With Brendan Sorsby a potential target in this summer’s supplemental draft, now’s the perfect time to look back at the one and only time the Packers have made a pick in the bidding war that is the NFL’s second draft. Let’s turn back the clock to 1998 for the story of Mike Wahle.
Like Sorsby, Wahle ended up in the supplemental draft due to complicated circumstances at his college program.
A rising senior at the Naval Academy heading into the 1998 season, Wahle had been named a team captain at a Navy
event in February 1998, but by April he had been dismissed from the program for what were initially described as “administrative reasons,” later described as an issue of team discipline, and finally explained as being the result of a positive steroid test.
Wahle’s agent confirmed the positive test in a conversation with the Baltimore Sun in July 1998, shortly before the supplemental draft, while noting that Wahle actually passed a “more sophisticated” drug test administered by Navy. The school had appealed Wahle’s dismissal, but the NCAA upheld its own ban — this being long before the days of finding a friendly judge to issue an injunction against the increasingly powerless administrators of college athletics.
Humorously, the same report in which Wahle’s agent admitted the positive test also notes that Wahle, who had been listed at just 261 pounds in Navy’s fall 1997 media guide, was now up to 302 pounds. He’d also run a 4.9-second 40-yard dash and put up 35 reps on the bench in pre-draft workouts for teams. Perhaps the positive test was not a huge surprise.
Wahle generated plenty of interest prior to the draft, which also featured future Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jamaal Williams. He had confirmed visits with the Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals, and Miami Dolphins, and the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Oilers also publicly expressed interest.
But ultimately, it was the Packers that nabbed Wahle, bidding a second round pick (24th overall) to land his services. Williams, for his part, went second to the Chargers.
Ron Wolf, then the Packers’ general manager, was excited to get Wahle, but cautioned that he had a lot of ground to make up in comments to reporters.
“He’s athletic, tough,” Wolf said, as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal. “But he’s got a lot to learn. An awful lot. He’ll start at a terrible disadvantage not having one ounce of training in our system.”
He didn’t get much of an opportunity to make up ground as a rookie, either. Negotiations over his rookie dragged out over nearly a month, and he didn’t ink a deal until August 8, 1998, well into training camp, ultimately signing a three-year pact that included a $574,000 signing bonus, according to the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Wahle actually came out handsomely in the deal. Most second round picks were signing four year agreements, but Wahle’s shorter deal ensured he’d hit free agency sooner, or force the Packers to pony up for his second contract. What’s more, while Wahle’s suspension and subsequent dismissal from Navy put him on the hook to pay back the cost of his education, he also avoided the mandatory two-year service period that would have followed his college career there.
For their part, the Packers were willing to wait. Wahle was just 21 years old, and though he had never played guard before (he was a tackle at Navy), the Packers set to work getting him acclimated as an interior offensive lineman. And it would pay off. Wahle appeared in just one game as a rookie, but from 1999 through 2004, he never missed a game, appearing in 96 straight regular season games for the Packers, starting 83.
He’d ultimately depart for Carolina after the 2004 season, signing a huge contract and earning a Pro Bowl bid in his first season there. But he gave the Packers a lot of quality play before that point, paying off what may have seemed like a risky bet at the time.
