The Green Bay Packers production benchmarks series rolls on and turns attention to the defensive side of the ball, looking for matches in the 2026 NFL Draft at defensive tackle, based on the type of production profile Green Bay has usually drafted.
This conversation needs to be separated into traditional defensive tackles and plus-sized guys, who are more traditional nose tackle bodies.
Green Bay has drafted eight defensive tackles since 2016, excluding Colby Wooden, who fit more as an EDGE body type for the Packers entering the league, and excluding nose tackle body types.
Those eight players averaged a pressure rate of 9.8% in their best college season (among their final two years), a 10.85% run stop rate, and on average had one pressure or a run stop for every 10.4 snaps of defense played.
The least productive player of the bunch was James Looney, a seventh-round pick in 2018, who had a pressure rate of 6.7%, a stop rate of 7.32% and averaged a pressure or run stop every 14.8 snaps.
With that in mind, the defensive tackles who look like fits for the Packers from a production standpoint ranked between No. 30 and 300 on the consensus big board are:
- Gracen Halton – Oklahoma (No. 78)
- Kaleb Proctor – Southeastern Louisiana (No. 106)
- Chris McClellan – Missouri (No. 111)
- Rayshaun Benny – Michigan (No. 125)
- Zane Durant – Penn State (No. 134)
- Landon Robinson – Navy (No. 192)
- Skyler Gill-Howard – Texas Tech (No. 244)
- Brandon Cleveland – NC State (No. 255)
The only three players who clear not only the floor in every production metric but also the Packers average are Halton, Benny and Gill-Howard.
It has been reported that Proctor will take a pre-draft visit to Green Bay. Currently ranked 106th on the consensus board, he could make sense for them as early as Round 3. Proctor posted a 12.96% pressure rate, an 8.4% run stop rate and averaged a pressure or stop every 9.25 snaps.
Moving on to the nose tackle position, the sample size is much smaller, with Green Bay only drafting two of them – T.J. Slaton and Jonathan Ford – since 2010.
Neither player was especially productive in college, as the pair averaged a pressure rate of 5.08%, a run stop rate of 6.25% and a pressure/stop once every 16.26 snaps. Ford was the worst of the two, with a 2.87% pressure rate, a 5.96% stop rate and a pressure/stop every 18.04 snaps.
That said, there are numerous nose tackle bodies in this draft who have enough production to qualify as a ‘normal’ defensive tackle for the Packers, not just a nose tackle. They are:
- Lee Hunter – Texas Tech (No. 47)
- Christen Miller – Georgia (No. 48)
- Domonique Orange – Iowa State (No. 65)
- Darrell Jackson – Florida State (No. 87)
- Zxavian Harris – Ole Miss (No. 122)
- Bryson Eason – Tennessee (No. 227)
Miller also has a reported ‘30’ visit with the Packers, but it is unclear whether this is due to genuine interest in drafting him in Round 2, or for an injury check, as he has dealt with shoulder and knee injuries, as well as a leg break which required three screws in his history.
Kayden McDonald of Ohio State and Tim Keenan III of Alabama are two more nose tackle prospects who do not have the same kind of production as the players listed above, but are still theoretically productive enough based on the low bar set by Slaton and Ford.
The defensive interior is a high priority position of need for the Packers in this year’s draft, and the players detailed above have a good chance of being the types of players Brian Gutekunst is looking to add.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: 16 defensive tackle prospects who fit Packers production benchmarks
