Third-round picks from the 2017 and 2018 drafts were among the Green Bay Packers’ lowest-graded players at Pro Football Focus during the 2019 season.
Defensive lineman Montravius Adams and linebacker Oren Burks, two role players on Mike Pettine’s defense, finished the season among the worst at their respective positions.
Adams, a third-rounder in 2017, ended the 2019 season with an overall grade of 41.3, good for 116th among qualified interior defenders. In fact, only seven interior defenders in the entire NFL, regardless of the number of snaps played, finished with a worse grade. Adams, who played just over 200 snaps, was particularly bad against the run, with the third-worst run defense grade among all interior defenders.
Burks, a third-rounder in 2018, was only marginally better. He didn’t play enough snaps to qualify for PFF’s positional rankings, but his 45.3 overall grade on defense put him well outside the top 100 among all NFL inside linebackers. Burks played only 69 total snaps, including the postseason, but he struggled both defending the run and in coverage.
The Packers may need both to take a big step in 2020. They both play positions of weakness entering the offseason, and good teams most often improve from development internally.
It’s hard to imagine Adams breaking out as a legitimate player in his fourth season, but 2020 will be a contract season. He was touted as a potential breakout player all summer but it never materialized. By the end of the season, he hardly saw the field.
Burks has dealt with preseason injuries each of his first two seasons and just needs to get through a summer healthy.
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