Paul Bretl | 5/7/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Going beyond Brian Gutekunst’s tenure as general manager, the Packers have fairly well-established height, weight, and athletic testing thresholds within each position group that they often adhere to during the NFL draft. However, in this year’s draft, with two of the Packers’ four defensive selections, those thresholds took a back seat.
What gave the Packers the confidence to deviate from their norms with two of those picks was the versatility that was added, and the defenders’ fit in Jeff Hafley’s defense.
Oklahoma State’s Collin Oliver is a unique addition to the Green Bay defense for two reasons. One is his ability to play both defensive end and linebacker, something he did in college. And second, at 240 pounds, Oliver isn’t the prototypical big-bodied edge defender that we see the Packers frequently covet at 255 pounds or more.
“The niche is that he’s a really good football player,” Director of Football Operations Milt Hendrickson said on Day 3 of the draft. “If you say the old-school DPR (designated pass rusher) situational pass rusher, if you want to put a tag on him right now I’d say that’s probably if you were to put him in a position that would be it. But we took him with the idea that the things coach Hafley wants to do, he’s going to allow some multi alignments that just increased his value in our eyes.”
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Micah Robinson, meanwhile, measured in at under 5-11 and weighed 183 pounds. Both measurements are outliers for a Packers team that typically prefers bigger, longer cornerbacks.
But what the additions of Oliver and Robinson do is enhance that versatility element within Jeff Hafley’s defense, and that is something that appears to be a cornerstone for this unit and can play to the Packers’ advantage.
Oliver will begin his NFL career working with the defensive ends specifically, as he gets onboarded and acclimated to his new team. At 240 pounds, Oliver provides a bit of a change-up to the Packers’ pass rush unit with his ability to win with pure speed.
As Hendrickson described, in today’s NFL, where the quick passing game is prevalent, the ability to win fast is at a premium. In addition to that, Oliver’s presence can provide a change of pace for an offensive tackle after they spend multiple snaps dealing with Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness’ power, which can in turn, keep the blocker off balance.
From a schematic standpoint, Oliver’s presence could allow for more movement up front and multi-faceted alignments. One example might come during obvious passing situations where Oliver is at one defensive end spot and Van Ness is then moved inside to rush from the interior. Even Oliver himself, at 240 pounds, has some experience rushing inside.
“I’m sure the coaches know my strong suits and the talents that I have,” Oliver said during rookie minicamp. “I get to the passer. That’s what I do best. Everything just complements. So whether it’s linebacker, whether it’s edge, whether it’s special teams, whether it’s playing kicker whatever it is, I don’t care, I’m just going to play to the best of my ability whatever that position is.”
With Oliver, his versatility, ability to impact the game in multiple ways, and the flexibility he provides Hafley with from a game planning perspective are all reasons that the Packers were comfortable going off-script at this position. It’s a similar situation for Robinson at cornerback. Although a bit undersized, he has excellent speed, running a 4.38-second 40, and has proven he can hold his own playing off-man coverage, which is no easy task, as Gutekunst pointed out.
“He brought me here because he knows I can make plays,” Robinson said. “That’s all it is, honestly. Just go out there, do my job, make plays, no matter what position it is.”
At the NFL combine, Gutekunst noted the importance of playing with vision on the quarterback in Hafley’s defense and the ball awareness that is needed. Robinson brings that skill set to the NFL level, and it’s evident in his ball production. Over four seasons, Robinson came away with seven interceptions and 21 pass breakups, according to PFF.
While most of Robinson’s college snaps came at the outside cornerback position, he also has a fair amount of experience as a box defender as well. Whether playing off-man coverage, sitting in a zone, making plays on the ball, or helping out in run support, Robinson was able to impact the game multiple ways and in different roles during his season at Tulane.
“Honestly, anywhere,” said Robinson when asked where he fits in the defense. “I could be the cornerback room, nickel room, anywhere, special teams. I’m just, wherever the coaches want to put me, I can play.”
The specific skill sets and versatility that Oliver and Robinson bring to the Packers’ defense only add to the bevy of options Hafley already has on the defensive side of the ball as he puts together his weekly game plans.
Versatility is obviously a crucial element for a few reasons. One of which is injuries happen. However, when that occurs, the ability to move your starters around to fill different roles hopefully minimizes the absence of the player who is sidelined.
But in addition to that important aspect, a versatile defense can put a lot on the plate for an opposing offense. From a preparation standpoint, there’s a lot to watch and be ready for throughout the week when the defense is putting a variety of looks on tape. Then pre-snap, quarterbacks won’t as easily get a beat on what’s coming based solely on where defenders are lined up because it’s either a different look or where players are aligned could change once the ball is snapped.
Hafley obviously has his playbook and defensive philosophies that he believes in and wants to generally stick to. But what we saw in 2024 and will continue to see is an ever-evolving defensive unit that will continue to adjust and adapt on the fly based on who the opponent is and what the players on the Packers’ defense do well, so they can be put into positions to be successful.
In order to accomplish this, versatility is an important factor, and in the process, it makes life more challenging for offenses as well–-and, of course, that’s always a good thing.
“This league’s about matchups and I think if you have guys that can play certain positions that gives you an advantage, then I think it’s our job to coach it and get it done,” Hafley said last season. “I think it’s about adapting. I’ve said this since I got here, it’s not like, ‘Hey, here’s the playbook. This is in. Go run the defense.’ It’s each week, what did we look like? What do we look like when they watch us on tape? What can we do a little bit different to counter that? What do we do really well?
“Let’s do more of it, make it look different. And then as we start to see certain players do certain things, how can we best use them to improve? We have to keep getting better. That’s the whole key to this whole entire thing as we go. Any way that we can adapt and get better, both coaching, playing, scheme, personnel, it’s not just like plug and play. Let’s evolve. I think that’s very important.”