The Green Bay Packers aren’t done adding to their tight end room. Less than 24 hours after officially announcing the signing of veteran Jonnu Smith, the team made a trade with the Los Angeles Rams to acquire tight end Mark Redman, according to NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
An undrafted free agent out of Louisville in 2025, Redman spent all of last season on the Rams’ practice squad and then signed a reserve/futures contract after the team was eliminated from the playoffs.
During this past preseason, Redman caught all six of his targets for 63 yards and 10.5 yards per reception, with three of those catches resulting in first downs. Los Angeles has a tight end room anchored by Colby Parkinson and Tyler Higbee. The Rams used second-round picks on Terrance
Ferguson and Max Klare in consecutive years.
Because Redman was likely going to be cut, the Packers decided to be proactive and trade for him so he couldn’t be claimed or sign elsewhere.
Listed at 6-6, 263 pounds, Redman has prototypical size but didn’t test particularly well. He received a Relative Athletic Score of 6.78, running the 40-yard dash in 4.95 seconds and recording a 32-inch vertical leap.
It will be interesting to see what role Green Bay envisions for Redman and what this means for Josh Whyle, who was expected to make the initial 53-man roster as TE3. It's reasonable to expect that Redman would contribute mostly as a blocker or on special teams this season.
A couple of highlight clips of Redman's ability as a blocker:
we have hoss potential with Rams TE #83 Mark Redman. pic.twitter.com/2XMOJjZUA7
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) August 28, 2026
How about this rep by Rams TE Mark Redman (#83)! pic.twitter.com/ARrUDOuDJW
— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) August 16, 2026
The past couple of moves say a lot about how the Packers felt about their depth behind top tight end Tucker Kraft heading into roster cuts. Neither Drake Dabney nor Messiah Swinson showed much in the past month, prompting the team to bring in Smith to fill in for 2023 second-rounder Luke Musgrave, who has missed all of training camp and the preseason with a neck injury. Now, they are looking to see what they have in the 24-year-old Redman.
It will be interesting to see if Green Bay keeps four tight ends on the initial 53-man roster or goes with Redman over Whyle. All 32 NFL teams must complete final roster cuts by 5:00 p.m. CT on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers add another tight end, trade for Rams’ Mark Redman
