The Sports Xchange

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers aren’t ruling out showcasing more of playmaker Clay Matthews at inside linebacker, as they did the second half of last season.

In fact, head coach Mike McCarthy noted at the conclusion of the draft on Saturday that the team’s All-Pro outside linebacker has been splitting his meeting-room time between the outside linebackers and inside linebackers in the offseason program.

“He’s getting ready to play wherever he needs to play,” McCarthy said. “The most important thing is creating opportunities for your big-time players to make plays, and that’s what we’re doing with Clay.”

Since many feel it would be in Green Bay’s best interests to allow Matthews to wreak havoc from the outside, its first pick of the final day of the three-day draft could hold the key to what plan is laid out in the coming months.

Better late than never, the Packers targeted one of their top needs by taking Michigan linebacker Jake Ryan in the fourth round Saturday with the 129th overall pick.

General manager Ted Thompson’s admission later in the day that “it was a pretty easy pick” may shed some light on how the team hopes to utilize the battle-tested and playmaking Ryan at the outset.

“It wasn’t because of the numbers,” said Thompson, alluding to the no-brainer of a selection at the time. “It was because of his pedigree and what he’s done in a big-time place like that.”

McCarthy quickly paid Ryan what Green Bay’s 10th-year coach called “the highest compliment” to be accorded to a player by describing him as a four-down guy for his ability to stay on the field on defense and special teams.

The 6-foot-2, 240-pound Ryan was a fixture on Michigan’s defense the last four seasons, starting 41 games. That number would have been higher had Ryan not missed the first half of the 2013 season as he completed a hasty recovery from a torn ACL, which the Packers didn’t consider to be a lingering issue.

While stressing no starting positions have been delegated as the Packers move on without veterans A.J. Hawk and Brad Jones, who were cut in February, McCarthy suggested Ryan is already being viewed as starting-caliber at inside linebacker. Green Bay has to fill both starting spots in its base 3-4 scheme, though third-year player Sam Barrington seemingly holds one spot after a productive starting stint the final seven games of last season, including the playoffs.

Ryan made a seamless transition from outside to inside linebacker his final season at Michigan.

“We’ll get ’em all here, and they’ll compete, and the best players will play,” McCarthy said. “I think Jake will do a heck of a job. I think he’s an excellent fit for the way we want to play.”

Lauded for his instincts in playing the linebacker position, Ryan already knows what’s at stake when he arrives in Green Bay for the rookie orientation camp next weekend.

“It would be awesome to make an impact,” he said.

–Green Bay also went about trying to upgrade its lot at cornerback by using its first two picks of the draft on prospective immediate contributors, if not starters.

After taking hybrid defensive back Damarious Randall out of Arizona State with the 30th pick in the first round Thursday, the Packers came right back with the selection of Miami (Ohio) cornerback Quinten Rollins in the second round (No. 62 overall) on Friday.

Joe Whitt, the team’s veteran cornerbacks coach, is being entrusted to get both players up to speed in a hurry. Green Bay bid adieu to longtime starter Tramon Williams and young up-and-comer Davon House in free agency, leaving a huge void opposite Pro Bowl player Sam Shields in the starting lineup.

Whitt acknowledged expectations will have to be tempered for getting the young cornerbacks to perform at a high level right away, no matter they’re the Packers’ top two draft choices this year.

Green Bay will be moving Randall to cornerback after he played primarily free safety his lone two seasons at ASU.

As for Rollins, he has only one season of college football under his belt, though he flourished with seven interceptions for Miami to be named Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year after starting four seasons at point guard on its basketball team.

“I think they’ll both be able to help us,” Whitt said.

Randall and Rollins will challenge young holdovers Casey Hayward, Micah Hyde and Demetri Goodson for the starting vacancy at cornerback as well as typically prevalent time at nickel back.

Meanwhile, McCarthy defended the Packers’ noticeable lack of height at cornerback. Other than the 6-foot Hyde, the rest of the top guys on the depth chart, including Randall and Rollins, stand 5-11.

“I don’t buy into the fact that just because you’ve got a bunch of 6-5 receivers in your division you’ve got to go add a bunch of 6-2 corners,” McCarthy said. “Our opponents, especially our division opponents, will not dictate the way we deal with our football team.”

