2024 Green Bay Packers Round 5 Number 169 Kitan Oladapo S Oregon State

Appears to be a thick mofo.

Oregon State had LOADS of NFL talent on its defense in 2023, but no one jumped off the tape more than FS and Team Captain Kitan Oladapo (#28).

Physical safety with strong instincts and high contact courage. Has a quick trigger, sudden burst to close, and proficient play speed to… pic.twitter.com/8brjFraFLQ

— Ryan Vidales (@ryan_vidales) January 19, 2024

Kitan Oladapo is a very fun safety prospect. He looks big in the open field at 6'1" 217, and the way he eats up ground to punch this out from Dillon Johnson is a terrific play. pic.twitter.com/BgliMF4juu

— Jon Helmkamp (@JonHelmkamp) January 13, 2024

Damn, Cam Ward got lit up on this pass by Kitan Oladapo. Looks like he's okay, though pic.twitter.com/fdA9P4EAqz

— Ian Valentino (@NFLDraftStudy) September 24, 2023

The safety room will have to be renovated to accommodate all of them.

Notice how none of the highlights show him in normal coverage. Should be very good on Special Teams, though, even if he doesn't find snaps on defense.

I'm sensing an OL, S, LB theme to GB's draft this year, as well as team captains: Morgan, Bullard, Hopper, Oladapo, Monk, Solomon. A couple teams had game captains, so I'm not sure if those guys were caps or not. If anything else, these kids have some leadership skills and that helps make a good locker room.

@Fandame posted:

I'm sensing an OL, S, LB theme to GB's draft this year, as well as team captains: Morgan, Bullard, Hopper, Oladapo, Monk, Solomon. A couple teams had game captains, so I'm not sure if those guys were caps or not. If anything else, these kids have some leadership skills and that helps make a good locker room.

Xavier and Josh Jacobs were also team captains.  Seems to be an important mark for the front office on players now.

Former Team Captains is uge for GB.  With almost zero exciting to do for 20 somethings in a town of 100k   Have strong team leaders to keep them accountable and all about foosball.

  Door County trips are ok for the married and Pickleball crew. 

With such a young team, it's important to have those team leaders in addition to what you mentioned, Iowacheese. It's not only the lack of nightlife, but with few "older" players it helps to keep everyone focused on team play and not me play. Captains tend to be those type of guys as well.

Surprise players of this draft will be Oladapo and Evan Williams, IMO.

What? A butter burger at Kroll's isn't a great night out?

Doesn't beat Applebee's.

I'll ask Ryan Longwell.

AJJ is toest

Kitan takes down Caleb Williams...looks like he really enjoys his work

https://twitter.com/lilyszhao/...306959514042783?s=46

Been very durable.  6 years in college. 

@vitaflo posted:

Xavier and Josh Jacobs were also team captains.  Seems to be an important mark for the front office on players now.

Too many cooks in the kitchen - GTFO of my kitchen!

Jaire was a self proclaimed team, captain.   “We” Saw how that turned out

Hiiiiiii Guys! I'm herrreeeee!!! - Jaire

@Boris posted:

Too many cooks in the kitchen - GTFO of my kitchen!

And off my lawn!

From The Athletic, Dane Brugler

SAF11

STRENGTHS: Owns a muscular, well-built frame with play strength and body length … instinctive and plays confident … quick to read and identify mesh or different route combinations (flood, sail, etc.) … flashes quick feet and functional range from the slot or deep half … smooth-jointed for speedy recoveries in coverage … tracks the football well and resists the urge for early contact … diagnoses well versus the run and fills with a head of steam … stones defenders in the hole and creates knock back as a tackler … long arms and strong hands aid his finish … effective as a wide blitzer … communicates well with his secondary mates … former walk-on and voted a team captain in 2023 … has cornerback experience and aligned high and low in the Beavers’ scheme.

