Here is reminder for those of you in Packer/NFL Nation who live in the northwest region of the good ole U.S.A., Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer of the Green Bay Packers and I will be having three book-signing events for “Run to Win” in that area later this week. The first book-signing event will take place in Jerry’s hometown of Sandpoint, Idaho on Saturday May 18th at Vanderford Books. Before that happens, Jerry and I will get to ride in a classic car in the vintage car parade on Friday night May 17th in the annual Lost in the ’50s event in Sandpoint.
On Sunday May 19th, there will be two book-signing events in Spokane, Washington at two Barnes & Noble locations. There will also be some great photo opportunities at these book-signings, as Jerry is bringing along a duplicate bust from when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, as well as a duplicate trophy from Super Bowl I.
We are now four days before the start of the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit. The Green Bay Packers have 11 picks in the upcoming draft, which includes five selections in the top 100. Since 2001, I have been doing mock drafts for the Packers for publications like Packer Report, Wisconsin Sports Online, Bleacher Report and this site. Over the past decade or so, I have utilized the insights and expertise of NFL scout Chris Landry. I am using his scouting reports, his horizontal draft board and his list of the best players in the 2024 NFL draft as a guide to my selections in this mock draft for the Pack.
The Packers would love to come close to what they achieved in the 1958 draft, when thanks to the scouting prowess of Jack Vainisi, the Packers ended up selected three players who would later be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Those three players were fullback Jim Taylor, middle linebacker Ray Nitschke and right guard/kicker Jerry Kramer. Thanks to those players and many others who played under head coach Vince Lombardi, the Packers won five NFL titles in seven years, including the first two Super Bowl games. In that period, the Packers also won three NFL championships in a row, which is a feat that has never been duplicated since the playoff era began in 1933. Speaking of Kramer, I recently co-authored a book with Jerry, called Run to Win: My Packers Life From Lombardi To Canton. You can find the book at Amazon and just about every major bookstore outlet.
Back to the 2024 NFL draft now. General manager Brian Gutekunst has put together a very talented young team for head coach Matt LaFleur. The team is led by Jordan Love, who had an exceptional first year starting at quarterback. Love threw 32 touchdown passes versus just 11 interceptions for 4,159 yards and had a passer rating of 96.1. Love also led the Packers to the playoffs in his first year as a starter, something that both Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers weren’t able to do. Plus, Love performed very well in the postseason as well, as he threw five touchdown passes versus two picks for 466 yards in two games and had a passer rating of 108.6.
Gutekunst had an exceptional draft in 2023, when he was able to bring aboard nice offensive talent to strengthen that side of the football run by LaFleur and led by Love, as he selected tight end Luke Musgrave, wide receiver Jayden Reed, tight end Tucker Kraft and wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks The defense was also bolstered with the selections of defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness, defensive lineman Colby Wooden, defensive lineman Karl Brooks and cornerback Carrington Valentine.
In my 2024 NFL mock draft for the Packers, I wanted to address a number of issues regarding the roster of the Packers going into the 2024 NFL draft. First off, in free agency, the Packers made a big splash when they signed running back Josh Jacobs and safety Xavier McKinney. They also recently signed offensive tackle Andre Dillard, plus signed kicker Greg Joseph to compete with Anders Carlson for the placekicking job in 2024.
The Packers also re-signed cornerback/return man Keisean Nixon, running back AJ Dillon, cornerback Corey Ballantine, tight end Tyler Davis, linebacker Eric Wilson, linebacker Kristian Welch and cornerback Robert Rochell.
The Packers also made some very painful cuts to their roster, including running back Aaron Jones, offensive tackle David Bakhtiari and linebacker De’Vondre Campbell. The team also saw players like guard Jon Runyan, offensive tackle Yosh Nijman, tight end Josiah Deguara, safety Darnell Savage and safety Jonathan Owens leave via free agency.
The Packers have a new defensive coordinator in 2024, with Jeff Hafley, the former Boston College head coach, now leading that side of the ball. The Packers are also changing to a 4-3 scheme defensively, which is similar to the defense that the San Francisco 49ers run. The key to improving the D is improving the run defense, which has been mediocre at best the past few years.
In my 2024 mock, I try to address the issues on both the offense and defense of the Packers, plus later in my mock, I focus on players who can excel on the special teams units coached by Rich Bisaccia.
Round 1: Defensive Lineman Darius Robinson (Missouri)
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 285 pounds
In 2023, Darius Robinson was first-team All-SEC. Led the team with 14 tackles for a loss, 8.5 sacks. Had 43 tackles, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble. Was also the team captain for the Tigers.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Darius Robinson is a physically imposing defender with the length, strength and motor to cause serious disruption from the interior. His long arms and brute force can knock offensive linemen off-balance in the initial exchange, and his relentless pursuit allows him to cover a large area. His Run Defense Total Points Rating of 96 speaks for itself. He uses a quick, strong get-off to win at the point of attack, with long arms to set the edge and quick swim moves to work his way into the backfield.
“He has a long, strong frame and even at nearly 300 pounds, he looks more like an edge. With that, he’s a good athlete whose motor runs hot at all times, competing from snap to whistle. He’s not the most refined rusher, but his upside is enormous.”
Round 2: Offensive Tackle Jordan Morgan (Arizona State)
Height: 6’5″
Weight: 311 pounds
Jordan Morgan started 33 games at left tackle in his career at Arizona State. He was Honorable Mention All-Pac 12 Conference in 2022 and was first-team All-Pac 12 Conference in 2023.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Jordan Morgan has a lot of experience at left tackle, and his athleticism could keep him there in the NFL. Morgan might not have the length to hold up at left tackle, but he could be an elite guard or a solid right tackle in the NFL. Morgan does a great job of blocking on the move.”
Round 2: Linebacker Payton Wilson (North Carolina State)
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 233 pounds
Payton Wilson won the Chuck Bednarik Defensive Player of the Year Award and Butkus Award (nation’s top LB). Was also first-team Associated Press All-American. Plus was ACC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All-ACC. Wilson was ranked fifth in the FBS with 138 tackles and was tied for seventh with 17.5 tackles for a loss, plus had six sacks and three interceptions.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Payton Wilson was the Will linebacker in NC State’s base-3-3-5 defense where he also dropped down as a true edge rusher a fair amount. While Wilson played in more than 45 games throughout his career, he has an extensive injury history that has cut multiple seasons short.
“Wilson has a long, narrow frame and could stand to put on more muscle tone, especially in his lower half. In terms of motor and competitiveness, Wilson’s are off the charts. His “get knocked down, get back up” mentality is apparent after having had to go through so many rehabs and still getting back on the field to play at a high level.”
Tanor Bortolini was Academic All-Big Ten in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Was Honorable Mention All-Big Ten in 2022.
Bortolini started 27 games in his career at Wisconsin, starting 13 games at center, 13 games at guard (left and right) and one at tight end. Also played right tackle at times.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“There are many reasons why Tanor Bortolini could be drafted much higher than he is projected. Bortolini comes from one of the best offensive line schools in the country and started games at five different positions, including center, right tackle, left guard and tight end.
“Not only is Bortolini versatile, but he is a supreme athlete. He ran a 4.94-second 40-yard dash at 303 pounds and recorded a 9.76 RAS. That ranked him 38th all-time (out of 1,523 guards), and he is one of this classes’ top athletes. Bortolini should be considered a lock top-100 pick because of his experience and athleticism.”
Round 3: Safety Cole Bishop (Utah)
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 206 pounds
In 2023, Cole Bishop was second-team All-Pac-12 Conference. Had 60 tackles, 6.5 tackles for a loss with three sacks, two interceptions, three pass breakups and one forced fumble. Was also the team captain for the Utes.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Cole Bishop is an active and disruptive safety with great size, and if you follow him closely, he’s always around the ball. He’s an instinctive player with a ton of experience and was a leader on the backend of a stout Utes defense.”
