Umanmielen says the Packers are among the four teams that have shown the most interest.
The Green Bay Packers need depth on the edge, and may be interested in an SEC prospect to fix their issues at that position.
In an interview on the SEC Network, Ole Miss edge rusher Princely Umanmielen said the Packers were among the four teams that showed the most interest in him during the pre-draft process.
Umanmielen would be a bit of a tendency breaker for the Packers on the edge. Generally, Brian Gutekunst prefers bigger, more powerful edge rushers, theorizing that they can hold up in run support better than the lithe and lean pass rushers that tend to populate schemes similar to what Jeff Hafley runs in Green Bay. At 6-foot-4, Umanmielen weighs just 244 pounds, which would make him the lightest edge rusher on the roster by about six pounds after Brenton Cox, who weighs 250.
And for what it’s worth, that weight number only represents what he weighed at this spring’s NFL Combine. On his Ole Miss roster page, Umanmielen is listed at 255 pounds.
As an athlete, Umanmielen leaves a bit to be desired, even running through drills at a lighter weight. He has a good but not great 8.54 overall Relative Athletic Score, but struggled some in the agility drills, posting average times in the short shuttle and three-cone drills.
Production-wise, the lanky edge stacks up a bit better. In five years of college ball (four at Florida, one at Ole Miss), Umanmielen recorded 25.5 sacks and 40 tackles for loss, spending plenty of time in the backfield of his SEC opponents. Pro Football Focus credited him with 146 pressures on 939 career pass rushes, a career pressure rate of about 15.6%.
Currently, Umanmielen is 58th on the NFL Mock Draft Database consensus big board, painting him as a likely day-two pick in next month’s draft. If the Packers are indeed interested in adding to their edge rusher room, adding a prospect with decent athleticism and a productive college career behind him in the second or third round wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
