The Green Bay Packers selected Auburn defensive lineman Colby Wooden in the fourth round of the NFL Draft on Saturday, and they’d had their eye on him for a long time.

“I’m from Auburn, so we’ve kind of known about the kid,” said Patrick Moore, Green Bay’s assistant director of college scouting, after the Packers made the pick. “But everybody watches the SEC, and you just know who these guys are. And he wore No. 25, so you’re like: Who’s that guy? And they had the young man, the (Derick) Hall kid that Seattle took earlier, wore 29. You see a big kid wearing that number, and then Derrick Brown coming out before him, he’s kind of in a line of athletic Auburn D-tackles that have come out. I mean, you knew who he was as a freshman. And he’s still developing – technique was mentioned earlier – he’s still developing as a football player. But you saw the size and athleticism as a freshman.”

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A graduate assistant on Auburn’s staff from 2002 through 2004, Moore has a master’s degree from Auburn and lives in Auburn.

Listed as a defensive end by Auburn, Wooden will be making a transition in the NFL to a three-man front with the Packers.

“We’re going to play him at defensive tackle,” Moore said. “He’s a defensive tackle-big end type player. Athletic, inside pass-rush guy, can set the edge, can play inside. Quick, powerful, good football player. Really adds a lot of versatility to our defensive line. …

“He just has the ability to play multiple spots because of his frame, his size and his athletic ability. Versatility to play multiple gaps. But he’s an inside pass-rush threat, for sure.”

Only four NFL teams had fewer sacks than Green Bay in 2022. The Packers picked Wooden and Bowling Green defensive tackle Karl Brooks in the sixth round in hopes of beefing up their pass rush.

“Both those guys have extensive skill sets to rush the passer, production to rush the passer,” Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst said, “so again, we’ve talked about versatility up there with those guys. I think they’re able to go up and down the line of scrimmage and rush the passer, and I think that was another kind of goal for us.”

As a starter over the past three seasons at Auburn, Wooden had 147 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss, 14 sacks, six pass breakups, three fumble recoveries and three forced fumbles.

At the NFL Scouting Combine in March, Wooden ran a 4.79-second 40-yard dash. Four players at the 2023 combine ran the 40 in 4.8 or faster and weighed at least 270 pounds, and the Packers picked two of them, with Green Bay’s first-round selection, Iowa linebacker Lukas Van Ness, joining Wooden.

Wooden measured 6-foot-4 and 273 pounds at the combine, but the Packers expect him to play closer to his weight at Auburn, which was about 10 pounds heavier.

Moore said Wooden’s speed made him a target for Green Bay as the increase in nimble, mobile quarterbacks and changes in play-calling preferences had elevated the importance of quickness for defensive linemen.

“I think you see more and more the Jalen Hurts, the Mahomes, our guy, quarterbacks are breaking the pocket more,” Moore said. “And more offenses are throwing stuff behind the line of scrimmage, so with the screen game and all that, it just helps guys chase plays down and make plays. We need to get faster as a defense because the NFL’s getting faster, and he definitely brings that to our defense.”

This offseason, Green Bay lost two of the three defensive linemen who played the most snaps last season. Two-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark returns for this eighth season with the Packers, but former Alabama standout Jarran Reed signed with the Seattle Seahawks and Dean Lowry signed with the Minnesota Vikings.

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Returning with Clark are T.J. Slaton, a nose tackle who played 32 percent of the Packers’ defensive snaps in this second season, and Devonte Wyatt, a first-round pick who played 22 percent of the snaps as a rookie.

“He’s a young kid,” Moore said of Wooden. “They all need to get better. But he plays with his hands, he’s coordinated, he’s a good athlete. I mean, they’re all going to get better. (Defensive-line) coach (Jerry) Montgomery does a good job with those guys.”

Wooden will get his first work with the Packers in rookie minicamp this month before joining the full team’s offseason program.

“I feel like I got a whole lot of work to put in,” Wooden said. “Now the grind begins. I have to work on the hands, the fundamentals, the techniques. Everything that got me here, I got to keep getting them better and better and better.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.