Round 4: Cornerback Elijah Jones (Boston College)
Height: 6’ 1 1/2’’
Weight: 185 pounds
Elijah Jones was first-team All-ACC. Jones led the team with five interceptions and eight pass breakups. Played under Jeff Hafley, the new defensive coordinator of the Packers, at Boston College.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Before the Senior Bowl I had not seen video on Boston College cornerback Elijah Jones before I got here this week. He is on the American roster. He has jumped out at me with his length, his poise at the moment of truth (playing the ball) and at the line of scrimmage when playing press coverage. He has confidence in his speed, so he can be patient and not react with panic, because he is confident he can catch up with that speed, should he get a step or two behind.”
Round 5: Running Back Isaiah Davis (South Dakota State)
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 218 pounds
Isaiah Davis was first-team Associated Press FCS All-American. Plus, was Missouri Valley Football Conference Co-Offensive Player of the Year and was first-team All-MVFC. Led the FCS with 1,578 rushing yards (236 carries, 6.7 per). Tied for the FCS lead with 18 rushing TDs. Was also team captain for the Jackrabbits.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Davis, 6-foot and 218 pounds, is reminiscent of former Cardinals and Texans running back David Johnson. He’s a taller, more upright runner from a small school. With 1,578 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns in 2023, Davis can produce explosive plays.
“Although he only caught 53 passes in four seasons, NFL teams needed to see his comfort level while running routes out of the backfield and locating the ball. According to Tony Pauline of SportsKeeda, he looked “exceptional” in pass-catching drills at his pro day.”
Round 6: Running Back Jase McClellan (Alabama)
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 221 pounds
In his career at Alabama, Jase McClellan rushed for 1,981 yards and 18 touchdowns. Also caught 40 passes for 409 yards and six touchdowns.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“In terms of the Alabama running backs, none of the backs are scary. Jase McClellan is probably the best one. They don’t have a lot of shifty guys, but they run hard and get downhill. McClellan has good vision and balance.
“McClellan, a senior, led all Alabama rushers with 890 yards and scored eight TDs. He missed the Georgia game with a foot injury. In the Rose Bowl versus Michigan, McClellan rushed for 87 yards and had two TDs.”
Round 6: Offensive Lineman Tyler Grable (UCF)
Height: 6’6″
Weight: 306 pounds
Tyler Grable has started 38 games at left tackle in his collegiate career, 27 at UCF and 11 at Jacksonsville State. Was named Honorable Mention All-Big 12 in 2023 by the coaches.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“The UCF Knights have several players who could get drafted in the later rounds or, at minimum, be priority free agents for NFL teams, but left tackle Tylan Grable is our staff’s highest-graded prospect. We first came across Grable two years ago when he was playing for Jacksonville State. One of JSU’s coaches gave us a heads-up about the athletic former high school quarterback turned offensive lineman, telling us that Grable would likely end up at an FBS program the following year. That school turned out to be UCF. Grable is a still-developing player who has the feet and overall athleticism to play at the next level.”
Round 7: Linebacker Darius Muasau (UCLA)
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 225 pounds
In his five-year career at Hawaii and UCLA, Darius Muasau had 436 total tackles, 40 tackles for a loss, 16.5 sacks, five interceptions, 14 passes defended, recovered four fumbles and forced six fumbles. Was also a force on special teams.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“The best linebacker at the Shrine Bowl, Darius Muasau (more than 50 combined starts between UCLA and Hawaii) led a stingy Bruins defense with 38 run stops last season. He showed great burst and fluidity in coverage this week and was the most physical in the group via run fits.
“Muasau also was the loudest linebacker on the field and seemed to be the most in control setting defenses during team periods. He could be bigger, but he’s a quality high-floor linebacker prospect.”
Round 7: Safety Tyler Owens (Texas Tech)
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 216 pounds
Tyler Owens played in 39 games at both Texas and Texas Tech. Has limited playing experience at safety (only one interception and five pass breakups) but is physical (two forced fumbles) and fast and has had impressive flashes at times. Owens big calling card is his exceptional special teams play.
Chris Landry Scouting Report:
“Tyler Owens notched a ridiculous 10.29-second 100-meter dash back in high school. There’s no denying Owens has elite top speed.
“Owens’ speed shows up on film, too. There are times when his technique and awareness make him play slower than he is, but when he gets to stride out and cover ground, there’s no denying who the fastest man on the field is.”
Here are the top 16 rushers in the history of Wisconsin Badgers football. Call this group the Sweet 16.
The top 16 all rushed for more than 2,500 yards. 14 of them rushed for over 3,000 yards. Six of them rushed for over 4,000 yards. Three of them have rushed for over 5,000 yards. Two have rushed for over 6,000 yards. And one has rushed for over 7,000 yards.
You will note that 12 of the 16 top running backs all came after the Barry Alvarez era started at Wisconsin.
Two of the Wisconsin backs have won the Heisman Trophy. Alan Ameche in 1954 and Ron Dayne in 1999.
Four of the Badger backs have also won the Doak Walker Award. Ron Dayne in 1999, Montee Ball in 2012, Melvin Gordon in 2014 and Jonathan Taylor in both 2018 and 2019.
Here are the top 16 rushers in Wisconsin history:
1) Ron Dayne- 7,125 yards rushing and 71 touchdowns.
2) Jonathan Taylor- 6,174 yards rushing and 50 touchdowns.
3) Montee Ball- 5,140 yards rushing and 77 touchdowns.
4) Melvin Gordon- 4,915 yards rushing and 45 touchdowns.
5) Anthony Davis- 4,676 yards rushing and 42 touchdowns.
6) James White- 4,015 yards rushing and 45 touchdowns.
7) P.J. Hill- 3,942 yards rushing and 42 touchdowns.
8) Billy Marek- 3,709 yards rushing and 44 touchdowns.
9) Braelon Allen- 3,494 yards rushing and 35 touchdowns
10) Brent Moss- 3,428 yards rushing and 34 touchdowns.
11) Terrell Fletcher- 3,414 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns.
12) John Clay- 3,413 yards rushing and 41 touchdowns.
13) Alan Ameche- 3,212 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns.
14) Corey Clement- 3,092 yards rushing and 36 touchdowns.
15) Larry Emery- 2,979 yards rushing and 19 touchdowns.
16) Rufus Ferguson- 2,814 yards rushing and 26 touchdowns.
The official publication of Run to Win happened less than two weeks ago, and I’m pleased to announce that the book which I wrote with Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer is off to a great start.
We had two book-signing events this past week, one at the Green Bay Packers Pro Shop inside the Lambeau Field Atrium and the other was a combination Q & A/book-signing at both NŌ STUDIOS and Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee.
We also had a very nice crowd for the event at NŌ STUDIOS on September 29, which was covered by WISN Channel 12 in Milwaukee. The Sports Director for Channel 12, Dario Melendez, moderated the Q & A session at NŌ STUDIOS, plus Dario interviewed both Jerry and I there. We want to thank Oscar winner John Ridley and his sister Lisa Caesar for allowing us to use their wonderful venue for this event.
Afterwords, we headed to the nearby Best Place, where we continued signing books. The Best Place also offered beer and other adult beverages to the crowd, which also included 150 brats, which were donated by Johnsonville. Speaking of wonderful venues, Best Place offered a superb atmosphere to continue the evening. Jim Haertel and his staff at Best Place treated Jerry and I like royalty, plus gave us and others a tour of the iconic Pabst Brewery.
The wonderful evening at both NŌ STUDIOS and Best Place was set up by producer, author and attorney Chris Olsen. The copies of Run to Win for people to buy and get signed were provided by Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee.
Besides the book-signing events, Jerry and I were also on a number of radio shows promoting the book, plus Rich Ryman of the Green Bay Press-Gazette put out a very nice article about Run to Win, which appeared in all the Gannett publications in Wisconsin, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Jerry and I are very proud of this book, in which we were able to get some assistance from some very notable people. Jeremy Schaap wrote the foreword for the book, while Rick Gosselin, a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a key member of the Seniors Committee, wrote the introduction.
