The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers have competed in the National Football League (NFL) since 1921, two years after their original founding by Curly Lambeau and George Whitney Calhoun. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) and play their home games at Lambeau Field in central Wisconsin. In 1936, the Packers took part in the first NFL draft of college football players and have participated in every NFL draft since. With the seventh pick of the first round of the 1936 draft, Russ Letlow, a guard out of the University of San Francisco, became the Packers' first draft selection.
From 1936 to 1959, the NFL draft was the only selection process to retain the rights to sign college football players, except for that of the drafts of the short-lived All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the late 1940s. However, starting in 1960, the newly-formed American Football League (AFL) began a competing draft of the same group of collegiate players. The NFL and AFL competed for the same players from 1960 to 1966, creating a bidding war for signing draft picks and players that threatened the financial sustainability of each league. In 1967, the AFL and NFL announced a merger that would be finalized in 1970. During this time, both leagues implemented a common draft, thus avoiding competition for signing draftees. In addition to the annual draft, special drafts have occurred. These included the 1950 AAFC dispersal draft and the 1984 NFL supplemental draft, where existing NFL teams, including the Packers, were able to select players from other leagues. The AAFC dispersal draft was organized after the AAFC merged with the NFL; three teams from the AAFC were admitted into the NFL, while most of the remaining players from the other five AAFC teams were placed in the dispersal draft. The 1984 supplemental draft occurred after the formation of the United States Football League (USFL) with the primary purpose of selecting players that had already signed with a USFL team in a separate process from the annual draft. The Canadian Football League (CFL) was also included in this supplemental draft. In addition to the 1984 supplemental draft, the NFL has hosted an annual supplemental draft since 1977 for players who had circumstances affect their eligibility for the NFL draft. The Packers have only selected a player once in a supplemental draft, taking Mike Wahle in the second round in 1998. With this selection, the Packers forfeited their normal second round pick in the next draft. Additionally, eight expansion drafts occurred, with the most recent in 2002, where newly formed NFL teams were allowed to draft players from existing NFL teams within certain limitations.
Throughout the history of the NFL draft, the number of rounds and the number of picks have fluctuated significantly, depending on the number of teams in the NFL. Thus with 32 teams in the NFL since 2002, there have been 32 standard draft picks per round. The number of rounds peaked to 30 in the years during and after World War II, although that number has been routinely reduced down to the current seven rounds per draft. The order of the draft selection is derived from the previous season's final standings, with the worst team in the league selecting first and the champion selecting last. However, for 12 years from 1947 to 1958, the first overall pick was chosen by a lottery, with that selection replacing what would have been the team's original first-round selection based on their record the previous season. When a team won the lottery, they were then removed from the next year's lottery. The Packers won the last of these lotteries in the 1957 NFL draft, using their bonus pick to select future Pro Football Hall of Famer Paul Hornung.
Including Hornung, the Packers have selected 13 players who ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Under the oversight of scout Jack Vainisi, 10 of these players were selected over a 7-year period from 1952 to 1958, culminating in the 1958 NFL draft where the Packers selected future All-Pro Dan Currie and future Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Taylor, Ray Nitschke and Jerry Kramer successively in the first four rounds. This draft has been identified as one of the most successful in the history of the NFL. Vainisi's guidance also led to the Packers drafting quarterback Bart Starr in the 17th round of the 1956 NFL draft; Starr would go on to lead the Packers to five NFL Championships and became one of the lowest drafted players to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On three separate occasions, Packers draft picks have won the Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award: John Brockington (1971), Willie Buchanon (1972) and Eddie Lacy (2013). The Packers have had the first selection in a draft twice, in 1957 with Hornung and two years later in 1959, when they selected quarterback Randy Duncan. Duncan signed with the CFL and never played for the Packers. They have also only had the second pick twice: Mike McCoy in 1970 and Tony Mandarich in 1989. The selection of Mandarich has been much maligned over the years. Of the first five picks of the 1989 NFL draft, Mandarich was the only one to not be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Barry Sanders, Derrick Thomas and Deion Sanders, who were all available to the Packers with the second pick, were chosen after Mandarich with picks three, four and five. The Packers participated in the most recent draft in 2026, selecting 6 players over 7 rounds. __TOC__
Draft history by year
+DraftRoundsOriginal draft orderTotal selectionsFirst-round pick(s) 1936 9 7th 9 1937 10 9th 10 1938 12 7th 12 1939 22 9th 19 1940 22 9th 20 1941 20 7th 20 1942 22 9th 20 1943 32 8th 30 1944 32 7th 30 1945 32 11th 30 1946 32 6th 30 1947 32 6th 30 1948 32 7th 29 1949 25 5th 23 1950 dispersal 10 3rd 15 1950 30 4th 29 1951 30 5th 28 1952 30 4th 30 1953 30 7th 30 1954 30 3rd 29 1955 30 5th 30 1956 30 8th 29 1957 30 4th 30 1958 30 3rd 30 1959 30 1st 31 1960 20 5th 17 1961 20 12th 21 1962 20 14th 22 1963 20 14th 27 1964 20 13th 23 1965 20 10th 25 1966 20 9th 20 1967 17 25th 22 1968 17 5th 21 1969 17 12th 18 1970 17 16th 20 1971 17 12th 18 1972 17 7th 16 1973 17 21st 14 1974 17 12th 16 1975 17 10th 13 1976 17 9th 14 1977 12 9th 12 1978 12 6th 14 1979 12 15th 12 1980 12 4th 12 1981 12 6th 11 1982 12 16th 11 1983 12 20th 12 1984 12 12th 12 1984 supplemental 3 12th 3 1985 12 14th 12 1986 12 14th 10 1987 12 4th 14 1988 12 7th 12 1989 12 2nd 14 1990 12 19th 13 1991 12 8th 14 1992 12 5th 13 1993 8 15th 9 1994 7 20th 9 1995 7 2nd 10 1996 7 27th 8 1997 7 30th 8 1998 7 29th 8 1999 7 25th 12 2000 7 14th 13 2001 7 17th 6 2002 7 28th 6 2003 7 29th 9 2004 7 25th 6 2005 7 24th 11 2006 7 5th 12 2007 7 16th 11 2008 7 30th 9 2009 7 9th 8 2010 7 23rd 7 2011 7 32nd 10 2012 7 28th 8 2013 7 26th 11 2014 7 21st 10 2015 7 30th 8 2016 7 27th 7 2017 7 29th 10 2018 7 14th 11 2019 7 12th 8 2020 7 30th 9 2021 7 29th 9 2022 7 28th 11 2023 7 15th 13 2024 7 25th 11 2025 7 23rd 8 2026 7 20th 6
See also Lists of Green Bay Packers players
Notes
References