To borrow a baseball phrase, the Green Bay Packers scored three in the fifth, as General Manager Brian Gutekunst had his busiest round of the draft, selecting three players, a blocker, a punter and a burner.
With the first choice, the Packers took offensive lineman Cole Madison from Washington State. He entered the Cougar program as a tight end but put on 75 pounds while living in Pullman and became a fixture at right tackle for the pass happy program.
Area Scout Sam Seale says Madison's greatest attributes are his feet. He can set them and re-set them with ease against edge pass rushers and while the 6-5, 317 pounder with extremely long hair flowing out the back of his helmet played tackle in college, he's projected as a guard at the next level.
Green Bay's offensive line coach James Campen has done wonders turning mid-round picks into top flight offensive linemen with the likes of Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, David Bakhtiari and Corey Linsley and now he'll get that chance with Madison.
The second pick in the round was a surprise as Green Bay took Alabama punter J.K. Scott.
The 6-5 senior was one of the top punters in the country last year for unquestionably the best program in the land. He set Crimson Tide career records with a 45.6 yard average and had only five of his punts returned last year. 27 of his 54 kicks were downed inside the 20 yard line with only four touchbacks.
Scott will compete with last year's undrafted rookie free agent Justin Vogel.
J.K. said playing in national championship games three times with that amount of pressure will prepare him well for the NFL. He's already experienced with Wisconsin as during a conference call with reporters, he talked about the family's cabin located outside Hayward.
(Audio: J.K. Scott)
The final choice of round five was the second wide receiver taken by the Packers, Marquez Valdes-Scantling from South Florida. His measurables make it hard to believe he lasted so long. Valdes-Scantling is 6-5 and runs a 4.3 40. He started his college career at North Carolina State but transfered to South Florida where he put up 22 catches as a junior and 53 as a senior for 879 yards and six touchdowns including an eye-catching 95 yard catch and run (very fast) TD against Connecticut.
Valdes-Scantling, like every receiver coming out in the draft, went to bed on Friday night dreaming of catches passes from the likes of Tom Brady or Drew Brees and Marquez's dream came true when he learned he be on the receiving end of Aaron Rodgers throws.
(Audio: Marquez Valdes-Scantling)
So while the Packers scored three runs in the fifth round, time will tell if they came from singles, or home runs.
Madison certainly has the makeup and skill to earn a back up job and possibly succeed veteran Jahri Evans (if he indeed returns in 2018), Scott will have to out kick Vogel to win a job and Valdes-Scantling will have to run by his increasing competition at wide receiver this summer.