Plus, Run to Win had a number of blurbs and praises from outstanding individuals like David Maraniss, Mark Murphy, Bud Selig, David Baker, Vince Lombardi Jr, Bart Starr Jr. and the late, great Paul Hornung. Other former members of the Packers also offered their kind thoughts, and this group includes Aaron Rodgers, LeRoy Butler and Gilbert Brown.
The book chronicles the start of Kramer’s career in Green Bay in 1958 and his entire career with the Packers, in which he was part of five NFL championship teams and two Super Bowl-winning teams under head coach Vince Lombardi. This also includes being on a squad which won three straight NFL titles (1965, 1966 & 1967) in the playoff era, which has never been duplicated before or since.
The book also entails chapters about Coach Lombardi, Bart Starr, Willie Davis, Paul Hornung, Ray Nitschke, Max McGee, Fuzzy Thurston, Boyd Dowler, Emlen Tunnell, Dave Robinson, Don Chandler, Jim Taylor, Henry Jordan, Lee Roy Caffey, Doug Hart, Zeke Bratkowski, Carroll Dale, Ron Kramer, Forrest Gregg, Herb Adderley, Gale Gillingham, Jim Ringo, Bob Skoronski, Willie Wood, Dan Currie, Tommy Joe Crutcher, Ron Kostelnik, Elijah Pitts, Donny Anderson, Jim Grabowski, Chuck Mercein and Don Horn.
Run to Win also devotes a chapter to Jerry’s very close friend, the late, great Dick Schaap.
Plus, the book also includes a chapter on the five toughest defensive tackles Jerry had to face in his NFL career.
Run to Win also describes the 44-year wait Kramer had to go through before he was rightfully enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The book also includes how Jerry used controlled anger when he played, which led to five First-Team All-Pro honors, as well as three Pro Bowl berths. Jerry was also named to the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1960s.
In addition, there is a chapter about Jerry’s encounters with celebrities, which later led to an opportunity for Kramer when he was offered the lead role in one of top-grossing films of 1973.
Bottom line, Run to Win has this and much more, which also includes a number of never-before-seen items that Jerry has never written about in his four previous books (Instant Replay, Farewell to Football, Lombardi: Winning is the Only Thing and Distant Replay). By the way, three of the four books were bestsellers and Instant Replay went all the way to No. 1 on the bestsellers list.
Run to Win can be ordered at places like Triumph Books (our publisher), Amazon, Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee and the Packers Pro Shop.
We are now on the eve of the 2023 NFL draft. The big news earlier this week was that the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets finally came to an agreement regarding the trade of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who had spent the first 18 years of his career in Titletown. The trade of Rodgers to the Jets was eerily similar to the trade of the man Rodgers replaced in Green Bay…quarterback Brett Favre, who also was traded to the Jets in 2008.
The trade of Rodgers to the Jets added some draft capital to the Packers both in 2023 and 2024. Here is the breakdown of the trade: The Packers receive pick No. 13, a second-round pick (No. 42) and a sixth-round pick (No. 207) in this year’s draft, plus a conditional 2024 second-round pick that becomes a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays this season. The Jets get Rodgers, plus pick No. 15 and a 5th-round pick (No. 170) this year.
In previous years, going back to 2001, I have put out a number of mock drafts per year, but because I’ve been focused on Run to Win: My Packers Life from Lombardi to Canton, the book I wrote with Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer, I’m only doing one mock draft this year.
With Love being a first-year starter at quarterback, I believe general manager Brian Gutekunst will try and add some weaponry for Love to utilize in the passing game, although the success of the running game will be a huge aid in helping Love enhance his passing prowess in head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense.
With the trade of Rodgers, I expect the Packers to add another quarterback in this draft, but more towards the end of the draft. Right now, the Packers only have two quarterbacks on their roster, Love and Danny Etling. I also see the Packers adding a veteran quarterback to backup Love. One possibility is Matt Ryan. Why? Ryan was NFL MVP in 2016 when he played for the Atlanta Falcons and his quarterback coach was none other than Matt LaFleur. Ryan is now a free agent after the Indianapolis Colts released him in March.
The Packers have 11 picks in the 2023 draft, and they need to add quality depth at a number of positions, plus need to continue adding talent to their special team units, which showed a big improvement in 2022 under the coaching of Rich Bisaccia.
As per usual, I will be using the insight and knowledge from NFL scout Chris Landry for my selections for the Packers. I will be using Landry’s top 300 horizontal draft board (best players regardless of position), as well as putting out the scouting report Landry has for each prospect I will select for the Packers.
Without further ado, here is my one and only 2023 NFL mock draft for the Packers.
Round 1: Tight End Dalton Kincaid (Utah)
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 246 pounds
Tight end Dalton Kincaid was certainly a playmaker for the Utah Utes in the Pac-12 conference the past two seasons. Kincaid combined to catch 106 passes for 1,400 and 16 touchdowns. Kincaid was named honorable mention All-Pac-12 in 2021 and then was named first-team All-Pac-12 in 2022, plus received third-team All-American honors from the Associated Press.
Kincaid will give quarterback Jordan Love a seam-stretching tight end who catches the ball extremely well, plus breaks tackles with ease. Some scouts have compared Kincaid’s talents at tight end to that of Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs. Others see him more like George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers. Either way, the offense of the Packers will be getting another dynamic playmaker.
Kincaid does not have the blocking ability that Michael Mayer of Notre Dame has but is much more dangerous downfield after the catch. I also see the Packers adding two tight ends in the 2023 NFL draft, because of the lack of depth and talent at the position. The second tight end that the Packers select will be more of a blocking weapon to enhance the run game.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Kincaid:
With his basketball background, Kincaid has fluid movement skills and flashes the short-area quickness to open stride and accelerate in and out of his breaks. He is a natural ball winner and shows confidence in his hands, doing most of his damage when catching the ball on the move (remarkable 35-to-4 touchdown-to-drop ratio in college). Overall, Kincaid is still developing his play strength and consistency as a blocker, but he is an above-average pass catcher with the burst, body control and ball skills to be a weapon in the slot. He projects as a playmaking “move” tight end in the NFL.
Round 2: Wide Receiver Josh Downs (North Carolina)
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 171 pounds
Josh Downs put up incredible numbers at North Carolina the past two seasons. In 2021, Downs had 101 receptions for 1,335 yards and eight touchdowns. In 2022, Downs had another great year, as he had 94 catches for 1,095 yards and 11 touchdowns. Downs was named first-team All-ACC honors in both 2021 and 2022. Downs was also named second-team AP All-American in 2022.
Downs also has experience as a punt returner, as he returned 26 punts for an 11.1 average for the Tarheels. Downs, who ran a 4.48 in the 40, would be the perfect slot receiver for the Packers and would really compliment Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs at the wide receiver position.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Downs:
With his athleticism and route-running prowess, Downs looks like a predator playing with his prey, patiently throttling his speed with a clear understanding of how to get open and move the sticks. He is obviously undersized, but he has the catch radius of a bigger player, and his competitive chip comes from always being a little smaller on the football field. Overall, Downs’ lack of size will face more resistance versus physical NFL coverage, but he is a tough cover in the slot one-on-one thanks to his gear changes and shifty route running. He projects as a three-level slot weapon for an NFL offense and adds punt return value.
Round 2: Edge Rusher Will McDonald IV (Iowa State)
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 239 pounds
Will McDonald IV was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and played football at Waukesha North High School. McDonald then went to Iowa State, where he accumulated 34 career sacks for the Cyclones, which is tied for the best mark in Big 12 history.
McDonald had 125 total tackles at Iowa State, which included 40.5 tackles for a loss, plus forced 10 fumbles during his collegiate career. McDonald was named first-team All-Big 12 for three consecutive years. He was also named third-team AP All-American in 2021.
