Green Bay Packers 2026 fifth-round pick: OL Jager Burton

The Green Bay Packers selected Kentucky offensive lineman Jager Burton in the fifth round (No. 153 overall) of the 2026 NFL draft.

Profile

• Height: 6-4
• Weight: 312
• Age: 23 (birthday: August 24, 2002)
• From: Lexington, KY

Kentucky school profile

Breakdown: Big, experienced interior blocker who broke out as a 12-game starter at center in 2025. Played almost 2,700 career snaps, including over 1,500 at guard and almost 1,000 at center. Allowed zero sacks or QB hits in 2025, by far his best and most complete season. Tested well pre-draft, showcasing speed and lower-body explosiveness. Ambidextrous, capable of snapping with either hand. Missed only three games to injury over four seasons as a preferred starter. Per Kentucky, had 23 knockdown blocks and led the team with 158 "blocks at the point of attack" in 2025. East-West Shrine Bowl participant.

Scouting reports

Unpacking Future Packers: OL Jager Burton

Dane Brugler’s scouting report: "A four-year starter at Kentucky, Burton lined up at center (right-handed snapper) in his final season in former offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan’s scheme. He bounced between positions as an underclassman, including center in 2023 — a short-lived stay because of his struggles there. After reps at both guard spots, he moved back to center for his senior season and changed the narrative with NFL scouts. Burton is a good-looking athlete for his size, with foot quickness as a pass blocker and range in the run game. However, he isn’t a true mauler who plays up to his size or knocks defenders back on contact. The biggest wild card for his NFL transition is the consistency of his confidence and calls/adjustments. Overall, Burton needs to continue developing his sustain skills and the mental aspects of the position, but he is a quick-win blocker with position flexibility across the interior. He offers intriguing value for zone-based schemes on Day 3."

Lance Zierlein's scouting report: "Durable fifth-year senior who has made 47 consecutive starts. Burton is built to play center but could offer swing potential at guard. He has adequate play strength and good quickness for a zone-blocking scheme. He gets beaten to first contact by length and will struggle to put up a sustained fight against two-gappers at the point. He can slow a bull rush but needs to do a better job of protecting his edges and operating with consistent posture. Burton’s best fit will be with a zone-heavy running game as a late draft pick or undrafted free agent signee." "Jager Burton is a mid-round center prospect with tantalizing physical upside and immediate positional versatility. He joined the Kentucky Wildcats in 2021, redshirting his first season. As a redshirt freshman in 2022, he started all 13 games at left guard, then took a three-game interlude at center in 2023, before moving to right guard. Overall, he played in 51 career games with 47 starts, the final 12 of which came at center in 2025. Burton earned an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl where he was a standout, then impressed at the NFL Combine by logging a 4.94 40-yard dash, 1.77 10-yard split, and 9'3" broad jump at 312 pounds, with 32 1/2" arms. Burton's physical profile hints at his overarching theme as a prospect: He's relatively well-rounded in most categories, with excellent explosiveness and range, good hip flexibility, acceptable anchor strength, stellar two-phase awareness and angle IQ, synergetic footwork, and methodical hand usage. The questions with Burton stem from his ultimate upside in contact situations. He's not overly powerful, and his leverage game needs work. He struggles to acquire leverage consistently and can align upright too quickly off the snap, which erodes his center of gravity and makes him easier to wrench upright and displace. That same upright drift affects his engagement balance and coordination in space, and hamstrings the authority of what already isn't a domineering size profile. If Burton can be more consistent with his leveraging, he has quality starter upside in zone-heavy schemes."