The Green Bay Packers had a closed practice to the public, but open to the media, on Sunday, following the team’s Family Night practice at Lambeau Field on Friday. This practice was held in the Packers’ indoor facility, while Monday and Tuesday’s practices are scheduled to be open to the public at Ray Nitschke Field before the team has a travel day on Wednesday. Green Bay will open up its preseason slate in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
Here’s everything you need to know about Sunday’s practice.
Injuries
Running
back Chris Brooks (NFI, hamstring) and defensive lineman Javon Hargrave (PUP, knee) were both activated today and returned to practice for the first time in training camp. This leaves just tight end Luke Musgrave (neck), edge defender Micah Parsons (ACL), defensive lineman Jordon Riley (Achilles) and long snapper Matt Orzech (calf) on the Packers’ physically unable to perform list.
Parsons and Riley are expected to remain on the PUP list to start the regular season (which will mean they won’t count against the 53-man roster but will also mean that they won’t play at least the first four weeks of the season), while Orzech’s injury was called a short-term issue. Musgrave’s neck injury seems to be of the “tricky” variety, as the staff has been vague about his timeline to return to the field.
Before practice, head coach Matt LaFleur said that there were no long-term injuries suffered on Family Night, even though four players were added to the non-participants list today: receivers Matthew Golden (toe), receiver Jayden Reed (ankle), tight end Josh Whyle (neck) and linebacker Edgerrin Cooper (foot). Linebacker Zaire Franklin was also a non-participant today, but that was due to Franklin traveling to Canton to watch his former teammate Adam Vinatieri be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend. Franklin’s absence was excused by the team.
Golden, Reed, Whyle and Cooper joined running back Josh Jacobs (groin), cornerback Domani Jackson (undisclosed) and safety Johnathan Baldwin (knee) as active players who were held out of practice entirely on Sunday. Tight end Tucker Kraft, left guard Aaron Banks, right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele, defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt and cornerback Kamal Hadden all returned to practice today after being held out of Family Night on Friday, as the team was conservative on that front.
Because of the two new injuries at the receiver position, the Packers re-signed receiver Kisean Johnson, who originally joined Green Bay’s practice squad late in the 2025 season. To make room for Johnson, the team waived cornerback Marlon Jones with an injury designation.
Offense
Because Kraft isn’t in team drills and both Musgrave and Whyle are injured, Drake Dabney was the “starting” tight end today. The other healthy tight ends on the roster are Messiah Swinson, McCallan Castles (recently signed), Drew Biber (recently signed) and Thomas Yassmin, an international exemption player whose first practice with the Packers was on Family Night due to visa issues.
Banks remains sidelined for team drills, but Bako-Bewele was involved in the team period for the first time in training camp today. The first look starting offensive line was Jordan Morgan, Jager Burton, Sean Rhyan, Jacob Monk and Bako-Bewele (left to right).
Anthony Belton, who generally “starts” at right guard in practice, was subbed in at right tackle for Bako-Bewele today. Darian Kinnard, who has exclusively played tackle up to this point in camp, finally repped at guard on Sunday, a role he played with both Kansas City and Philadelphia before he joined the Packers last season. John Williams, who is playing all five positions in camp, is still getting in the lineup at tackle ahead of Travis Glover, who the team was high on before his season-ending shoulder injury in 2025.
It was interesting that Bo Melton was the next man up at receiver with both Golden and Reed out, and that Skyy Moore got a snap in the backfield to open practice. Moore has mostly been playing the slot for the Packers, so there’s probably a package where Reed is in the backfield.
While Melton got the nod over Savion Williams, that doesn’t mean that Williams didn’t show out on Sunday. In team periods, he caught five balls, including the play of the day: a bomb from third-string quarterback Kyle McCord. Maybe Williams took Melton’s snaps ahead of him personally.
For those who are wondering how the third-string quarterback battle is going, it looks like McCord is starting to pull away from Kyron Drones. LaFleur has said in the past that it’s difficult to rep four quarterbacks in practice (McCord and Drones split third-team reps on Family Night, for perspective), so if McCord is pulling away, maybe the team can move off Drones the next time they need to add a healthy body to the 91-man roster.
Defense
With both starting linebackers out of practice, the replacement starters today were Isaiah McDuffie and Ty’Ron Hopper, which shouldn’t have been too surprising. They’re the next guys up at the position.
For most of training camp, the Packers have had a pretty strict pecking order at cornerback when players have been healthy: Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, Brandon Cisse and then Benjamin St-Juste. Valentine remains sidelined in team drills right now, but it was Cisse and St-Juste who got some first-look snaps on defense today, pushing Nixon to the second-team unit.
Nixon subbed in for St-Juste pretty quickly, but it still marks the first time that Nixon wasn’t a full-time starter during training camp. And, yes, Jaylin Simpson was working with the second-team defense as an outside cornerback, but it’s worth remembering that Valentine, Jackson and Kamal Hadden are all being held out of team periods right now. On paper, Simpson should still be the team’s seventh outside cornerback option.
Late in practice, starting nickelback/backup safety Javon Bullard dropped out of practice with an injury. So far, we don’t know how serious this injury is. Kitan Oladapo stepped in as the next slot defender up. Generally, he’s been the third-stringer at the position behind Bullard and Baldwin.
Special Teams
Rookie kicker Trey Smack, fresh off a six-of-seven performance on Family Night, went two-of-three in practice today, with the miss being a 48-yarder off the right upright. Through Sunday, he’s been 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) in camp.