The Packers need to add another edge rusher in this draft and bringing in a local kid like McDonald would be a great story. The team’s best pass rusher, Rashan Gary, is coming off of an ACL injury, while Preston Smith (8.5 sacks in 2022) and Kingsley Engabare (three sacks) are the only other players who can bring pressure from the edge.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on McDonald:
With his length and quick-twitch movements, McDonald is able to separate from blockers, burst to close and finish in the pocket. However, his pass rush currently lacks ideal deception, power or setup efficiency, and offenses aren’t afraid to attack him in the run game because of his average play strength. Overall, McDonald is more toolsy than seasoned and might never become the sum of his parts, but his natural length, flexibility and explosiveness are an enticing combination. He projects as a sub-package pass rusher as an NFL rookie with the potential to be more down the road.
Round 3: Safety Jartavius “Quan” Martin (Illinois)
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 194 pounds
Jartavius “Quan” Martin had a very solid career playing safety at Illinois. Over five seasons, Martin had 225 total tackles, 10 tackles for a loss, one sack, seven interceptions, 22 passes defended, two fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles. In 2022, starting for the top-ranked scoring defense in the country, Martin was named third-team All- Big Ten.
Martin ran a 4.46 in the 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine, plus was third among all safeties in the 10-yard split with a mark of 1.47 and was also ranked first among all safeties in the vertical jump with a mark of 44 inches.
The Packers need to add a safety in this draft, as Adrian Amos has not been re-signed, while Darnell Savage was benched for a while in the 2022 season.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Martin:
Martin is an alert player with the on-field athletic twitch that didn’t disappoint at the NFL combine. Though he covers a ton of ground, he can be a 90-10 player at times — coverage looks great the first 90 percent of the play but loses phase late attempting to find the football and make a play (see his touchdown allowed on 2022 Purdue tape). Overall, Martin needs to become a better finisher, but he is an outstanding athlete with cover skills, tackling attitude and above-average football character. Though he offers experience across the secondary, he is best suited inside as a nickel defender.
Round 4: Defensive Lineman Byron Young (Alabama)
Height: 6’3″
Weight: 294 pounds
Byron Young had a four-year career at Alabama and had 130 total tackles, 20 tackles for a loss, 7.5 sacks, one fumble recovery and one forced fumble.
The Packers defensive line needs a run-stuffer like Young, as the Packers finished 26th in the NFL in run defense in 2022. The Packers also saw Dean Lowry and Jarran Reed leave the team via free agency.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Young:
A smart, assignment-sound run defender, Young is quick to read blocks and put himself in a leveraged position to make plays from different alignments. He has the technical know-how to free himself as a rusher, but his secondary rush and finishing skills are subpar. Young doesn’t play with desired explosiveness or mass, but he can break down the rhythm of blockers with his length, awareness and skill. He is scheme-diverse and will provide immediate depth as an NFL rotational player.
Round 5: Offensive Tackle Braeden Daniels (Utah)
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 294 pounds
Braeden Daniels is the type of offensive lineman that the Packers love due to his versatility. In his time at Utah, Daniels saw time a left guard (18 starts), right tackle (11 starts and left tackle (14 starts). Daniels was named second-team All-Pac 12 in 2021 when he split time at left guard and right tackle and first-team All-Pac 12 in 2022 when he played at left tackle.
Over his career, Daniels only allowed five sacks in nearly 1,400 pass-blocking snaps in his career at Utah.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Daniels:
Daniels will require development time to refine his footwork and consistency to match up with NFL rushers, but he has the athletic twitch and versatility to boost an offensive line depth chart in the NFL. His experience at multiple positions is a plus and he grades as a swing tackle/guard with down-the-road starting upside.
Round 6: Linebacker Dee Winters (TCU)
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 227 pounds
Dee Winters was a tackling machine at TCU, as he had 246 total tackles and 33.5 tackles for a loss. In addition, Winters had 12.5 career sacks, three interceptions (including one for a touchdown), seven passes defensed and two fumble recoveries (one for a touchdown). Winters was named first-team All- Big 12 in 2022.
Winters is very fast for a linebacker, as he ran a 4.49 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine. The Packers need to add more depth at the linebacker position, as Krys Barnes left via free agency, plus the play of both De’Vondre Campbell and Quay Walker was too inconsistent, especially in stopping the run.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Winters:
Winters will run himself out of plays and can be engulfed in tight quarters, but he is in perpetual chase mode and covers a lot of green. He is a run-and-hit linebacker prospect with special-teams abilities.
Round 7: Wide Receiver C.J. Johnson (East Carolina)
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 224 pounds
C.J Johnson had a very nice four-year career at East Carolina, as he had 175 career receptions for 2,849 yards and 21 touchdowns. Johnson has nice size but is not particularly quick. He reminds me a lot of former Packer Allen Lazard, especially with his ability to block in the running game.
The Packers need to use the draft to add to the quality depth at wide receiver. I also see the Packers using free agency to bring in a veteran wide receiver to add to the trio of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Samori Toure.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Johnson:
Johnson owns an NFL body with high-quality play strength and ball skills, but his ordinary athleticism might limit the ways to get him the football. He projects best as a slot receiver who can make a living between the numbers.
Round 7: Cornerback Arquon Bush (Cincinnati)
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 187 pounds
Arquon Bush had a very solid career at Cincinnati, as he had 113 total tackles, five tackles for a loss, one sack, nine interceptions (including one for a touchdown), 21 passes defensed, one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles. Bush was an honorable mention All-American Athletic Conference selection in 2022.
The Packers need to add depth in the secondary at both safety and cornerback. Bush can also help out on special teams, as he blocked two kicks in his career with the Bearcats.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Bush:
Bush isn’t on the same level as a pro prospect as former Cincinnati teammates Sauce Gardner and Coby Bryant, but speed and ball skills are critical at the cornerback position, and he checks those boxes. His experience in the nickel only helps his chances of securing a role on an NFL roster.
Round 7: Tight End Blake Whiteheart (Wake Forest)
Height: 6’4″
Weight: 247 pounds
Blake Whiteheart did not put up eye-popping receiving stats at Wake Forest during his career there, as he had 44 career receptions for 541 yards and six touchdowns. But his blocking prowess came in handy, as the Demon Deacons averaged 132 rushing yards per game in 2021 and 2022.
Whitehearst can also help out on special teams, as he has extensive experience on the kick and punt teams at Wake Forest.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Whiteheart:
Whiteheart might lack a distinguishing trait, but he has plenty of useful traits as a tough-minded blocker and capable receiver. He projects as a gritty move tight end (in the Tyler Conklin mold) with special-teams skills.
Round 7: Quarterback Max Duggan (TCU)
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 207 pounds
Max Duggan was a four-year starter at quarterback for TCU. In his career with the Horned Frogs, Duggan threw for 9,618 yards and had 73 touchdown passes compared to 28 interceptions. That adds up to a passer rating of 141.4. In 2022, Duggan accumulated a number of honors. Duggan was named the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Year, second-team AP All-American and also the winner of the Davey O’Brien (named after the former TCU star) and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Awards as the nation’s top quarterback.
Duggan also led TCU to the College Football Playoff in 2022.
Duggan also ran the ball well at TCU, as he rushed for 1,856 yards and scored 28 touchdowns. Duggan ran a 4.52 40 at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Here is Chris Landry’s scouting report on Duggan:
Duggan is a passionate player with the arm strength, toughness and escapability to make plays with his legs and through the air. Though he showed growth in 2022, he isn’t a functionally-sound passer, and his sporadic field reads and accuracy are a high hurdle to clear at the next level. Overall, Duggan’s pocket skills and downfield passing lack the necessary refinement for the NFL game, but he is a courageous competitor with dual-threat talent and calm confidence. He is an intriguing project for a patient NFL coaching staff.
I’m very pleased to announce that Run to Win is now available on a pre-sale basis. You can order this book that I wrote with Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer of the Green Bay Packers at a number of online sites. You can order the book at Triumph Books, which happens to be our publisher. Triumph Books is the No. 1 sports publishing company in the country. You can also order the book at online outlets like Amazon and Walmart.
