William from Charleston, WV

Should they just award the Lombardi Trophy now?

And once again we’re off, so we might as well get going.

Good morning Mike and Wes, I don’t know about you, but with the turnout throughout the draft, how could the NFL not put Green Bay on the draft rotation, just as warm-weather Sun Belt cities get awarded Super Bowls? Fans across the league will forget Detroit hosted the draft, but fans around the world will not forget the little city that could. What a TV spectacle. What an atmosphere. I hope the NFL Big Wigs got full shock and awe. Well done Packerland!

I said several times this felt like a once-in-a-generation event, but I wouldn’t mind being wrong about that.

Jeffery from Monticello, WI

Hello II, If you had to give this draft a theme what would it be?

Funny you should ask. I did my best to answer that question in my wrap-up column.

Rudy from Rhinelander, WI

Post-draft questions: 1) What was the final estimate on draft attendance? 2) What surprised you the most? Least?

The NFL announced a total attendance of 600,000 over the three days, which blew away the initial projections of around 250K. I thought the 250K was low, and maybe intentionally so, but I didn’t think it’d be that low. I was surprised the Packers never made a trade and didn’t draft a cornerback until the last round, but drafts can fall that way sometimes. I suspect their potential targets at corner were always gone by the time they were on the clock, and they never found the right value in moving back. To answer several other questions, I don’t think the long wait to draft a cornerback tells us anything about the Alexander situation. I was not surprised I was exhausted Saturday night and slept in Sunday morning, and I’m still a little out of it as I write this column.

Out of the eight drafted Packers, how many of them participated in the Senior Bowl? How many made pre-draft visits to Green Bay?

I believe the class includes three Senior Bowl participants ( Anthony Belton, Barryn Sorrell, Collin Oliver) and five players who made pre-draft visits ( Matthew Golden, Belton, Micah Robinson John Williamsand Savion Williams ).

Is it just me, or did the Pack manage to, yet again, bring in a group of really high-character guys? Some of these guys have been through some stuff – from Golden’s promise to buy back his family’s home, to Williams’ daughter’s health challenges, and then Sorrell dealing with his brother’s loss… These guys know what it means to persevere. I’m looking forward to watching their stories play out.

The Packers don’t draft players simply because of those things, but learning through the scouting process what players have gone through and how they’ve come out the other side gives them a fuller picture of who they’re getting, and how they’ll respond when the inevitable adversity hits at the highest level. LaFleur said it best Saturday night. As the college football landscape changes, the scouting conversation has changed from finding out who loves football to who needs it.

Mike and Wes, Green Bay hit it out of the park with the draft. It started with the streak being broken drafting a WR, but now I am still recovering from how emotional Barryn Sorrell got during his presser. His path to GB will be one to remember for a long time. He came to GB paying his own way. GB didn’t even know he was there and had the guts to return to the green room Saturday to be there alone with his family. That is one Lambeau Leap of faith. Welcome to GB young man. You deserve it.

I can’t do justice to Sorrell’s story in this space, so I hope everyone checks out Wes’s piece from Saturday on how all that unfolded. That was yet another item that made this draft so memorable. It was a stunning convergence of cosmic forces. Never seen anything like it and probably never will again.

Was Gutey just blowing smoke or throwing off the competition pre-draft, when he said he liked his receiver and edge rusher rooms?

No. They built their board and trusted it. He admitted Friday night he didn’t expect to be talking about taking two receivers in the first three rounds, but value is value. As I explained in my wrap-up column, the edge rushers they drafted are different types from the guys they already have, so they’re varying the group, and they’ll leave it to Hafley to maximize what the players do best.

Good morning. According to my research (which could be wrong), at 6-2 and 240 pounds, Collin Oliver is more of an off-ball linebacker than 4-3 defensive lineman. Or is he a designated pass rush specialist? Thanks.

We heard the moniker “DPR” a couple of times as it relates to Oliver. That appears to be the role he’ll begin with, and Gutey added his ability to play off-ball linebacker as another option made it worth the investment. He was honestly the most curious selection in terms of breaking the Packers’ traditional mold, as it were.

Jeff from Indian Lake, NY

I submitted a post after the Belton pick about how intense the LT and RG competition will be in camp this summer. Then the WR room said hold my beer.

And I had to dig deep for a new word.