With Green Bay not owning a first-round pick in the upcoming draft, this year’s Prospect Primer series will take a position-by-position look at players projected as Day 2 selections (Rounds 2-3) potentially available to the Packers, who have the No. 52 and 84 overall selections on the second day of the draft.<\/p>\n
Here’s a handful of linebackers:<\/p>\n
News & notes: Texas native spent three seasons at his home state school, racking up 31\u00bd tackles for loss, 17 sacks, three interceptions and eight forced fumbles \u2026 Named second-team AP All-America each of the last two years after sharing Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors in 2023 \u2026 Was a finalist for the Butkus Award in 2025 \u2026 Statistically had his best season in ’24, compiling 113 total tackles, including 16\u00bd for loss and eight sacks, in 16 games \u2026 Played in just 10 games last year, missing two due to injury and then skipping bowl game after declaring for the draft \u2026 Has all the prototypical linebacker traits to go along with 4.51 speed he clocked in the 40 at the combine \u2026 Still a work in progress in coverage but considered a solid three-down player who stays on the attack \u2026 Was a high school All-American rated the top inside linebacker in all of Texas; also ran track \u2026 Just turned 21 in February.<\/p>\n
Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech<\/p>\n
News & notes: Texas native first went to Virginia but returned to his home state after a year and spent four seasons in Lubbock, finishing his career as the most decorated linebacker in the country \u2026 Became a starter in his second season at Texas Tech in 2023, but was limited to five games due to a foot injury \u2026 Stuffed the stat sheet his final two years, with 127 tackles in ’24 and 128 in ’25, compiling 21\u00bd tackles for loss, six sacks, five interceptions, 10 forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries over those two seasons \u2026 In 2025, won the Butkus (nation’s top linebacker), Nagurski (most outstanding defensive player), Bednarik (defensive player of the year) and Lombardi (lineman of the year) awards, to go along with Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and several first-team All-America honors as he finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting \u2026 Even played some wildcat quarterback \u2026 Seen as an instinctive, aggressive tackling and turnover machine but lacking the height and arm length to be a top draft pick \u2026 Became the only FBS player since 2005 with at least 300 career tackles, 10 forced fumbles, five INTs and five fumble recoveries \u2026 Is married, with wife Emma an active-duty helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n
News & notes: New Jersey native spent four years at Pitt \u2026 Over the last two seasons, recorded 182 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, 10 sacks, six interceptions (one returned for TD), two forced fumbles and two recoveries \u2026 Earned first-team All-ACC honors, second-team AP All-America recognition, and finished third in ACC Defensive Player of the Year balloting in 2025 \u2026 Impressed at the combine with a 4.53-second time in the 40, a 39\u00bd-inch vertical jump, and a 10-9 broad jump, ranking among the top LBs in every test \u2026 Stands out in pass coverage but gets knocked for his size and could be asked to add weight at the next level, or might transition to box safety \u2026 Athleticism could earn him an early role as a sub-package defender in the NFL.<\/p>\n
News & notes: Philly native spent two years at West Virginia and one at Missouri, posting a combined 176 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, 2\u00bd sacks, and one interception over the last two seasons \u2026 Did not play at all in 2023 due to a lower leg injury, then missed his final college game due to knee surgery and did not test at the combine \u2026 Comes from a football family as the son of Jeremiah Trotter Sr., a four-time Pro Bowl and two-time All-Pro selection over an 11-year NFL career, mostly with the Eagles, and the brother of Jeremiah Jr, a two-time All-America choice who was drafted in the fifth round by the Eagles in 2024 \u2026 First-team (coaches) and second-team (media) All-SEC selection in 2025, following Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year honors the season prior \u2026 Just 20 years old, not turning 21 until the week before the draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Green Bay not owning a first-round pick in the upcoming draft, this year’s Prospect Primer series will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,34,417,507,117115,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-871317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-homepage-cp","14":"tag-news-all-news","15":"tag-news-national-feature","16":"tag-news-prospect-primer","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116443795874066117","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}