If there’s any position the Packers are exploring their options at, it’s the safety position. With veteran starting safety Adrian Amos currently an unrestricted free agent and former first round pick Darnell Savage’s underwhelming fourth season, it’s safe to say that Green Bay is in the market for a safety, whether in the draft or in what’s left of free agency.
Enter Alabama’s All-American and likely first round pick Brian Branch.
Branch is the only safety projected to go in the first round according to most experts, with a wide margin between him and the other safeties in the class.
That said, Branch did not impress at the 2023 NFL scouting combine, running a 4.58 40 time while posting an unofficial 6.90 Relative Athletic Score. Branch does have decent size for the position, measuring in at 6 foot and 190 pounds.
While Branch may have had an underwhelming performance at the 2023 NFL Draft Combine, he produced and made plays year in and year out for one of the premier college football programs in the nation in the Crimson Tide throughout his three seasons in Tuscaloosa.
Branch, a four star recruit out of Sandy Creek High School in Fayetteville, Georgia, contributed right off the bat for the Tide, playing in 12 games in his freshman season while collecting 27 tackles and two interceptions. Branch increased his tackle production each year he played at Alabama, contributing 55 tackles in his sophomore campaign, and a whopping 90 tackles and two interceptions in his third and final collegiate season. In recognition of his fantastic year, Branch was named an athletic All-American.
If the Packers are to spend a first round pick on Branch, his versatility and ability to play at different positions in the secondary will be key.
“I feel like I’m versatile,” Branch told the media at the combine. “I can play anywhere in the back end. I’m comfortable playing everywhere in the back end and able to do it at a high level.”
Branch has the competitive fire that all football coaches covet.
“When I take the field,” Branch told the media at the combine, “it’s almost like I’m allowed to release a sort of anger, a legal anger, that I can’t do on an everyday basis but when I get on the field and am able to make contact with the opposing team. Doing that just makes me be able to express myself and just have fun. I just have a mentality of ‘I have to do my job and can’t let the opposing team do a better job than I do.’”
“When I take the field it’s almost like I’m allowed to release a sort of anger, a legal anger, that I can’t do on an everyday basis… I just have a mentality of ‘I have to do my job and can’t let the opposing team do a better job than I do.’”
-Brian Branch
He was the leader of the Alabama defense for his final two seasons in Tuscaloosa and has the tools and experience to continue leading at the next level.
As Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus said, “Branch is precisely the type of player you want leading your defense.”
“Branch is precisely the type of player you want leading your defense.”
-Mike Renner, Lead Draft Analyst, Pro Football Focus
While Brian Branch’s athletic scores don’t match up with what Brian Gutekunst has traditionally targeted in the high rounds of the NFL draft, the pedigree and talent of the Alabama safety cannot be questioned. Brian Branch is yet another name to watch next week as the first round of the NFL draft gets rolling.
