The Green Bay Packers have an interesting mental makeup. Despite the presence of perennial All-Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers and a talented group of pass catchers headlined by the surgically-repaired Jordy Nelson, the Pack, by design, manage to maintain an air of smash mouth football. Maybe it's the presence of bruising - though much less bulky - running back Eddie Lacy, or longtime fullback John Kuhn, though Kuhn may soon be headed for other NFL pastures.
Maybe it was the sixth-round selection of Kuhn's expected successor, Aaron Ripnowski, in the 2015 NFL Draft. Or maybe it's that, despite Lacy's weight issues, the Packers still finished 12th in the league in rushing attempts last year, collected the 12th-most yards on the ground.
Whatever it is, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson have made a concerted effort to keep a tough, grinding mentality for a team that's as capable of airing it out offensively as any unit in the league. And it's an approach means Thompson and Co. will covet certain players in a way that other teams may not.
Take former Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland for example.
"To get a hit on guys like Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, those are the premiere guys, so any time you get a shot on them, it's always great," Ragland said recently of NFL quarterbacks he's looking forward to taking down. "It's hard because they get the ball out [so quickly]."
Ragland - a big, fearsome 'backer who likes to play a downhill game - is likely to drop in the 2016 NFL Draft due to perceived coverage deficiencies. In today's NFL, a linebacker must be as equally adept at dropping into coverage on backs and tight ends and chasing running plays sideline to sideline as he is at filling gaps and setting the edge in the run game.
Ragland has no issues with the second part of the equation - it's the coverage responsibilities that may well trip him up.
But for the Packers, desperate to find a full-time fill in for Clay Matthews Jr. on the inside, which would kick the Cromagnon Man back outside and upgrade two spots at once, a guy like Ragland may be a perfect fit.
Ragland - 6-foot-1, 247-pounds - was a Butkus Award Finalist after his sophomore season, and capped his senior year with an All-American nod. Play speed may never be his forte, but his "old-school" mentality and insticts may play perfectly in Green Bay and Dom Capers' defensive system.
"He's a throwback linebacker, but he's going to get drafted in the first (round) because he has rush ability, too," a former NFC scouting director said of Ragland.
And this, more than anything, may make Ragland desirable to the Packers and Capers. For too long their defense has been predicated on Matthews and Julius Peppers. While Ragland is early in his development as a pass rusher and was only utilized as a down lineman sparingly at Alabama, it's a skillset he's working on and something that could make him desirable to a team like Green Bay, looking for linebackers who do everything up front first, cover second.
The trickiest part for Green Bay will be value. 27th may be too early and 55th may be too late. But with six selections in the top 137 picks, it wouldn't be surprising to see Thompson move up - or back - to nab a player he covets, maybe a guy like Ragland.