–Aaron Rodgers can take a deep sigh of relief.

Eliot Wolf, the team’s player personnel director, had this to say amusingly to reporters after the Packers selected UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley in the fifth round Saturday:

“You guys asked me (earlier in the day) if each draft pick had a chance to start. This one probably doesn’t.”

Still, the Packers may have engineered one of the bigger steals in this year’s draft when they traded up to get Hundley with the 147th overall pick. As Wolf explained it, the New England Patriots initiated a trade offer that Green Bay eventually accepted when it felt good that Hundley would be available to jump up 19 spots in Round 5.

“It wasn’t really planned,” Thompson said. “It’s just something that happened, and we felt like there was an opportunity there to do something that, quite frankly, we always would like to do. Sometimes, we don’t have the ability to do it, but we like taking quarterbacks. We felt like that was a good value pick there.”

Hundley is the first quarterback taken by the Packers in the draft since B.J. Coleman in the seventh round in 2012.

Perhaps the only person stunned more than the likes of Thompson, Wolf and McCarthy that he was still sitting on the draft board Saturday afternoon was Hundley. The prolific leader of UCLA’s offense the last three seasons was sure he would be selected Friday night, when the second and third rounds were held.

“After the second day, obviously not hearing your name called, it’s not to say you get disappointed, but your expectations are hurt,” Hundley said. “You expect to go then, at least, and you don’t. So, then to sit around (Saturday) and have to wait and look and see quarterback after quarterback taken, it really just puts a chip on my shoulder.”

As the sixth quarterback taken in the draft after being projected to possibly be the next QB selected after top two overall choices Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, Hundley is content going to Green Bay. Sitting and waiting in the wings behind Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP who is only 31 years old, for an indefinite amount of time is OK with him.

“Aaron Rodgers is the greatest quarterback, one of the greatest quarterbacks, he’s the quarterback I look up to just because of how good he is,” Hundley said. “To be able to learn from him … I know he still has a lot of years to play, but my job as a quarterback is to go in and compete and just play football and learn as much as possible. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

McCarthy said “there’s a lot to like” with the 6-3, 226-pound Hundley, including his athleticism and toughness displayed as a mobile quarterback in UCLA’s shotgun-oriented spread offense.

The addition of Hundley gives the Packers four quarterbacks as their offseason program starts to heat up. They re-signed fifth-year pro Scott Tolzien to a one-year contract before the start of free agency in early March and later added second-year player Matt Blanchard, who was on injured reserve with the Carolina Panthers last season before being cut in December.

The addition of Hundley likely means Green Bay won’t bring back longtime backup Matt Flynn. The seven-year pro remains a free agent.

“You can never have enough talent, and we just brought in a young guy that definitely will contribute to the (quarterback) room,” McCarthy said of Hundley.

–Green Bay’s most compelling draft pick just might be Stanford receiver Ty Montgomery, who was taken in the third round at No. 94 overall.

McCarthy said the 6-foot, 221-pound Montgomery is “built a lot like a running back” and “doesn’t go down very easily.”

Those attributes not only served him well as a big-play wideout at Stanford but also as an explosive kick returner for the Cardinal.

The latter is shaping up to be Montgomery’s meal ticket for getting on the field right away with the Packers, who are set at receiver with the top trio of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams. Green Bay, though, ranked second worst in the league last season with a kickoff-return average of 19.1 yards.

By comparison, Montgomery averaged 27.4 yards with three touchdowns on kickoff returns in his four seasons with Stanford. He also averaged 19.8 yards with two touchdowns on punt returns last season.

“Kickoff returns is an opportunity for big plays,” McCarthy said. “Big plays is what you need to win in the National Football League, So, it’s definitely a variable, one of the top variables, for winning championships. We will be better on kickoff return, and Ty will definitely have the opportunity to help us improve.

“I think he’s a heck of a young player, and we were fortunate to get him in the third round.”

–The trade with New England to take Hundley was the only deal made by the Packers in this year’s draft. Green Bay gave the Patriots its fifth-round spot at No. 166 overall and its lone seventh-round selection at No. 247.

