Building The 53 - 2013 NFL Draft Day 1 Packers Review

It was an interesting first round of the 2013 NFL Draft.  There were five draft day trade, only one quarterback drafted (E.J. Manuel), and no running backs were drafted in the first round for the first time since the early 1960's. The biggest surprise of the first round though was the Minnesota Vikings making three picks.

The Vikings had a pair of first round pick heading into the 2013 NFL Draft as a part of trading Percy Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks.  In order to jump back into the first round to make their third pick in the first round, the Vikings traded four 2013 draft picks (52nd, 83rd, 102nd, and 229th) to the New England Patriots for the 29th pick that they used to draft Cordarrelle Patterson (WR, Tennessee).  In between the second and third pick the Vikings made in the first round of the draft, the Packers drafted a player.

With 26th pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, Green Bay Packers general manager Ted Thompson choose Datone Jones (DE, UCLA, 6'4", 283 lbs).  Here were my pre-draft thoughts on Datone Jones:

"It seems like almost every year a versatile defensive lineman like Jones drops to the end of the first round (i.e. Muhammad Wilkerson in 2011) and everyone wonders why he fell so far.  That is especially true for Jones because it looks like he can play almost any position along the defensive line in both a 3-4 and a 4-3 defense." (Source)

"Put up big numbers last season at UCLA but that was his only real productive season in college because he missed the entire 2010 season with a foot injury and had a lackluster 2011 season.  His ceiling and floor are the highest of the players discussed so far but based on my study of Jones so far, there is much better chance Jones turns out to be the next Cullen Jenkins than the next Justin Harrell." (Source)

Immediately after the Packers drafted Jones, I sent out this tweet:

Nice work Ted Thompson drafting Datone Jones.With Shariff Floyd off the board, looks like the #Packers got Cullen Jenkins 2.0.
— CheeseheadSportsNut (@CheeseheadSN) April 26, 2013

Although I love Jones, I might actually like the package of picks that the Patriots got from the Vikings for the 29th pick.  Let's see how the rest of the draft plays out before we jump to any conclusions though because a bird in the hand is always better than two in the bush, especially when it comes to the NFL Draft.