With up to five players possibly going on the injured reserve for the Green Bay Packers this week, the team’s roster is very fluid right now. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if general manager Brian Gutekunst and the Packers’ pro personnel department circle a couple of names to target as waiver pickups on Wednesday.
So, who are those players? We’ll be using this article as a hub to throw around possible ideas to make Green Bay’s roster better going into the 2025 regular season.
Famously, the Packers have
tried to get their hands on players whom they brought in as pre-draft visitors. Since the 2022 draft, the first class with visitors post-Covid, Green Bay has signed 28 of these athletes, by way of the draft or otherwise. Even if they don’t get these visitors at first, they go out of their way to acquire them later, which was the case with tight end Ben Sims, tight end John FitzPatrick and safety Omar Brown, who are on the roster currently.
Sunday Update
So far (8/24), four former Packers visitors have been released from NFL rosters:
- RB Evan Hull
- CB Josh Thompson
- CB Gregory Junior (stint with Green Bay this summer)
- S Quindell Johnson
The Packers have had multiple opportunities to sign these players, though, so it’s more likely that they’ve lost interest in these guys than that they’ll sign them in the near future.
A couple of roster bubble names who haven’t been previously made available for Green Bay, though, could interest them:
- TE Josh Whyle, Titans
- OL Esa Pole, Chiefs
- OL Kiran Amegadjie, Bears
- DT Eric Johnson II, Colts
- DT Khristian Boyd, Saints
- LB Marte Mapu, Patriots
- S Dell Pettus, Patriots
- S Jordan Howden, Saints
Keep an eye out for them if they’re waived this weekend. So far, teams have not announced whether those individuals are or aren’t making their respective rosters.
The final name I want to bring up for this Sunday update is offensive lineman Logan Brown, a former five-star Wisconsin Badgers recruit who transferred to Kansas for his final two seasons of college football. Brown has the agility scores that the Packers typically like out of their linemen and was considered the #160 player in the 2025 draft class per the consensus draft board.
Brown ended up going undrafted, but he was a highly sought-after free agent. Despite that, the Minnesota Vikings have released him. For perspective, he inked a deal worth $244,000 guaranteed as an undrafted free agent. The Packers’ top undrafted rookie this year, from a guarantees perspective, was defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse, who signed for $165,000.
So it’s possible that Green Bay was interested in Brown, who fits their specs for the position well, but were simply outbid. Now that he’s available, it’s an option on the table. If the Packers pick him up, they’ll be on the hook for $234,000 in guaranteed salary this year (out of $840,000 overall), as Minnesota only paid him a $10,0000 signing bonus.
