The Green Bay Packers worked out only two players on Tuesday, with the surprise being that neither was a cornerback. At the moment, the Packers have just five cornerbacks on their 53-man roster, and the team
no longer has a practice squad cornerback after the loss of Micah Robinson, who was poached by the Tennessee Titans on Monday.
Instead, the two players that the Packers brought in, per the NFL transaction report, were offensive lineman Laekin Vakalahi and defensive tackle Dante Barnett.
The 6’5”, 320-pound Vakalahi is a former rugby and basketball player who was discovered by Philadelphia Eagles scout Chris Naeole. He was signed by the Eagles before training camp in 2024, was the team’s designated international exemption throughout that year and was eventually waived by the team at cutdowns this August. The Eagles’ current international exemption is offensive lineman Luke Felix-Fualalo, another Aussie who counts as an international player despite playing at Hawaii, Utah and Mater Dei High School in the States.
The Packers have had an open international exemption spot available on their practice squad since the release of kicker Mark McNamee two weeks ago. When the team added Lucas Havrisik to the 53-man roster due to injury concerns over Brandon McManus’ quad, the team simply parted ways with McNamee.
The fact that Green Bay is looking at positional players to fill their international spot, not a kicker, may give us a hint that the team is planning on hanging onto both McManus and Havrisik for a while. Two of Green Bay’s three international player pathways program players (IPP) to date have been kickers, with the only exception being their first international signing, defensive end Kenneth Odumegwu.
Barnett is also a potential IPP player. The Englishman played football at the NFL Academy, the league’s international prep program, for three seasons. Barnett received college offers from power programs, but grades forced him to play Division III, non-scholarship, football at Dickinson College before dropping out of school due to the cost of attendance.
He reemerged years later, once he was eligible to play NFL football after being three years removed from high school, via the IPP program. According to numbers on the ground, he ran a 4.59-second 40-yard dash at his Pro Day this offseason with the IPP program.
The 6’1”, 275-pounder was originally signed by the Cincinnati Bengals post-draft as their international exemption, but was released by the team in July. Barnett previously had a workout with the Denver Broncos on September 19th. That was the only other official workout that either of these players has had with NFL teams since their releases from the squads that originally signed them.