Run to Win will be available in bookstores on September 19.
This is the first book written about Jerry since 1985, when Jerry and the late, great Dick Schaap put out Distant Replay. Of the four books that Jerry put out, three became bestsellers. Instant Replay went all the way to No. 1. This book will cover Jerry’s career with the Green Bay Packers, which will include the fantastic draft class that Jerry was part of in 1958, which was a key component in helping the Pack to win the NFL championships in 1961 and 1962.
The book will also delve into Jerry’s remarkable comeback in 1965 after have nine medical procedures due to intestinal issues, which caused him to miss most of the 1964 season. In addition, the book will cover the unprecedented three straight NFL championships that the Packers won from 1965 through 1967. That will include a very insightful view of the “Ice Bowl”, also known as the 1967 NFL championship game. Plus, the book will entail the real reason Jerry retired, which is different than the official statement put out by the Packers. In the book, Jerry will add some very perceptive and illuminating commentary about Vince Lombardi, as well as his opinions about a number of his teammates, which will include all of the players who later were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The foreword for the book was written by Jeremy Schaap of ESPN, who is Dick’s son. Jeremy is a 13-time Emmy Award winner and a NYT bestselling author. Jeremy was named after Jerry and is also the godson of Jerry.
The introduction was penned by Rick Gosselin of the Talk of Fame Network. Rick also is a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and is on the Seniors Committee. Rick played a big role in helping Jerry get a bust in Canton in 2018. Rick was one of Jerry’s presenters to the full Hall of Fame Selection Committee, along with Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
A number of notable people will add insightful commentary about Jerry. This list includes teammates such as Paul Hornung, Boyd Dowler, Dave Robinson, Donny Anderson, Jim Grabowski, Chuck Mercein and Don Horn. Others will also add complimentary comments about No. 64. This includes David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Mark Murphy, the President & CEO of the Packers, David Baker, the former President of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Tommy Lee Jones, Academy Award-winning actor, Aaron Rodgers, Vince Lombardi Jr., Bart Starr Jr., Gilbert Brown and LeRoy Butler.
The list of teammates written about in this book include Hornung, Dowler, Robinson, Anderson, Grabowski, Mercein, Horn, Emlen Tunnell, Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Jim Ringo, Willie Wood, Henry Jordan, Bobby Dillon, Fuzzy Thurston, Max McGee, Ron Kramer, Gale Gillingham, Don Chandler, Dan Currie, Bob Skoronski, Doug Hart, Carroll Dale, Tommy Joe Crutcher, Lee Roy Caffey, Ron Kostelnik, Zeke Bratkowski, Elijah Pitts, Ken Bowman and Travis Williams.
The book will also cover the frustrating 44-year period in which Jerry had to wait for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even with Jerry being named as the only guard on the first team of the NFL 50th Anniversary Team in 1969. Jerry was also on the first team of the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1960s. Jerry came close on several occasions, as he was a finalist in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1997 (as a senior nominee), but he never received the necessary votes to get a bust in Canton. That all changed in 2018. Before he was inducted, Jerry received over 30 endorsements from peers/players who had already been enshrined in Canton.
In addition, the book will cover the charities that Jerry has supported throughout the years. One is the Boys & Girls Club of Door County. During the 13 years of the celebrity golf outings since Jerry became involved, the Club has raised $1,300,000. Jerry has also been involved with National Child Identification Program (NCIDP) for seven years.
Also, the book will also have Jerry reminiscing about getting together with celebrities like Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lee Marvin and Kirk Douglas. Speaking of Hollywood, Jerry got to be good friends with Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who produced films like Jaws and The Sting. The two of them offered Jerry the lead role in one of the top-grossing films in 1973 that they produced. Jerry turned down that offer, which is pretty ironic, knowing that his two biggest competitors in the NFL, Merlin Olsen and Alex Karras, later went on to become successful actors.
The book will also touch on the recent documentary put out about Jerry’s life, called You Can If You Will: The Jerry Kramer Story. The film was released in 2021 and I was a supervising producer for that film, which was directed by award-winning filmmaker Glenn Aveni.
Additionally, members of the Kramer family will also honor Jerry with their reflections about him.
Bottom line, the hope is that Run to Win is received with as much pleasure as Jerry and I had, as we embarked on this very enjoyable journey.
Back in late July, I wrote that Jerry Kramer and I had reached an agreement with Triumph Books to publish our upcoming book tentatively titled Run to Win and that it would be published in 2023. Triumph Books is the nation’s leading sports book publisher and are based out of Chicago.
I recently was told that the book can be pre-ordered sometime in March. The book itself will go to print on May 1. The book’s on-sale date is September 19, which falls at the beginning of the 2023 NFL season.
Run to Win will be the first book written about Jerry since 1985, when Jerry and Dick Schaap put out Distant Replay. Of the four books that Jerry put out, three became bestsellers. Instant Replay went all the way to No. 1. This book will cover Jerry’s career with the Green Bay Packers, which will include the fantastic draft class Jerry was part of in 1958, which was a key component in helping the Pack to win the NFL championships in 1961 and 1962. The book will also delve into Jerry’s remarkable comeback in 1965 after have nine medical procedures due to intestinal issues, which caused him to miss most of the 1964 season. In addition, the book will cover the unprecedented three straight NFL championships that the Packers won from 1965 through 1967. That will include a very insightful view of the “Ice Bowl”, also known as the 1967 NFL championship game. Plus, the book will entail the real reason Jerry retired, which is different than the official statement put out by the Packers. In the book, Jerry will add some very perceptive and illuminating commentary about Vince Lombardi, as well as his opinions about a number of his teammates, which will include all of the players who later were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The foreword for the book was written by Jeremy Schaap of ESPN, who is Dick’s son. Jeremy is a 13-time Emmy Award winner and a NYT bestselling author. Jeremy was named after Jerry and is also the godson of Jerry.
The introduction was penned by Rick Gosselin of the Talk of Fame Network. Rick also is a voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and is on the Seniors Committee. Rick played a big role in helping Jerry get a bust in Canton in 2018. Rick was one of Jerry’s presenters to the full Hall of Fame Selection Committee, along with Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
A number of people will add insightful commentary about Jerry. This list includes Paul Hornung, Boyd Dowler, Dave Robinson, Donny Anderson, Jim Grabowski, Chuck Mercein, Don Horn, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss, Mark Murphy, Aaron Rodgers, Vince Lombardi Jr., Bart Starr Jr., Gilbert Brown and LeRoy Butler.
The list of teammates written about in this book include Hornung, Dowler, Robinson, Anderson, Grabowski, Mercein, Horn, Emlen Tunnell, Jim Taylor, Forrest Gregg, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Willie Davis, Jim Ringo, Willie Wood, Henry Jordan, Bobby Dillon, Fuzzy Thurston, Max McGee, Ron Kramer, Gale Gillingham, Don Chandler, Dan Currie, Bob Skoronski, Doug Hart, Carroll Dale, Tommy Joe Crutcher, Lee Roy Caffey, Ron Kostelnik, Zeke Bratkowski and Elijah Pitts.
The book will also cover the frustrating 44-year period in which Jerry had to wait for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even with Jerry being named as the only guard on the first team of the NFL 50th Anniversary Team in 1969. Jerry was also on the first team of the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1960s. Jerry came close on several occasions, as he was a finalist in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1997 (as a senior nominee), but he never received the necessary votes to get a bust in Canton. That all changed in 2018. Before he was inducted, Jerry received over 30 endorsements from peers/players who had already been enshrined in Canton. Many of those endorsements will be in the book.
Photo by John Biever
The book will also get readers caught up regarding Jerry’s family life, since it’s been 37 years since his last book. Plus, the book will cover Jerry’s athletic career before he began playing in the NFL.
