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Packers, Bears Wrap Up NFL Draft

The Green Bay Packers prioritized the secondary first in the NFL draft.
 
Josh Jackson is joining a revamped cornerback group after the Packers took the Iowa junior with the 45th overall pick in the second round on Friday night. Jackson led the nation with eight interceptions last season.
 
Green Bay also went cornerback in the first round on Thursday after choosing Louisville's Jaire Alexander with the 18th overall pick.
 
At 6-foot-1, 192 pounds, the Packers like Jackson's physical ability. He turned into a ball hawk in his only year as starter in college.
 
Green Bay also dealt back into the third round to select linebacker Oren Burks from Vanderbilt with the 88th overall pick. The Packers sent the first pick in the fourth round — the 101st overall — and a fifth-round selection to the Carolina Panthers to take Burks.
 
Burks is listed as an outside linebacker on the NFL's prospect list, though he played inside linebacker as a senior last season with the Commodores. Pro personnel director John Wojciechowski said that Burks will play inside, where he hopes that his ability in pass coverage will help.
 
The focus shifted to offense for the late rounds on Saturday. The passing attack slipped to 25th in the league last season after Rodgers was limited to seven games because of a broken collarbone.
 
Gutekunst drafted three wideouts, starting with Missouri's J'Mon Moore in the fourth round. The 6-foot-3 senior had team highs of 65 catches and 1,082 yards last season.
 
Besides Moore, the Packers also took two 6-5 receivers in South Florida's Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the fifth round and Notre Dame's Equanimeous St. Brown in the sixth round. Valdes-Scantling offers an intriguing blend of size and speed after he ran the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine at 4.37 seconds. Brown played with Packers backup quarterback DeShone Kizer for two seasons at Notre Dame.
 
There might be competition at punter, too, after the Packers drafted JK Scott from Alabama. Scott had just five punts returned as a senior, crediting the success to a renewed focus on hang time. Last year's punter, Justin Vogel, was seventh in the NFL in net punting average at 41.6 yards.
 
Green Bay also took a long snapper with the second of their three seventh-round picks in Mississippi State's Hunter Bradley.
 
The selection of offensive lineman Cole Madison from Washington State in the fifth round addressed another position of need. The 6-5 Madison played tackle in college. But the Packers like his versatility and plan to use him at guard. Green Bay has questions on the right side of the line.
 
Green Bay returned to defense with its two other seventh-round picks, selecting end James Looney from California and edge rusher Kendall Donnerson from Southeast Missouri State.
 
The Bears went back to building their offense on the second day of the draft.
 
Chicago took Iowa center James Daniels and Memphis receiver Anthony Miller on Friday night, giving prized quarterback Mitchell Trubisky more protection and another target.
 
The Bears took Daniels with the 39th overall pick. They then traded back into the second round with New England to take Miller at No. 51. In exchange, the Bears sent the Patriots a fourth-round pick this year (105) and a second-rounder in 2019.
 
The 6-foot-3, 306-pound Daniels — who turns 21 in September — played three seasons at Iowa and was honorable-mention, all-Big Ten last year.
Miller had no FBS offers coming out of Christian Brothers High School in Memphis and opted to walk on at his hometown school. He went on to catch 238 passes for 3,590 yards and 37 touchdowns in three seasons and was a first-team, All-American as a senior last year. A broken bone in his right foot caused him to miss the Senior Bowl. He said it's completely healed.
 
The Bears did not have a third-round pick late Friday.
 
Pace turned largely to the defensive side in the final day with three selections, including sixth-round defensive end Kylie Fitts from Utah.
 
Before Fitts, the Bears selected Western Kentucky inside linebacker Joel Iyiegbuniwe in Round 4, and Delaware defensive tackle Bilal Nichols in Round 5. They closed out the draft in the seventh round by taking another target for quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, Georgia wide receiver Javon Wims.
 
A defensive end in Utah's 4-3 formation, Fitts has more than his inexperience in the Bears' 3-4 scheme to overcome. He had a Lisfranc ligament tear in his foot in 2016 and played in only two games, then had shoulder and ankle sprains last year.
 
Delaware's Nichols has a real inside Bears connection. Nagy is a Delaware grad, as is Bears offensive assistant Brian Ginn, who played quarterback and was an assistant for the Blue Hens.
 
Additional outside pass rushers are needed because the Bears like to use a rotation of three or four outside rushers. Fitts joins Howard Jones, Isaiah Irving and Sam Acho as potential outside pass rushers behind Lynch and Floyd.
 
Veterans Lamarr Houston, Pernell McPhee and Willie Young accounted for 10 Bears sacks last year but are no longer with the team.

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