Green Bay Packers sign 16 players to reserve/future deals

On Monday, the Green Bay Packers announced the signing of 16 players to reserve/futures deals, essentially minimum contracts that tend to go to former practice squad players at the beginning of the offseason. With all the reshuffling the Packers have done over the past couple of weeks, let’s go over every single one of these reserve/future players, where they stand on the roster, their experience with the team and try to handicap how likely it is that they make the 53-man roster in 2026.

Packers’ Practice Squad – Signed Reserve/Future Deals

• RB Pierre Strong Jr. (Chance to make the team: C-)
• RB Damien Martinez (Chance to make the team: C-)

I would not be surprised if you see either of these backs in the 2026 regular season, either as backups or as injury replacements. The Packers only have two members of the 53-man roster under contract at the position, Josh Jacobs and MarShawn Lloyd. That means there’s an opportunity here, if Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks, who are restricted free agents, aren’t tendered (they won’t be tendered), hit unrestricted free agency (they will hit unrestricted free agency) and sign with someone else (TBD).

Strong was signed by the Packers’ practice squad in Week 2 after he reached an injury settlement with the Cleveland Browns. He’s a former fourth-round pick who was elevated in Weeks 7, 12 and 15 for game action, due to running backs being game-time decisions in those weeks. Strong never played a snap for Green Bay, but they were obviously comfortable with him going into games.

Martinez was considered to be a borderline top-100 pick (#101 on the consensus draft board) in the 2025 draft, but he fell to the seventh round and eventually resurfaced on the Packers’ practice squad in Week 18.

• WR Will Sheppard (Chance to make the team: D+)

Out of the four receivers on the Packers’ practice squad, the only one they announced as a signing today was Will Sheppard, who was activated to play against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Sheppard has been with Green Bay since training camp and got return snaps during the preseason. Had Sheppard not gotten hurt and been placed on the team’s practice squad injury list, essentially the injured reserve for the practice squad, he likely would have played in Week 18 (over Jakobie Keeney-James) and in the wild card round (over Isaiah Neyor).

• TE Drake Dabney (Chance to make the team: D)
• TE McCallan Castles (Chance to make the team: D)
• TE Messiah Swinson (Chance to make the team: D)

I don’t think these players have a good chance to make the 53-man roster, because I think that Josh Whyle, a restricted free agent in 2026, will eventually re-sign with the Packers after going untendered. Green Bay has done this in the past with backup tight ends, like John FitzPatrick and Tyler Davis. Bringing back Whyle would give the Packers a room of Tucker Kraft, who is expected to return to action around the start of the regular season, Luke Musgrave and Whyle.

All of these players were in-season signings for the Packers’ practice squad, following the promotion of Whyle to the active roster. Dabney was signed in Week 10 and was elevated in both Weeks 17 and 18. Swinson was added during the week of the wild card round, but has spent time with Green Bay in the last two training camps and was actually poached to the Carolina Panthers’ 53-man roster in Week 1 of the 2024 season. Castles was signed in Week 10 and ended the year on the practice squad’s injured list.

The x-factor here would be a trade of Luke Musgrave. The Packers had offers around the trade deadline (several rounds later than Musgrave was drafted, don’t expect to get that second-round pick back). Then the Tucker Kraft injury happened. It’s a good tight end class, and it’s a half-year later into Musgrave’s rookie deal, so I’m not sure how much his market will have changed between mid-season in 2025 and the offseason of 2026.

• OL Brant Banks (Chance to make the team: C)
• OL Dalton Cooper (Chance to make the team: C-)
• OL Karsen Barnhart (Chance to make the team: D-)

There’s a lot up in the air with the offensive line right now, as Elgton Jenkins is expected to be a cap casualty, and four others (Rasheed Walker, Sean Rhyan, Darian Kinnard and Lecitus Smith) are set to be free agents this offseason. Depending on who the Packers bring back (I believe Rhyan and Kinnard are the most likely candidates among these options), the team may need some line depth.

The Packers clearly like Banks, who has been with the team since being signed as an undrafted rookie in April, aside from a one-week stint with the Tennessee Titans’ 53-man roster. Banks was elevated by the team for action in Week 2 against the Dallas Cowboys, when he missed an assignment that led to a blocked point after attempt and eventually a tie.

Cooper did not sign with the Packers as an undrafted free agent, but Green Bay clearly wanted him to. He was just one of six offensive linemen that the team brought in as pre-draft visitors last offseason. Two others, Anthony Belton and John Williams, were players that the Packers drafted. He initially signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, but he’s been on Green Bay’s practice squad since the start of the season.

