With their first third-round pick, the Green Bay Packers grabbed Southern Miss defensive tackle Khyri Thornton.
Why, that’s where Bert Favre went to college! That must make Thornton a Packers all-time great in the making!
Booyah!
Thornton is 6-3, 304 and he’s not going to wow you with his stats. He had 39 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss and a half a sack in 2013. He can obviously push his way into the backfield and take up some blockers, but he’s not going to generate any sort of pass rush.
Thornton is one of those guys that wasn’t too highly regarded coming out, but improved his stock during workouts. He was initially projected as a fifth- or sixth-round pick, but moved up to potentially being a late third-round pick. And that’s where Big Ted pounced!
Are we excited?
Meh.
You can never have too many defensive linemen though. This probably ends any chance Ryan Pickett had of returning to the Packers. It might do the same for Johnny Jolly, which would send our anger meter into the red.
But whatever.
Here’s what NFL.com has to say.
Has the size, brute strength and enough agility to warrant interest as a developmental, rotational five-technique in an aggressize, zone-blitzing scheme such as the Jets, Ravens or Steelers. Versatility is a plus.
There are no highlight videos of this guy, so here’s a video of him talking about some college stuff.