The best draft prospects have a little bit of a tall tale to their scouting profile.
Not long ago, the Packers had a quarterback in camp whose official college bio claimed that he could throw the ball more than 100 yards. They presented this nugget without context under his personal information, along with details about who his high school coach was, what his stats as a prep had been, and what his major was.
It’s a preposterous claim, and almost certainly untrue, but you have no choice but to set it somewhere on the spectrum of belief. Look, the sports information department at whatever school it was cleared that anecdote and put it on their website. Someone believed it was true. You don’t have to, but someone did. It’s a good story, if nothing else.
A maximally interesting draft prospect has a bit of that flavor to him, which is why I was devastated to learn that Kentucky offensive lineman Jager Burton pronounces his first name such that it rhymes with the surname of Rolling Stones’ frontman Mick Jagger and not, as one would hope, as the shortened name of the famous (infamous) alcoholic beverage Jaegermeister. It should sound like Jaeger! There’s only one “g”!
Nevertheless, as cool as a lineman named “Jaeger” (however he spells it) would be, Jager Burton is pretty cool, he might be a uniquely good fit for the Green Bay Packers.
It’s no secret the Packers need help on the interior of their offensive line. What better way to address that than with a guy who played all three interior offensive line positions at Kentucky? Burton racked up 1,158 snaps at left guard, 976 at center, and 531 at right guard, and put together his best-graded season (according to Pro Football Focus) when playing primarily at center. That should be of particular interest for the Packers, because they’ve faced unusual turnover there the last two seasons. Dating back to 2024, the Packers have had three different starting centers, and have finished out both playoff games with backups. Burton would provide depth at all three interior spots while giving the Packers unusually strong — perhaps the strongest its been since the Packers had both JC Tretter and Corey Linsley on the roster — center depth.
Additionally, Burton dominates in the athletic testing areas the Packers carefully monitor. The Packers have reaped significant rewards over the years by targeting offensive lineman who post a 10-yard split in the 40-yard dash of 1.8 seconds or less, a short shuttle time of 4.75 seconds or less, and a three-cone time of 7.7 seconds or less. Burton shredded those times at the NFL Combine, going 1.76 seconds, 4.52 seconds, and 7.64 seconds in the three drills, respectively. In a game decided by inches and split-second decisions, Burton’s cumulative times were almost exactly a third of a second under the Packers’ desired threshold.
All that in a 6-foot-4, 312-pound package.
The Packers should be salivating. That’s depth at three spots in one player. Sure, there’s the built in assumption that he’s actually good at any of those positions, but that’s no different than what’s being assumed by selecting any player anywhere, and as of this writing, Burton projects as a Day 3 pick. Rolling the dice on an athletic, multi-positional player is about as safe a gamble as you’re going to find as you head toward the dregs of the draft.
Plus, if football doesn’t end up being his ultimate calling, Burton says he’d like to own a restaurant some day. How do you not like someone whose true passion is feeding people?