The Packers took three players in a span of eight slots late in the sixth round — Oklahoma fullback Aaron Ripkowski (No. 206), Louisiana-Lafayette defensive end Christian Ringo (No. 210) and Alabama-Birmingham tight end Kennard Backman (No. 213) — to complete their draft prematurely.

It’s the first time Green Bay didn’t pick in the final round of the current seven-round format since 2002.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “These guys are going to get in line behind our veteran team and try to do the best they can to help us win games. That’s what we expect ’em to do.” — General manager Ted Thompson, on the expectations for the team’s draft class this year.

A closer look at the Packers’ picks:

–Round 1/30 — Damarious Randall, S/CB, 5-11, 196, Arizona State

General manager Ted Thompson surprised many by not taking one of the top true cover corners in this year’s draft class, but, nevertheless, he addressed a big need with the selection of the highly regarded Randall. Despite playing at ASU only two seasons after going the junior-college route as an underclassman, Randall excelled as a playmaker in a versatile role in the secondary with considerable man-coverage responsibilities. At worst, Randall is cut out to play nickel corner in the slot right away but is talented enough to win the vacant starting job on the boundary.

–Round 2/62 — Quinten Rollins, CB, 5-11, 195, Miami (Ohio)

Thompson went back-to-back early in the draft to try to plug the significant holes at cornerback after longtime starter Tramon Williams and heir apparent Davon House bolted in free agency. The high pick of Rollins was as curious as Green Bay’s play for Randall, if only because last season was the former’s one and only on a college football field. Yet, Miami’s converted basketball point guard proved to be a quick study with superb upside as he earned Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors with seven interceptions.

–Round 3/94 — Ty Montgomery, WR, 6-0, 221, Stanford

While it’s never a bad thing for reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers to have more pass-catching options at his disposal, the team brass envisions Montgomery making his biggest impact as a rookie in another role. Possessing a vaunted combination of strength and speed, Montgomery is a natural to step in and bolster Green Bay’s lackluster kick returns. He ran back a combination of five kickoffs and punts for touchdowns in his four seasons with the Cardinal.

–Round 4/129 — Jake Ryan, LB, 6-2, 240, Michigan

After riding top-five draft pick A.J. Hawk for as long as they could before releasing the former Ohio State standout after nine seasons, the Packers turned to the Buckeyes’ archrival to land Hawk’s potential successor. A successful switch from outside linebacker to the inside last season will allow Ryan to compete for a starting job from the outset. Ryan logged 41 starts with the Wolverines and was highly disruptive with 44 1/2 tackles for loss and seven forced fumbles in his career.

–Round 5/147 — Brett Hundley, QB, 6-3, 226, UCLA

Just the sixth quarterback taken by Thompson in his 11 years overseeing the draft for Green Bay could yield a bona fide understudy to Rodgers for the years to come. The Packers traded up 19 spots in the fifth round to snag Hundley, touted as one of the top quarterbacks in the draft who the team felt was worthy of a Day 2 selection before the fourth round commenced Saturday. A product of the spread offense with Rodgers-like daring mobility outside the pocket, Hundley will have time to hone his strong, but occasionally erratic passing skills.

–Round 6/206 – Aaron Ripkowski, FB, 6-1, 245, Oklahoma

Fan favorite John Kuhn is back in the fold for a ninth season with the club, but the two-time Pro Bowl honoree will be 33 going into next season. Ripkowski is a pile driver as a lead blocker and can be more integral starting out as a core special-teamer.

–Round 6/210 – Christian Ringo, DE, 6-1, 277, Louisiana-Lafayette

Head coach Mike McCarthy says Ringo, albeit about 30 pounds lighter, reminds him of emerging Mike Daniels, who led Green Bay’s defensive linemen with 5 1/2 sacks last season. Playing considerably in the interior, the explosive Ringo set a program record with 11 1/2 sacks in 2014.

–Round 6/213 – Kennard Backman, TE, 6-3, 258, Alabama-Birmingham

A four-year starter for the since-disbanded UAB program. Athleticism, sure hands down the field and versatility to be split out and play in-line gives Backman a shot to stick at a position that lacks depth.