"Steal Of The Draft" - Packers Legend Leroy Butler Was Stunned By The Rookie's Performance In The Preseason Opener.
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GREEN BAY — As the final whistle faded on the preseason opener, what stayed on the film wasn’t the scoreboard. On the sideline, assistants scrolled frame by frame: a clean get-off, a first strike to the chest, a long-arm that tilted the tackle’s hips before slicing inside. The name that kept surfacing: Barryn Sorrell, the fourth-round rookie.
Then came a voice every Packers fan knows — Hall of Famer LeRoy Butler — quoted on the postgame show:
“If you only look at the scoreboard, you’ll miss it, but Sorrell was Green Bay’s most outstanding player in the loss to the Jets. He wins reps with technique, not the chaos of the preseason. From what I saw in Week 1, that’s the look of a steal of the draft.”
The “pop” Butler referenced didn’t come from one loud moment but from a string of well-built reps: quick off the ball, low pad level, first hands in, and control over where the collision happened. When the tackle overset to the edge, Sorrell didn’t run a hopeless loop — he knifed inside with a counter. When the tackle retreated too deep, he pressed the chest with a long-arm, maintaining separation to read the counterpunch. Those are the details defensive coaches crave in a rookie: a rep with a plan, a timely second move, and a motor that runs through the whistle.
The context wasn’t “easy” either: Green Bay didn’t register a sack, drives stretched, and the field became a test of edge discipline. Sorrell didn’t hunt for empty-calorie highlights — he held lanes, narrowed throwing windows, and forced the quarterback to decide a half-beat early. On film, those things rarely draw a roar, but they build the trust needed for a real role when the regular season arrives.
The inevitable question for any Day 3 pick: How does it translate on Sundays? The most sensible door opens in nickel/sub packages — a targeted 15–20 snaps, showing up on 2nd-and-long and 3rd-and-medium, rotating with the headliners to keep speed fresh on the edge. A few more clear wins against starter-caliber tackles over the next two weeks could turn Butler’s praise from generous compliment into a concrete plan on the call sheet.
Green Bay has found Day 3 “bargains” before; Sorrell is rewriting that formula the quiet, convincing way: winning with technique, discipline, and detail. The scoreboard may tell a different story, but on tape — where seasons are truly decided — Week 1 was enough for a franchise legend to say aloud what many were thinking: the silhouette of a “steal of the draft” has appeared in Green Bay.
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