Packers can't afford to ignore one flaw that's quietly slowing down their draft and develop model in a crucial area

The Packer Way will tell you: The Green Bay Packers are a draft and development franchise, and that's how the team has operated for the past three decades.

Under general manager Brian Gutekunst, in his current role since 2018, the Packers have been slightly more active to acquire players via other avenues, but the main principles remain intact.

And based on how the NFL is structured, with rookie deals and an obvious advantage throughout the first four years of a player's career, this is certainly the best approach.

However, the execution hasn't been close to perfect. The Packers have gotten excellent results from later picks, but the decisions at the top of the draft have been somewhat underwhelming.

The Athletic's Nick Baumgardner made a valuable study about each team's past five classes, evaluating exclusively the top 50 picks. He took Pro Bowl selections, starting players, and Pro Football Reference's Approximate Value metric to understand which franchises have gotten the best returns from the last few classes.

And the Packers are only 18th, which is pretty disappointing for a team praised for its draft process—and that values its way of doing things so much.

The Packers believe in internal player development as much as, or possibly more than, any team in the league. They will take chances on first-rounders who might need more time — Love and star edge Rashan Gary are great examples. Right now, though, Green Bay is still waiting on jumps from Van Ness, Devonte Wyatt and Jordan Morgan. The Packers haven’t drafted poorly of late, but they certainly could’ve done better in a few areas. — Nick Baumgardner

The results put the Packers behind two of their divisional rivals, the Detroit Lions (1st) and Chicago Bears (11th). And don't forget, this is not about predictions or pre-draft grades. It's the actual results of the picks.

The biggest problem is that the Packers have failed to get blue-chip players with their top selections. The Packers have had 10 top-50 picks over the past five seasons, and all of them have combined for zero Pro Bowl selections.

There have been some good choices, most notably Jordan Love, and the best value is Zach Tom in the fourth round in 2022. But if your team will be built based primarily on the draft, the lack of elite talent is costly.

Philosophically, the Packers don't have problems taking projects—Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness are the most obvious examples. But they take time to develop—when they do whatsoever. Losing the cheap part of a player's career is costly, but worth it when the player does develop. However, the risk of a piece not getting where you expect, and not giving you early production to compensate, is a bigger issue.

The Athletic pointed out Lukas Van Ness as the Packers’ worst pick. Maybe he develops, maybe he doesn’t, but the fact is that he is already in the middle of his rookie deal.

In general, the Packers have been able to build a strong foundation, and Brian Gutekunst's strategy to stockpile draft picks is smart. But it's imperative to acknowledge that their process isn't perfect by any means, and underwhelming early results show that they could be open for a slight change in how they make their selections.