In addition, the book will cover the charities that Jerry has supported throughout the years. One is Gridiron Greats, an organization that he originally founded. Another is the Boys & Girls Club of Door County. During the 13 years of the celebrity golf outings since Jerry became involved, the Club has raised $1,300,000. Jerry has also been involved with National Child Identification Program (NCIDP) for seven years. Plus, Jerry has also been very interested in stem cell therapy. I wrote a four-part series about that a few years ago, some of which will be in the book.
In addition, the book will also have Jerry reminiscing about getting together with celebrities like Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lee Marvin and Kirk Douglas. Speaking of Hollywood, Jerry got to be good friends with Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who produced films like Jaws and The Sting. The two of them offered Jerry the lead role in one of the top-grossing films in 1973 that they produced. Jerry turned down that offer, which is pretty ironic, knowing that his two biggest competitors in the NFL, Merlin Olsen and Alex Karras, later went on to become successful actors.
The book will also touch on the recent documentary put out about Jerry’s life, called You Can If You Will: The Jerry Kramer Story. The film was released in 2021 and I was a supervising producer for that film, which was directed by award-winning filmmaker Glenn Aveni.
Bottom line, Jerry and I hope that Run to Win is received with as much enjoyment as we had while putting this book together.
I am very pleased to announce that Jerry Kramer and I have reached an agreement with Triumph Books to publish our upcoming book. The book is tentatively titled “Run to Win”, which is expected to be published in 2023. Triumph Books is the nation’s leading sports book publisher and are based out of Chicago.
This book has been in the works for a while now, but the biggest task was finding the right publisher. We are very pleased with the partnership we have achieved with Triumph Books.
This will be the first book about Jerry Kramer since 1985, when Jerry and Dick Schaap put out Distant Replay. Of the four books that Jerry put out, three became bestsellers. Instant Replay went all the way to No. 1. This book will cover Jerry’s career with the Green Bay Packers, which will include the fantastic draft class Jerry was part of in 1958, which was a key component in helping the Pack to win the NFL championships in 1961 and 1962. The book will also delve into Jerry’s remarkable comeback in 1965 after have nine medical procedures due to intestinal issues, which caused him to miss most of the 1964 season. In addition, the book will cover the unprecedented three straight NFL championships that the Packers won from 1965 through 1967. That will include a very insightful view of the “Ice Bowl”, also known as the 1967 NFL championship game. Plus, the book will entail the real reason Jerry retired, which is different than the official statement put out by the Packers. In the book, Jerry will add some very perceptive and illuminating commentary about Vince Lombardi, as well as his opinions about a number of his teammates, which will include all of the players who later were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In addition, several of Jerry’s teammates will add their thoughts about playing with No. 64.
The book will also cover the frustrating 44-year period in which Jerry had to wait for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, even with Jerry being named as the only guard on the first team of the NFL 50th Anniversary Team in 1969. Jerry was also on the first team of the NFL All-Decade Team of the 1960s. Jerry came close on several occasions, as he was a finalist in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1997 (as a senior nominee), but he never received the necessary votes to get a bust in Canton. That all changed in 2018. Before he was inducted, Jerry received over 30 endorsements from peers/players who had already been enshrined in Canton. Many of those endorsements will be in the book.
The book will also get readers caught up regarding Jerry’s family life, since it’s been 37 years since his last book. Plus, the book will cover Jerry’s athletic career before he began playing in the NFL, including his time as a member of the Idaho Vandals.
In addition, the book will cover the charities that Jerry has supported throughout the years. One is Gridiron Greats, an organization that he originally founded. Another is the Boys & Girls Club of Door County. During the 13 years of the celebrity golf outings since Jerry became involved, the Club has raised $1,300,000. Jerry has also been very interested in stem cell therapy. I wrote a four-part series about that a few years ago, some of which will be in the book.
In addition, the book will also have Jerry reminiscing about getting together with celebrities like Johnny Carson, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lee Marvin and Kirk Douglas. Speaking of Hollywood, Jerry got to be good friends with Richard Zanuck and David Brown, who produced films like Jaws and The Sting. The two of them offered Jerry the lead role in one of the top-grossing films in 1973 that they produced. Jerry turned down that offer, which is pretty ironic, knowing that his two biggest competitors in the NFL, Merlin Olsen and Alex Karras, later went on to become successful actors.
The book will also touch on the recent documentary put out about Jerry’s life, called You Can If You Will: The Jerry Kramer Story. The film was released in 2021 and the Packers are selling the DVD/Blu-Ray copies of the film in their Pro Shop.
Bottom line, I am very excited about writing this book with Jerry and we are both extremely elated about our partnership with Triumph Books.
The 1950s was not a very good decade for the Green Bay Packers in terms of winning and losing. As a matter of fact, the Packers were 39-79-2 in the 1950s. The Pack had only one winning record that decade and that was when Vince Lombardi became head coach and general manager of the team in 1959. Green Bay was 7-5 that season, which was the first time the team had a winning record since 1947.
Still, the 1950s was a very good decade for the Packers in terms of acquiring talent through the NFL draft. The man responsible for that? Scout Jack Vainisi. A few days ago, Vainisi was recognized for his ability to spot talent, as he was among the group of 29 semifinalist nominees in the coach/contributor category for the Class of 2023 for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
It’s also important to know that it was Vainisi who was the biggest reason that Lombardi came to Green Bay in 1959. Vainisi talked to head coaches like George Halas of the Chicago Bears, Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns and Sid Gillman of the Los Angeles Rams, and they all heartily endorsed Lombardi for the Green Bay job. Vainisi made that case to the Board of Directors of the Packers after those discussions, and Lombardi soon was hired.
I want to list all the players who the Packers drafted in the 1950s under the direction of Vainisi who later received busts in Canton.
Vainisi scouted for the Packers from 1950 through 1960, when tragically a fatal heart attack took the life of the 33-year-old Vainisi. The passing of Vainisi came just prior to the championship run that the Packers had under Lombardi. And it was Vainisi who was responsible for drafting many of the players who won five NFL championships in seven years under Lombardi.
In 1950, when the Packers hired Vainisi to scout, he worked under head coach and general manager Gene Ronzani through 1953. From 1954 through 1958, Vainisi worked under general manager Verne Lewellen. And in 1959 and 1960, Vainisi worked under Lombardi.
Besides all of the Hall of Famers Vainisi recommended that the Packers draft, the Packers also selected a number of other talented players during the decade of the 1950s. The list includes Tobin Rote, Fred Cone, Babe Parilli, Billy Howton, Dave “Hawg” Hanner, Al Carmichael, Bill Forester, Roger Zatkoff, Max McGee, Tom Bettis, Hank Gremminger, Ron Kramer, Ken Gray, Alex Hawkins, Boyd Dowler and Timmy Brown.
From that list of players, I definitely believe both (Ron) Kramer and Dowler deserve a bust in Canton as well. Both were on the NFL’s 50th Anniversary Team. They are the only two members of that 45-man squad who are not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Bottom line, I’m very glad that the voters for the Pro Football Hall of Fame have finally recognized what fantastic job Vainisi did in drafting players for the Packers in the 1950s, in which many of those draftees helped lead the Packers to five NFL titles in the 1960s, including victories in Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II.
Vainisi was also paramount in bringing Vince Lombardi to Green Bay, which led to an amazing legacy in the history of the Packers and the NFL.
In 1966, when I was nine years old, my dad brought home Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane. My dad was never a believer that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of President John F. Kennedy and the book by Lane surely amplified that belief of his, as well as mine.
In 1991, I went to visit my parents one afternoon and my mom told me that dad had gone to see JFK, the Oliver Stone film. When dad came home, he told me that I really needed to go out and see this film. The next day I did. To both of us, the film further increased our belief that the JFK assassination was indeed a conspiracy.
While dad and I both thought the film was very insightful and informative about who may have murdered JFK and why he had created so many enemies within the United States government, many in the mainstream media gave the movie bad reviews. Like large media outlets like CBS, NBC and The New York Times, who had all endorsed the Warren Report, which has been largely discredited in 58 years since it first came out in 1964.