WEAKNESSES: Only average long speed and will fall behind on deep routes … more comfortable playing the man than the ball (recorded an int erception in just two of his 46 games played) … lacks suddenness in space and can be stressed by quick slots … slightly bundled through his hips and change-of-direction skills are a little sticky … missed tackles are usually a result of overaggressive habits, whiffing or bouncing off bigger ball carriers … needs to impr ove his hand placement and timing for more efficient block shedding … roughing the passer penalty vs. Arizona in 2023 … doesn’t have as extensive a special -teams resume as expected for a sixth-year safety … will turn 24 years old during his rookie season

SUMMARY: A three-year starter at Oregon State, Oladapo was a versatile safety in defensive coordinator Trent Bray’s hybrid 3 -3-5 stack. A former walk-on at
cornerback, he transitioned to safety in Corvallis and earned All-Pac-12 honors each of the last three seasons. Oladapo confidently reads run/pass and aggressively drives downhill with competitive urgency to make impactful tackles. His average twitch and build-up speed out of transitions will be more noticeable versus NFL receivers, but his route awareness helps keep him stay connected in coverage. Overall, Oladapo doesn’t have ideal top-end speed or rangy ball skills for deep coverage, but he is a good-sized athlete who trusts his sightlines and enjoys making noise in the run game. He projects best as a down safety who can al so earn his paycheck on special teams.

GRADE: 4th-5th Round

Love the Beavers

@mrtundra posted:

Surprise players of this draft will be Oladapo and Evan Williams, IMO.

I'm going with Monk and Cooper. I know it's hard to say a second-rounder doing well is a surprise, but I think he could shine.

@Fandame posted:

I'm going with Monk and Cooper. I know it's hard to say a second-rounder doing well is a surprise, but I think he could shine.

I'm going with EdgeCoop & Bullard. Picking the first rounder is too easy.

EdgeCoop could easily be a Roquan/P. Queen clone & I'm hopeful he's even better.....like Fred Warner would be great. Haven't had anyone like that since Desmond Bishop. Quay should really take off this year with Edge next to him.

Bullard has a chance to really shine with good corners plus X back there too.

Gotta like what we are seeing with this defense so far!

I thought of Fred Warner when seeing Cooper film early on. That would be something.

Nigeria tough!

https://www.acmepackingcompany...4-nfl-draft-toe-foot

@Boris posted:

https://www.acmepackingcompany...4-nfl-draft-toe-foot

Just as long as Kitan can reintroduce himself to Caleb Williams, in a rather rude, unmannerly fashion when we play the Bears. All will be well, then.

https://youtu.be/MXMrEORPW5c?s...E3rwUBALXFg&t=90

Oladapo has one tiny ear.

I expect that is going to limit him to playing in the box, or on the right side of the defense.

ACME Packers with more on Safety Oladapo

https://www.acmepackingcompany...s-box-safety-ability

The bullet position?🤔

https://zonecoverage.com/2024/...ays-bullet-position/

Depends on the caliber of the person.

Is that what they called Leroy Butler? A bullet? He seems like a guy who did that before it became really popular.

Really like how sneaky good this guy can be...maybe Jarrett Bush-like on ST and scheme-impactful for certain defensive snaps.  Amazed how athletic/talented the defensive roster has turned over in a couple short years.

If you commit the majority of your draft to defense year after year you'd hope this would happen sooner or later.

Interesting that Gute's drafts seemed to have taken a noticeable upward tick since AR left the room.  He's picked higher in the order but is there more to it?

@DH13 posted:

If you commit the majority of your draft to defense year after year you'd hope this would happen sooner or later.

Interesting that Gute's drafts seemed to have taken a noticeable upward tick since AR left the room.  He's picked higher in the order but is there more to it?

If you rank his drafts a letter grade, the Packers drafts of the last decade would be something like this. I would guess 2015 is about when Ted Thompson became a figurehead and Gute was probably playing a bigger role than they let on publicly.

The 2015-18 drafts were really bad in aggregate and the lack of getting anything from those drafts contributed to missing the playoffs in 2017-18. The 2022 decline was also due to getting almost nothing from the 2020 draft class for that year and the 2021 class being pretty poor as well. Obviously, Jordan Love maintaining his level of play will make that draft class a success no matter what else they didn't get from it, but he didn't play in 2022.

The question is whether what looks like two outstanding drafts in 2022 and 2023 were the result of Gutey maturing into the role and learning from past mistakes or whether it was just a regression to the mean in some way after some really bad drafts in a short time period by the organization.

=========================================================

2015 - F  

Maybe the worse Packers draft class of all time.

• Damarious Randall | Round 1, Pick 30
  S, Arizona State
• Quinten Rollins | Round 2, Pick 62
  CB, Miami (OH)
• Ty Montgomery | Round 3, Pick 94
  WR, Stanford
• Jake Ryan | Round 4, Pick 129
  OLB, Michigan
• Brett Hundley | Round 5, Pick 147
  QB, UCLA
• Aaron Ripkowski | Round 6, Pick 206
  FB, Oklahoma
• Christian Ringo | Round 6, Pick 210
  DE, Louisiana
• Kennard Backman | Round 6, Pick 213
  TE, UAB

2016 - C+ - Kenny Clark and two serviceable low-end starter/backup types

• Kenny Clark | Round 1, Pick 27
  DT, UCLA
• Jason Spriggs | Round 2, Pick 48
  T, Indiana
• Kyler Fackrell | Round 3, Pick 88
  OLB, Utah State
• Blake Martinez | Round 4, Pick 131
  LB, Stanford
• Dean Lowry | Round 4, Pick 137
  DE, Northwestern
• Trevor Davis | Round 5, Pick 163
  WR, California
• Kyle Murphy | Round 6, Pick 200
  T, Stanford

2017 - D+. Aaron Jones (and a bit of Williams) saves this from being a disaster.

• Kevin King | Round 2, Pick 33
  CB, Washington
• Josh Jones | Round 2, Pick 61
  S, North Carolina State
• Montravius Adams | Round 3, Pick 93
  DT, Auburn
• Vince Biegel | Round 4, Pick 108
  LB, Wisconsin
• Jamaal Williams | Round 4, Pick 134
  RB, BYU
• DeAngelo Yancey | Round 5, Pick 175
  WR, Purdue
• Aaron Jones | Round 5, Pick 182
  RB, Texas-El Paso
• Kofi Amichia | Round 6, Pick 212
  C, South Florida
• Devante Mays | Round 7, Pick 238
  RB, Utah State
• Malachi Dupre | Round 7, Pick 247
  WR, LSU

2018 - D+  Jaire and MVS and a bunch of crap.

• Jaire Alexander | Round 1, Pick 18
  CB, Louisville
• Josh Jackson | Round 2, Pick 45
  CB, Iowa
• Oren Burks | Round 3, Pick 88
  ILB, Vanderbilt
• J’Mon Moore | Round 4, Pick 133
  WR, Missouri
• Cole Madison | Round 5, Pick 138
  G, Washington State
• JK Scott | Round 5, Pick 172
  P, Alabama
• Marquez Valdes-Scantling | Round 5, Pick 174
  WR, South Florida
• Equanimeous St. Brown | Round 6, Pick 207
  WR, Notre Dame
• James Looney | Round 7, Pick 232
  DE, California
• Hunter Bradley | Round 7, Pick 239
  LS, Mississippi State
• Kendall Donnerson | Round 7, Pick 248
  OLB, SE Missouri State

2019 B+ Gary and Jenkins. Maybe too low if Gary eventually makes some Pro Bowls

• Rashan Gary | Round 1, Pick 12
  LB, Michigan
• Darnell Savage Jr. | Round 1, Pick 21
  S, Maryland
• Elgton Jenkins | Round 2, Pick 44
  C, Mississippi State
• Jace Sternberger | Round 3, Pick 75
  TE, Texas A&M
• Kingsley Keke | Round 5, Pick 150
  DT, Texas A&M
• Ka’dar Hollman | Round 6, Pick 185
  CB, Toledo
• Dexter Williams | Round 6, Pick 194
  RB, Notre Dame
• Ty Summers | Round 7, Pick 226
  LB, TCU

2020. A just based on Jordan Love. D- for everything else (saved only by Dillon being serviceable even if he was drafted too high).

• Jordan Love | Round 1, Pick 26
  QB, Utah State
• AJ Dillon | Round 2, Pick 62
  RB, Boston College
• Josiah Deguara | Round 3, Pick 94
  TE, Cincinnati
• Kamal Martin | Round 5, Pick 175
  LB, Minnesota
• Jon Runyan | Round 6, Pick 192
  T, Michigan
• Jake Hanson | Round 6, Pick 208
  C, Oregon
• Simon Stepaniak | Round 6, Pick 209
  T, Indiana
• Vernon Scott | Round 7, Pick 236
  S, TCU
• Jonathan Garvin | Round 7, Pick 242
  DE, Miami (FL)

2021. D+ Stokes has disappointed. Myers is serviceable but does not play like a 2nd round pick should (especially at center). Slaton has contributed

• Eric Stokes | Round 1, Pick 29
  DB, Georgia
• Josh Myers | Round 2, Pick 62
  C, Ohio State
• Amari Rodgers | Round 3, Pick 85
  WR, Clemson
• Royce Newman | Round 4, Pick 142
  G, Mississippi
• Tedarrell Slaton | Round 5, Pick 173
  DL, Florida
• Shemar Jean-Charles | Round 5, Pick 178
  DB, Appalachian State
• Cole Van Lanen | Round 6, Pick 214
  OL, Wisconsin
• Isaiah McDuffie | Round 6, Pick 220
  LB, Boston College
• Kylin Hill | Round 7, Pick 256
  RB, Mississippi State

2022 A- - this is high grade considering the top 2 guys have been just slightly above average so far, but getting two potentially Pro Bowl-caliber offensive lineman in the later rounds is about as good as it gets (not to mention Watson, Doubs, and Enagbare where they were picked)

• Quay Walker | Round 1, Pick 22
  LB, Georgia
• Devonte Wyatt | Round 1, Pick 28
  DT, Georgia
• Christian Watson | Round 2, Pick 34
  WR, North Dakota State
• Sean Rhyan | Round 3, Pick 92
  OL, UCLA
• Romeo Doubs | Round 4, Pick 132
  WR, Nevada
• Zach Tom | Round 4, Pick 140
  OT, Wake Forest
• Kingsley Enagbare | Round 5, Pick 179
  EDGE, South Carolina
• Tariq Carpenter | Round 7, Pick 228
  LB, Georgia Tech
• Faion Hicks | Round 7, Pick 232
  RB, Mississippi State
• Rasheed Walker | Round 7, Pick 249
  OT, Penn State
• Samori Toure | Round 7, Pick 258
  WR, Nebraska

2023. Incomplete but looking like a success (A- at least) so far based on getting two TEs, two starting caliber WRs and then a starting caliber CB in Round 7.

• Lukas Van Ness | Round 1, Pick 13
  EDGE, Iowa
• Luke Musgrave | Round 2, Pick 42
  TE, Oregon State
• Jayden Reed | Round 2, Pick 50
  WR, Michigan State
• Tucker Kraft | Round 3, Pick 78
  TE, South Dakota State
• Colby Wooden | Round 4, Pick 116
  DL, Auburn
• Sean Clifford | Round 5, Pick 149
  QB, Penn State
• Dontayvion Wicks | Round 5, Pick 159
  WR, Virginia
• Karl Brooks | Round 5, Pick 179
  DL, Bowling Green
• Anders Carlson | Round 6, Pick 207
  K, Auburn
• Carrington Valentine | Round 7, Pick 232
  CB, Kentucky
• Lew Nichols III | Round 7, Pick 235
  RB, Central Michigan
• Anthony Johnson | Round 7, Pick 242
  DB, Iowa State
• Grant DuBose | Round 7, Pick 256
  WR, Charlotte

Not to mention Karl Brooks as at minimum a soon to be starter on the DL in RD5.  And LVN looking good so far too.

So in summary...yes, the last two drafts have been much improved since the "higher one"s departure.  I can't imagine it's a bounce back to a mean for Gute. More like higher end data points.  His mean is likely somewhere between 2022-23 and 2015-18.

@Fandame posted:

Is that what they called Leroy Butler? A bullet? He seems like a guy who did that before it became really popular.

That’s who I thought of when I read the article.

@Goalline posted:

That’s who I thought of when I read the article.

Here's a blurb on Leroy pushing his case for the HOF and it offers a few more nuggets on how he was deployed.

https://www.acmepackingcompany...otball-hall-of-famer

"Butler could do it all, including playing the "star" slot cornerback position that's become standard in today's NFL nickel sub-packages with five defensive backs."

"He was the first defensive back in NFL history to gain entrance in the prestigious 20 Sack / 20 Interception Club."