Packers Draft: Green Bay takes center Jager Burton

One of the keys that will determine the fate of the 2025 Kentucky football season is whether Jager Burton can make a successful transition from guard to center on his second attempt to master the new position. (Brian Simms/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

In the fifth round of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Green Bay Packers took a big center in Kentucky’s Jager Burton, who measured in over 6’4” and 312 pounds at the NFL combine earlier this year. On top of breaking the 5-second mark in the 40-yard dash, Burton also ran a 4.52-second short shuttle and a 7.64-second three-cone. Typically, the Packers usually draft linemen who run 4.75/7.75 or better in those drills, historically.

While the Packers have Jacob Monk and John Williams backing up Sean Rhyan, Burton is some added competition to the position moving forward. Burton spent three years as a starting guard for Kentucky from 2022 to 2024 before moving to center in 2025. In 2022, as a redshirt freshman, he was named a Freshman All-SEC guard for the Wildcats.

As a prep in high school, he was named Mr. Football in Kentucky and also won the Paul Hornung Award, which goes to the best player in the state. Despite having big time offers to schools like Ohio State, Texas and Oregon, Burton stayed home for college.

“Moose” had a good week of practices at the East-West Shrine Bowl earlier this offseason.