Maybe Green Bay views Nick Emmanwori as a linebacker convert?
The Ringer’s Todd McShay, who previously worked at ESPN, has been a reputable source on the NFL draft for going on two decades now. On Wednesday, he dropped his final mock draft of the 2025 cycle, which featured some interesting rumors regarding the Green Bay Packers.
While it’s hard to get the 23rd overall pick right due to the number of selections that have to be predicted to accurately simulate the Packers’ likely decision-making at the pick, McShay’s list of names he’s heard linked to Green Bay is interesting.
“We heard a little bit of [Nick] Emmanwori with them. We heard a little of Will Johnson with them, but the name that I keep hearing with Green Bay is a player that I absolutely adore: ‘Mad Max.’ Maxwell Hairston.”
Hairston, almost overnight, has become the Packers’ likely selection with the 23rd overall pick in mock drafts, assuming that the top edge rushers, including Mykel Williams and Shemar Stewart, are off of the board by the time that they’re on the clock. NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah is another well-respected analyst who made a Hairston selection for Green Bay in his last mock of the year, too.
We’re not here to talk about Hairston, or even fellow cornerback Will Johnson, though. Instead, let’s focus on that first name that McShay listed: South Carolina safety Nick Emmanwori.
I don’t think anyone had a first-round safety on the Packers’ radar this offseason, outside of Mike Florio. Green Bay drafted Javon Bullard in the second round, Evan Williams in the fourth round and Kitan Oladapo in the fifth round last year. On top of that, they signed Xavier McKinney to a long-term contract as a free agent last season, a deal that has paid off for the team.
At the moment, McKinney and Williams seem locked into the safety positions, with Bullard competing for playing time in the slot, depending on what happens at outside cornerback. There’s a chance that the room is so deep already that their second-year second-round pick will have to come off of the bench in 2025.
So what gives? Why a safety? Emmanwori is a 21-year-old who is 6’3”, 220 pounds and runs a 4.38-second 40-yard dash, but there’s simply no need for the team to add a safety. Maybe it’s possible they view him as a position convert, more likely at linebacker than cornerback, but even the linebacker room is pretty full.
General manager Brian Gutekunst stated that the team wants to keep Quay Walker around on either his fifth-year option, which the team will have to pick up by next week, leading up to the draft. The Packers play two linebacker sets about two-thirds of the time, which will mean that Walker and 2024 second-round pick Edgerrin Cooper are starters in those looks. In the other third of their defensive snaps, some combination of Isaiah McDuffie, who re-signed on a two-year, $8 million deal this offseason, or Ty’Ron Hopper, a 2024 third-round pick, will fill that third linebacker.
So even if Emmanwori is a linebacker convert to the Packers, all three of he, McDuffie and Hopper, players who in this scenario the team would have spent considerable assets on, would likely be on the bench in nickel sets. Only one of them would be a “starter” on the third of defensive snaps the team plays in its base 4-3 defense.
Hopefully, the Packers don’t take Emmanwori tonight. It just makes no sense considering the team’s needs, even if he moves positions.
You can watch McShay talk through his full mock draft in the video below: