I thought that was an interesting theory. I think it's similar to a guy who's a stud in a D2 or D3 school or small school playing against lesser competition, and will the player still be as good in the pros against top competition.
I also think a Senior Bowl performance would be an important indicator, since the player would be playing against a lot of players about to get drafted into the NFL.
Interesting food for thought, but I hope he does well, with out depth at OLB we need someone to step up.
Anyway nice article about the Family man Fackrell. Seems like a good fit for GB.
http://espn.go.com/blog/green-bay-packers/post/_/id/30006/for-packers-rookie-kyler-fackrell-lombardis-faith-family-football-is-perfect-fit
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- There were no ESPN cameras there waiting to capture the moment, no extended family members hooting and hollering in the background when the call came in, no elaborate parties celebrating the occasion afterward.
No, when the Green Bay Packers took Utah State outside linebacker Kyler Fackrell in the third round of the NFL draft, it was just the three of them in their tiny off-campus apartment -- Kyler, his wife, Elizabeth, and their 16-month-old daughter, Delaney.
And one poopy diaper.
"We sat there and watched everybody get drafted -- all the videos, all the families. And when Kyler got drafted, it was very quiet and peaceful. And that’s exactly how he wanted it," Liz recalled Monday afternoon from that same apartment in Logan, Utah. "After the phone call from the Packers, I’m getting all these texts from our friends congratulating us, and I’m all excited, and I look over to see what he’s doing -- after just getting the biggest phone call of his life -- and he’s changing Delaney’s dirty diaper.
"He wholeheartedly believes that that’s his job. We are his motivation. That’s an amazing thing. I mean, most guys his age aren’t changing dirty diapers. They don’t have that responsibility."
Then again, Fackrell isn’t your typical draft pick. He's easily the oldest player in a draft class full of young'uns. Fackrell will turn 25 in November, and Packers 20-year-old first-round pick Kenny Clark was the youngest player picked in the entire draft. Fackrell spent last weekend’s rookie orientation camp alternating between immersing himself in his iPad playbook and checking his Android phone for video snippets of what Liz and Delaney were up to without him. ("We don’t FaceTime because he refuses to get an iPhone," Liz said in mock exasperation.)
And back home, when Liz pulled up video on the Packers app of a group interview her husband did with reporters, Delaney overheard it and giddily started shouting "Dada, Dada, Dada!" before commandeering the phone and showering the screen with kisses. If she were listening closely in between smooches, she would have heard her dad talking about how much family means to him.
"For everything that I do, they're my motivation," Fackrell explained during the interview. "I'm sure in training camp, when I don't feel good, when I don’t feel like getting up and going and working hard, it's going to be them in the back of my mind that's going to be making me go to work every day."
Fackrell is no stranger to hard work. After high school, he turned down Utah State’s scholarship offer while contemplating a Mormon mission and spent a year working as a painter in Arizona. When he decided to join the Aggies, he did so as a walk-on before earning his scholarship. And when a torn anterior cruciate ligament ended his 2014 season after one game, he attacked his rehab with the same kind of zeal his new teammate, wide receiver Jordy Nelson, did, returning to post 15 tackles for loss and five sacks as a senior last season.
He also gained further perspective on life, realizing that the God-works-in-mysterious-ways timing of the injury was perfect for him as a husband and soon-to-be dad, even though the torn ACL scuttled his plan to have a breakout junior season and declare early for the draft.
"That injury wasn’t what I had planned -- what we had planned -- but in a lot of ways it helped me, I think. It was a blessing in disguise for our family," Fackrell said. "She actually had a pretty rough pregnancy. She was sick a lot of the time.
"And if I had been going through the whole process of training and going through the combine and everything, I wouldn’t have had very much time with [Delaney] when she was first born. And so just being able to be there for my wife through the pregnancy and support her and being able to spend a lot of time with my daughter was a good thing."
Added Liz: "A lot of women have difficult pregnancies. A lot of women have it way worse than I did. It was just very trying. So as difficult as the season was for him, to sit back and watch it and not be a part of it, not feel like part of the team, it was so comforting for me to have him there. And when Delaney was born, he was able to have such a big role in her life -- her first bath, her first diaper, being up with her at night."
Married during the bye week of the Aggies’ 2013 season, the Fackrells are adjusting to their first extended time apart as the rookies joined the veterans this week for the full-squad offseason program. But Liz and Delaney will travel to Green Bay this month for the start of organized team activities, and Kyler's focus is squarely on football.
That doesn’t mean Fackrell can’t have his moments of childlike awe, however. Upon arriving for the rookie camp last week, Kyler entered the Packers' locker room to find his next-door neighbor will be Julius Peppers, the team’s 36-year-old outside linebacker who is likely to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday.
For a moment, he might not have been the mature, reserved family man he usually is.
"Kyler is a really even-keeled person, he doesn’t show a lot of emotion. He’ll get a sack and he’s very excited, but he won’t show it. He won’t pound his chest," Liz said. "And he does not take pictures. Of anything -- except for Delaney. But he sends me a picture of his locker. That means he’s very excited. 'My locker is right next to Julius Peppers' locker!' That’s really out of the ordinary for him."
