NFL Draft Breakdown and Dames Time May Be Up

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the NFL Draft has left Green Bay, bringing praise to the smallest city in the National Football League. At least, Oates’ nephew had a good time. Attendance was better than expected at around 600,000. At least that’s how many free tickets were given out, who knows how many more were hanging out in bars across town. It’s certainly better for the old timers like Lucas to hang out in a bar than standing around on concrete all day. The Packers did a great job at showcasing Wisconsin, and did a pretty good job drafting too.

The highlight was obvious to everyone: Mark Murphy coming on stage on Thursday to announce that the Packers had drafted wide receiver Matthew Golden. The Packers, and Murphy, played to the crowd and it worked. Not only that, but the Packers took home two wide receivers, with Savion Williams coming into the third round. Was this a surprise? Sure, says Oates, but not entirely unexpected. The Packers current wide receivers have grown a little too comfortable in their roles while failing to take the big jump that was expected of them. Add in Christian Watson’s injury that will take him out for the majority of next season and maybe the receiving core could use a little fire. The Packers didn’t focus on everything that Oates expected, but you can’t scratch every itch. They still made some good moves, and while Oates isn’t one to issue draft grades, he still thinks they did pretty well for themselves. Golden is about as fast of a guy as you can get, and in the modern NFL that can do you some real good. Just look at what Xavier Worthy did for Kansas City after all… 

Finally, Lucas turns to the Bucks and Damian Lillard’s season-ending injury. Dame tore his Achilles on Sunday, and an injury like that could take him out for next season as well. Is this the end of Dame? Probably not, Oates thinks. He’s a great player and a proud player, and while he is up there age-wise he certainly isn’t out of the picture yet. This show was recorded as the Bucks were taking on the Pacers in what could be the last game of the season for Milwaukee and Lucas has one suggestion: it’s time to fire Doc Rivers. The Bucks roster is an embarrassment right now, and the team is at real risk of losing Giannis. When that happens, the Bucks stock is going to go down and down. The Bucks have been a real mess of an organization as of late, one that reminds Lucas a little bit of Browns. Who knows why! 

 The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

A weekly podcast with insights and analysis on the Wisconsin Badgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Bucks from two of Wisconsin’s most experienced sports journalists. Mike Lucas is a veteran sports columnist for the Cap Times and was a Badgers radio color commentator for over 25 years. Tom Oates was a sports reporter and columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal for 40 years.