Barnhart is the new face of the bunch. He’s been available several times over his two years in the NFL, but Green Bay didn’t bite until Week 18 of this year. In total, he spent time with four different clubs’ practice squads in 2025.

• DT James Ester (Chance to make the team: F)
• DT Anthony Campbell (Chance to make the team: F)
• DT Dante Barnett (international exemption) (Chance to make the team: F)

I don’t think the Packers are realistically going to keep any of these players on the 53-man roster next year, because Devonte Wyatt, Colby Wooden, Karl Brooks, Warren Brinson, Jordon Riley and Nazir Stackhouse are all under contract for 2026. If they add a body to this group, it will be a starting nose tackle, and someone will likely have to be displaced for even that addition.

Ester has been on the practice squad for the entire last two seasons, but he’s never been called up for action, despite the chaotic situation at the position this year. Campbell was signed in the wild card round. Barnett is a 275-pound English national who is the Packers’ international exemption player. This allows Green Bay to sign up to 91 players on their offseason roster (including Barnett) rather than the typical 90 (without an exempt player).

• LB Jamon Johnson (Chance to make the team: A+)

Johnson was the Packers’ second-highest paid undrafted free agent of the 2025 class, tied with safety Jonathan Baldwin, who finished the season on the 53-man roster, and behind defensive tackle Nazir Stackhouse, who spent all of 2025 on the 53-man roster. For perspective, the $115,000 in guarantees that Johnson signed for is more than either cornerback Micah Robinson or offensive lineman John Williams, the Packers’ 2025 seventh-round picks.

Johnson will probably be on the 53-man roster next year because Quay Walker is likely to leave in free agency, which will push Isaiah McDuffie into the Mike spot and Ty’Ron Hopper into the Sam spot on defense. The Packers like to carry five at the position (Edgerrin Cooper at Will gets them to three), and they will probably re-sign one of Nick Niemann or Kristian Welch, who have both served in Green Bay’s fifth linebacker role as a special teams only player (one of the few positions the front office allocates to a true special teams only non-member of the kicking battery).

I expect that it’s Cooper, McDuffie, Hopper, Johnson and one of Niemann/Welch in 2026, barring a linebacker falling into the team’s lap in the draft. Johnson was on the practice squad for all of the 2025 season but was elevated to play in Weeks 12, 13 and 18. He played 67 snaps of defense and 25 snaps of special teams (mostly in Week 18) as a rookie.

• CB Tyron Herring (Chance to make the team: F)

It’s going to be tough for Herring to make the team next year, because Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, Nate Hobbs, Shemar Bartholomew and Jaylin Simpson are all under contract in 2026, plus Bo Melton and Kamal Hadden are going to be exclusive rights free agents, which basically means that he can be brought back on the league minimum. As it stands now, Herring is eighth in the cornerback pecking order, before ever even including Trevon Diggs, who the team might try to bring back (on a different deal) to push Nixon, Valentine and Hobbs for two starting roles in 2026.

Herring was signed by the Packers post-draft as an undrafted free agent, but he wasn’t added to their practice squad until Week 9. He was let go in Week 14, but brought back in Week 18 after the team needed to backfill during their 30-plus roster move stretch over two weeks.

• S Mark Perry (Chance to make the team: F)

Perry just got here, signing with the team’s practice squad in Week 18. Five of the Packers’ top six safeties (Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, Kitan Oladapo and Johnathan Baldwin) are under contract for 2026, while Zayne Anderson (the other top-six safety) could likely be brought back for a modest signing bonus. Perry will go into 2026 as the 6th or 7th man in the pecking order at the position, before including a potential draft choice.

• K Lucas Havrisik (Chance to make the team: D+)

Yes, the Packers can get rid of Brandon McManus. If they do, who knows who they try to replace him with, but Havrisik is an option. Havrisik was perfect in his first two games with the team, including hitting a Packers record-breaking field goal, but then missed two extra points against the New York Giants. After that, he dropped from the 53-man roster to the practice squad, as McManus took over the reins for the remainder of the season.

Packers’ Practice Squad – Have Not Signed Reserve/Future Deals

• WR Isaiah Neyor
• WR Julian Hicks
• WR Kisean Johnson

Interestingly, the three practice squad players that Green Bay didn’t announce as reserve/futures signings were all receivers, including Neyor, who played for the team in the wild card round. Neyor ended up lining up for three offensive snaps (no special teams snaps) against the Chicago Bears. Both Hicks and Johnson were signed to the practice squad during wild card week, as Jakobie Keeney-James was called up to the 53-man roster and Will Sheppard went to the practice squad’s injury list.

Clearly, the team is looking in a different direction at the receiver position.