Which takes me to a new Oliver Stone documentary called JFK: Destiny Betrayed. It’s a four-part film that lasts approximately four hours that can be seen on Prime Video and Apple. I had the opportunity to see the film and I thought it was outstanding. The film was directed by Stone and produced by Rob Wilson. The film was written by long time JFK assassination researcher and author Jim DiEugenio. The film is narrated by Whoopi Goldberg and Donald Sutherland.
If you truly care about what really occurred in Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963, please watch this film. Yes, I know, we now live in an era of disinformation, via the mainstream media, as well as social media. Unlike that fabricated rhetoric, this film puts out real evidence, much of which was hidden for 30-plus years. This documented information comes from witnesses, physicians, historians, researchers and ballistics specialists.
Chapter 4:
In 1975, when the Church Committee was investigating U.S. intelligence activities, Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania remarked in an interview, that everywhere you looked at Lee Harvey Oswald, there were fingerprints of intelligence.
Those fingerprints extended back to 1959, when Oswald defected to the Soviet Union. State Department intelligence officer Otto Otepka had noted the marked increase of Americans who were defecting to Russia at the time. He also noted that some of the defectors had come from a military background. Otepka assumed that some of these men were fake defectors who had been assigned by the CIA to garner intelligence behind the Iron Curtain.
Otepka sent a note to the CIA asking if any of the defectors were agents for that organization. Oswald was one of the names on Otepka’s list. The request by Otepka was forwarded to James Angleton, who was the CIA’s Chief of Counterintelligence.
Angelton replied that there was to be no research done regarding Oswald. But Otepka continued to work on the Oswald case.
Author/researcher Lisa Pease commented about Otepka. “The only thing of significance was that he was really interested in Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination,” Pease said. “And he actually had a study of these defectors in his safe. Things got worse. His office was not only bugged, but they planted people in his office to spy on him. They started putting confidential documents in his burn bag and then tried to blame him by saying ‘He’s burning confidential documents.’ Like the guy has gone wacko.”
The result? Otepka was formally removed from the State Department on November 5, 1963, just 17 days before the assassination. In addition, Otepka’s name is not mentioned in the Warren Report, nor was he called to testify in front of that committee. In fact, it was Angleton who coordinated the agencies response to the Warren Commision.
Oliver Stone asked author and historian John M. Newman, who had a background in Army intelligence, to describe how the Oswald file was set up at the CIA.
“It could be opened after a few documents arrived at the CIA from other intelligence agencies,” Newman said. “And that would be enough to trigger a 201 File. Sometimes they call it a Personality File. Another thing that could trigger the opening of a 201 File, would be an American citizen defecting to a communist-blocked country. The interesting thing is that Oswald met both of those criteria within nine days of his defection, and they didn’t open a 201 File on him for 13 or 14 months.
“Immediately after the defection, Oswald’s threat to commit an act of espionage, his words were something special about his Marine Corp experience. Which could only be the U2, which is a program he had worked on, a very secretive CIA program. That threat caused him to be put on the mail intercept program and not opening a 201 at the same time, which is a very unusual combination. And can only be explained by Oswald being part of a very covert and very sensitive operation, which was the hunt for a mole.
“The history of the KGB and the CIA, their wars are not actually shooting each other, but to penetrate each other. They called them moles for penetrations. So, it was an ongoing war, very, very complicated. What the molehunters were doing for Angleton were looking for KGB moles inside of the CIA. So, 351-164 was the file of the security office that was opened up right after his defection and that was shared only with Angleton’s mole hunting office, but not with any other components of the CIA. The CIA and FBI knew what the KGB would figure out very quickly was because of his assignment at Osugi, Japan, where he tracked the super-secret U2s at the time.
“So, once you established the lure, the place where you trap the animal isn’t in the Moscow embassy, but it’s back at Langley, where you thought the moles was. You want the KGB to contact the mole to ask questions. The moment the mole asks a question, it’s over. He or she is exposed. This program, which did not work, years later was put in front of probably our most celebrated and capable counterintelligence officer in the history of the CIA. His name was “Pete” Tennet Bagley. He began searching for the mole. He was the key person leading it for years, with Angleton.
“So, after he was retired, he attended a meeting of former CIA officers down in the Carolina’s and a British researcher officer happened to be down there. His name is Malcolm Blunt. And they met and got along well. And fortunately for history, a couple of years before “Pete” Bagley died, Malcolm sat down with him one day and showed him all those first documents that had come into the CIA from the State Department and the Navy component at the embassy.
“And “Pete” Bagley looks at Malcom and says, ‘Was he witting?’ And Malcolm doesn’t really know how to respond. So, Bagley raises his voice and insisted, ‘He had to be witting! He had to be witting!’ That was a telling seminal moment in the history of KGB-CIA spy wars and the history of Lee Harvey Oswald and his early use by the CIA. A very, very important moment because finally after all these years, a very senior CIA officer had just told Malcolm and us, that Lee Harvey Oswald was a witting false defector when he went to Moscow.”
Also, Douglas Horne, who was the Chief Analyst for Military Records for the Assassination Records Review Board (the ARRB), added this about an unusual circumstance regarding Oswald’s income at the time of his defection.
“Oswald’s last quarter of earnings in the United States before he defected to the Soviet Union, should have been paid by the United States Marine Corp,” Horne said. “And they weren’t. Because we asked to see his Marine Corp earnings record that the Marine Corp deposits with the Social Security administration. They didn’t pay him any money the last quarter he was in the United States before his defection.”
Author/researcher Jefferson Morley added this regarding this subject. “The line that the CIA fed the Warren Commission that we really didn’t know anything about this guy, we now know that was complete nonsense,” Morley said. “Oswald was a figure of intense interest for four years before the assassination. And a dozen senior CIA officers were very well acquainted with everything he did. Where he went. What his politics were. His family life. Remember, they were reading his mother’s mail.
“That’s how closely they were watching him. Right up until Kennedy was killed. Then Kennedy is killed, and Oswald is arrested, and they say we know nothing about this guy.”
Plus, ARRB records show that Angleton and others in the CIA were receiving reports on Oswald up until one week before the assassination.
Chapter 4 also delves into Oswald’s time in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. The Warren Commission depicted Oswald as being a staunch communist because he distributed pro-Castro leaflets in New Orleans, in addition to his defection to the Soviet Union in 1959.
In reality, that was just a cover. Oswald was actually working with fiercely anti-communist elements in New Orleans. Many of these groups were supported by the U.S. government as well. Oswald spent time with three men who were connected to these entities. They were Clay Shaw, Guy Banister and David Ferrie.
Ferrie and Oswald first knew each other back in 1955, when both were in Civil Air Patrol. Ferrie was known as an extreme anti-communist and was also a trainer and a pilot for the CIA in their secret war against Cuba. Oswald was involved in these training activities with Ferrie.
Oswald also worked with Banister, who had far right-wing tendencies. Banister was a former agent for the FBI, plus he also had associations with the CIA and the American Nazi party. Banister gave Oswald his own office at 544 Camp Street in New Orleans. Oswald used that office to print out pro-Castro literature, much of which was connected to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which was centered in New York.
One of the places where Oswald handed out his leaflets was in front of the International Trade Mart, which was run by Shaw. It was Shaw who was arrested by the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Jim Garrison, for being part of the conspiracy to kill JFK. Shaw always denied that he was associated with the CIA.
The ARRB found documents which proved that Shaw’s assertions were false. Shaw was actually a highly paid CIA contractor. Shaw also had a covert security clearance from the CIA for a program which was code-named QKENCHANT.
Then there is the situation regarding attorney Dean Andrews, who worked with Oswald in May of 1963, to try and upgrade his military discharge status, which at the time read undesirable. After JFK was assassinated, a man named Clay Bertrand called Andrews to see if he could represent Oswald in Dallas. Shaw denied under oath that he was Clay Bertrand, but thanks to the work of the ARRB, they found 12 people who confirmed that Shaw was indeed Bertrand.
