Other rookie picks: Romeo Dubs and Samory Touré from pre-draft workouts to Packers teammates – Green Bay Packers Blog

Green Bay, Wisconsin — Romeo Dobbs and Samori Toure Didn’t expect them to end up being the same NFL team. When the Green Bay Packers drafted receiver Dubs from Nevada in the fourth round, Toure had ruled out any possibility of him joining an offseason training partner.

After all, the Packers have chosen another receiver, Christian Watsonranked 34th overall in the second round.

“It’s not even a real idea, because I think it’s very unlikely,” Toure said.

But general manager Brian Gutkunst wanted one more, and Toure became the last of the Packers’ four seventh-round picks. The receiver from Nebraska was 258th, 126th behind the Dubs.

“We texted each other and basically said, ‘Let’s do it,'” Toure said. “Everything here is his.”

For all the complaints the Packers heard about not picking up a first-round pick for the 20th straight, they did something at the position they hadn’t done in 16 years: They took two of their first four picks wide receiver.

They haven’t picked two receivers this high since the Packers used Greg Jennings’ second-round pick and Corey Rodgers’ fourth-round pick in 2006. Jennings turned into a star, while Rodgers never made it to the season opener.

While all attention is on Watson, who has become the Packers’ most-drafted receiver since Javin Walker was drafted by the Packers with the 20th overall pick in 2002, it stands to reason that Dub S and Toure also have an impact.

“I do think they both offer some versatility, whether we want to put them in or out,” LaFleur said of his rookie receiver trio. “They’re all eager to learn and we’ll just see how much they can handle and how quickly they can adapt to our offense.”

What LaFleur might say is how fast they can adapt themselves Aaron RogersThe quarterback is tough on young receivers, and LaFleur knows that, saying in the offseason, “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“I think he’ll be fine,” said Eric Scott, Doubs’ former receiver coach in Nevada. “I think his biggest problem is not wanting to be disappointed because he knows who he’s going to work for. He never wants to disappoint. He can take it.”

Scott called Dubs an “anti-heroine” receiver.

“He’s just not your typical show-off type,” Scott said. “He definitely has that talent and ability like he can actually support it and be able to perform at that level. But at his highest level, he’s never done that. He’s always [passing] attention to others. He’d come over and say, ‘Give so-and-so some reps, let him play the game. ‘”

The Packers like the Doubs’ size (6-2, 201) and production (1,000-yard streak in Nevada). It immediately translated into their rookie minicamp, where he caught a couple of deep balls — something he was good at in college.

This may be especially important given the loss of deep threat receivers Marquez Valdes-Scantling to the Chiefs in free agency.

“I would say there are a lot of verticals in the way they use him,” Packers co-director of player personnel Jon Eric Sullivan said. “Is he a bit raw? I’d say that’s probably fair, but we feel like he can turn himself into a really good route runner. He’s not where he needs to be yet, but most guys coming into this league aren’t. .”

Toure moved to Nebraska from Montana in part to better prepare himself for the NFL. With Montana, like all FCS schools, canceling the season due to COVID and not playing football in 2020, Toure had to make a splash to get on the draft radar. He leads the top 10 in yards per catch (19.8) and has five 100-yard games.

“Many of these guys, especially from the lower ranks, are stuck in a COVID year where they can’t play or don’t play a lot, and then some of them move around to try and get their chance,” Gutekunst said. “Samori is that type of thing. Of course, when you look back at his final year in Montana, he had a great year there — 1,300 yards, 10 touchdowns — moving to inside Braska and had really good numbers in the year he was there, and we pretty much all knew him passing by.”

Still, as a seventh-round pick — and the last of the Packers’ 11 picks — he’ll have to do more of the same to make the roster. The Packers rarely retain more than six receivers, although they sometimes retain seven.

“Making that transition, going into a whole new situation, a whole new offense, starting a whole new tactic, being part of a whole new team, that’s something I’ve been through,” Toure said. “I think it can help me in this situation.”

Same goes for Doubs. The two met while training together at EXOS in San Diego this winter in preparation for the combined draft.

“I’m really happy to be with him,” Doubs said. “I saw him get drafted and I was excited too, once I saw him get drafted. Christian, I went to the Senior Bowl with him, so it was really an exciting room to be here with the others The people who get the opportunity get along well.”