AJ Dillon “was not on anybody’s radar,” asked how many weapons Rodgers has had the last 10 years.

Well, the future hall-of-famer has thrown just one touchdown in his career to a first-round draft pick. Peyton Manning is tops at 293, followed by Eli Manning (135), Brett Favre (127), Tom Brady (105) and Drew Brees (104).

*James, a Sheboygan Christian graduate who lives in Kiel, posted a question asking what team president Mark Murphy has been prioritizing the last few years?

“The Titletown District,” he wrote. “The Packers continue to plan for the future and never go all in, ever. The Packers’ organization cares about one thing, filling seats. They win enough games to keep people interested, but they never want to take a risk and win today. Like someone said, the Packers should have six rings between Favre and Rodgers, but no, we’re too conservative, only pick certain types of players, and it’s why we only have two rings over the last 30 years.”

*Henseler, a 2002 North graduate who is the brand manager for Sheboygan’s Country B93, says he changed his draft grade from F-minus to A-plus in a span of 36 hours.

After getting fired up after the draft not going the way he thought or wanted, Henseler did some reading and said the more he looked at it, he realized the draft is catered to Coach Matt LeFleur’s system – which is different than what fans are used to.

“The Love pick was surprising, to say the least, for a lot of people,” Henseler said. “Although I don’t know if it was any more surprising when they took Rodgers in ’05, there just wasn’t as much social media back then. But reaction would’ve been the same.”

Henseler also said the draft grades he’s seen remind him very much of his final semester at UW-Stevens Point.

“The draft grades were horrible,” he said. “It looked very familiar.”

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