Looking around cbssportsline.com's mock draft, two writers picked Florida LB Channing Crowder as the pick for the Packers in the first round this month. Cbssportsline.com has a lot of information on Crowder and other potential 1st round picks. At 6'2" 236 lbs. Crowder is similar in size to LB Nick Barnett. Crowder made a lot of tackles/game and made an attention grabbing 13.5 tackles for losses in 20 games played at Florida. Unfortunately Crowder had multiple knee surgeries already in his brief career and a few off field incidents. Mock drafts can be very accurate with the first five or ten picks, but are often wrong as you move further away from the top pick. Crowder fills an apparent need, but all his knee injuries don't make him sound like a good pick.

The player that has my attention at the moment is Georgia DE David Pollack. Pollack fills no apparent need, unless you consider that a great pass rush makes a poor pass defense look much better. Name the award for a defensive lineman (Ted Hendricks, Lombardi, SEC defensive player of the year) and Pollack has won it. He played weak side defensive end at Georgia, but at 278 lbs. he is bigger than either DE Jason Taylor or DE Adewale Ogunleye when they both started together during the 2003 season in Miami under defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Miami had the number 3 run defense according to footballoutsiders.com in 2003, so Bates doesn't need a bigger elephant-type defensive end opposite DE KGB to make his run defense work. There is also a comfort level for me with Pollack; I've seen him play and have never heard of Crowder or LB Barrett Rudd or LB Daryl Blackstock or most of the other players mentioned at the end of the first round. Obviously GM Ted Thompson will research and find a comfort level with many more players than I will before the draft.