Also in this chapter, we learn about two other members of the CIA. They are David Atlee Phillips and George Joannides.
Robert Tanenbaum, who was the former Deputy Chief Council for the HSCA and others have seen film of Oswald, Ferrie and Phillips at anti-Castro training camps. Phillips was the CIA Director of Cuban Operations and he specialized propaganda, Phillips used multiple tactics for gaining information from The Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Those tactics were infiltration, surveillance and the recruitment of agents who gain access (see Oswald).
Phillips also created an anti-Castro Cuban exile group. The group was called DRE and was based in Miami, but also had a chapter in New Orleans, which was led by Carlos Bringuier. The ARRB discovered that the CIA was funding this group and helped to plan activities.
Morley talked about the DRE in Miami, which was never investigated by the Warren Commision. “They (the Warren Commision) certainly didn’t know that the group was receiving $51,000 a month from the CIA in 1963 and they didn’t know the group was being run from Miami by George Joannides, a psychological warfare office, who reported directly to Dick Helms (the CIA Deputy Director of Plans).
“The DRE published the first JFK conspiracy theory saying Oswald and Castro were the presumed assassins. The publication was paid for by the CIA under the auspices of George Joannides. The Joannides story tells us that Dick Helms’ handpicked man in Miami was controlling the group that had the most to do with Oswald before and after the assassination.
“I found out Joannides’ identity many years later and I went to Bob Blakey, the head of the HSCA investigation and I said, ‘Bob, do you ever know this guy Joannides?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, we dealt with him a lot. He was the liaison.’ And I said, ‘Did you know what he was doing in 1963?’ And he said, ‘He wasn’t doing anything in 1963 because we had an agreement with the CIA that nobody who was operational at the time of the assassination would be involved in the investigation.’
“And I said, ‘Bob, think again. Joannides was running those Cubans who were in touch with Oswald. He was running the Cubans who were blaming Castro for the assassination. And then he came along, and he stonewalled you.’ The reason why they brought Joannides to do it was to hide the connection to Oswald. He (Blakey) was definitely shocked because he saw how clever they had been. They had gone right to the heart of his investigation and figured out how to paralyze it.”
Here is what Blakey said when he realized what the CIA had done to his investigation. “I no longer trust anything that the agency has told us in regard to the assassination. It lied to the Warren Commision. It lied to the ARRB. It lied to the HSCA in admitting that Joannides was employed in a covert capacity as a liaison to the HSCA. It has admitted that it violated its charter and ran a domestic covert operation aimed at subverting the HSCA and its investigation.”
The CIA wasn’t alone in terms of impairing the investigation of JFK’s assassination. Soon after the JFK Records Act was passed In September of 1992, the Secret Service started complying and giving documents to the ARRB. But by January of 1995, the Secret Service started destroying documents.
John R. Tunheim of the ARRB explains. “And they destroyed a group of records that involved threats to President Kennedy in the fall of 1963. They have what they call, “threat sheets” and there were many threats made to President Kennedy’s life during the year 1963. They fought us on the release of those records.”
Tunheim added this point. “In the end, when we required agencies to disclose and swear under oath that they had located all assassination records and turn everything over to us, the Secret Service refused to sign that document under oath. I think that was telling.”
Speaking of agencies, the FBI lowered the security status of Oswald just weeks before the assassination, which allowed him to work at a place in the route of the JFK motorcade. Without lowering the status, the FBI would have never allowed Oswald to be anywhere near the motorcade. But by lowering the security status, Oswald was able to be inside the Texas School Book Depository, which allowed the lone gunman scenario to take hold.
Very few people knew that there had been at least two prior plots to assassinate JFK in the fall of 1963. One was in Chicago on November 2nd, and one was in Tampa on November 18th.
President Kennedy had his trip to Chicago cancelled. Professor Paul Bleau explained why to Stone. “An informant on October 31st, an informant named Lee, who could have been Lee Harvey Oswald, gave a warning to the FBI, stating that four Cubans were headed to Chicago to shoot Kennedy,” Bleau said. “The following day, a landlady, reported to the Chicago police that she had rented a room to four people who had rifles with telescopic sites and a sketch of the motorcade.
“The FBI passed that on to the Secret Service, but the Secret Service botched the surveyance of these four individuals. Two of them escaped, but they actually picked up two of the snipers. They detained them. They were stonewalled by the snipers and didn’t get any information out of them.
“While this was going on, there was another threat coming in from another alternate patsy named Thomas Artur Vallee, who was making open and loud threats that he would assassinate Kennedy. They only picked him up after Kennedy cancelled his trip on November 2nd at 10:00 in the morning. One day before the trip, the Diem brothers had been assassinated. And that was the stated reason for the cancellation of the trip to Chicago.
“What you found in Vallee and the whole Chicago plot, was that there were so many similarities to what eventually happened in Dallas. It can’t be considered to be coincidental. Vallee, if we compare him to Oswald, is an ex-Marine and was posted like Oswald in the Far East in a station which was linked to the CIA, because there were U2 surveyance planes on it. It was easy to portray him as disgruntled, anti-Kennedy, a loner, armed. He had another intelligence link that he shared with Oswald, is that he trained Cuban exiles for combat. Which was a CIA responsibility. Oswald at least offered to do that. He most likely did train Cuban exiles, but we know he tried to.
“Oswald, as we know, was moved from New Orleans to Dallas in October to be there just at the right time for the motorcade and he is placed in a tall building, where he gets a job. He is adjacent to the perfect kill zone. Now if we look at what happened to Vallee, he’s moved like a pawn in August from Long Island to Chicago to be there in time for the motorcade. And where did he get a job? In a tall building adjacent to the motorcade with a perfect view of a kill zone. It would have forced Kennedy’s motorcade to do a sharp turn and slow down and be in a point where you would have had a perfect triangulation of fire.”
There was also the plan to assassinate JFK in Tampa. That too had a patsy in a tall building (the Floridian Hotel) on the motorcade route. The alternate patsy’s name was Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, who was a Cuban exile. But there was no assassination attempt.
A lot of this type of information was concealed from the Warren Commission. But one person tried. That would be Abraham Bolden, who was the first African American Secret Service agent assigned to the White House. Bolden was handpicked by JFK as well. Bolden was in Chicago when the assassination plot in the Windy City went down. He was there when the Secret Service was briefed about the four snipers, and he noted how lax the security was in Chicago. Bolden also witnessed the steps that were taken after the assassination to keep the Chicago plot quiet.
Bolden tried to say what he knew to the Warren Commission, but he was blocked from talking to them. He was eventually railroaded for a phony bribery crime and had to spend some time in prison. Just as a side note, Bolden was pardoned for that bogus crime by President Joe Biden in April.
Another reason JFK had so many enemies was because he was having backchannel negotiations with the Soviet Union and Cuba, in an attempt to secure piece. JFK used his brother Bobby as his main advisor in foreign relations. That led to a Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union.
JFK sent a message to Khrushchev with his speech at American University in June of 1963. President Kennedy said, “I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war. And every graduate of this school and every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace should begin by looking inward. By examining his own attitude towards the possibilities of peace towards the Soviet Union. Towards the course of the Cold War. And towards freedom and peace here at home. Forced to examine our attitude at peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it is unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable. That mankind was doomed. That we are gripped by forces that we cannot control.”
JFK also created enemies in terms of his support for civil rights, especially in southern states. JFK had to use federal troops to make sure African American students were allowed to enroll in public colleges in the south, most notably in Mississippi and Alabama.
After JFK was assassinated, Vice President Lyndon Johnson became President, and he basically went 180 degrees different from the approach that JFK had been using in terms of foreign policy. The most noticeable change was in Vietnam, where instead of getting American troops out of Vietnam, LBJ escalated the war.
That would not have been the course that JFK would have taken had he lived. Kennedy promoted peace all around the world and not just with his adversaries.
JFK also said this in his speech at American University. “I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived–yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace. What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children, not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”
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