On this last day of Packers rookie camp, I decided to take a look at what the very bottom of the Packers roster looks like right now.
2010 DRAFT PICKS – DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS ROSTER UNTIL SIGNED:
75 Bryan Bulaga OT Iowa
96 Mike Neal DE Purdue
42 Morgan Burnett S Georgia Tech
81 Andrew Quarless TE Penn State
74 Marsh. Newhouse T/G TCU
44 James Starks RB Buffalo
98 C.J. Wilson DE East Carolina
PLAYERS SIGNED FROM PRACTICE SQUAD OR DURING OFF-SEASON:
8 Tim Masthay P Kentucky
9 Chris Bryan P No College
13 Chris Pizzotti QB Harvard
17 Charles Dillon WR Washington State
23 Khalil Jones S Miami
43 D.J. Clark CB Idaho State
49 Robert Francois LB Boston College
64 Stanley Daniels G Washington
83 Tom Crabtree TE Miami (Ohio)
93 Anthony Toribio NT Carson Newman
95 Ronald Talley DE Delaware
UNDRAFTED FREE AGENTS OFFICIALLY SIGNED:
6 Noah Shepard QB South Dakota
40 Quinn Porter RB Stillman
11 Chastin West WR Fresno State
37 Sam Shields CB Miami
47 Frank Zombo LB Central Washington
48 Alex Joseph LB Temple
53 Tim Knicky LB Stephen F. Austin
58 John Russell LB Wake Forest
67 Nick McDonald G Grand Valley State
69 Chris Campbell T Eastern Illinois
82 Jeff Moturi WR UTEP
Looking at the official Packers Depth Chart, there are currently 85 players listed, including all of those above. The seven draft choices don’t officially count towards the 80-man roster limit until they sign a contract, so officially, the Packers are carrying 78 players on their roster. That leaves the possibility of signing two more players from the group of tryout invitees below, as listed by Greg Bedard of JSonline.com:
TRYOUT INVITEES:
7 Glen Fox WR South Dakota State
8 D.J. Hord WR Northern Iowa
9 Edward Norton-Green WR Morgan State
19 Will Scott WR NC Central
84 Shawn Gore WR Bishop (Canada)
23 Anthony Harding RB Fresno State
43 Tory Harrison RB Southern Miss
28 Anthony Levine S Tennessee State
13 Robert Vaughn S Connecticut
11 Jerell Norton CB Arkansas
17 Kent Richardson CB West Virginia
19 Jeff Lemon CB SW OK State
46 Carter Brunelle LS Baylor
48 Mike Rinfrette FB Wake Forest
49 Bobby Rome FB North Carolina
53 Garrett Anderson C South Carolina
57 Robb Houser C Pittsburgh
58 Joe Thomas G Pittsburgh
60 Mike Aguayo G UTEP
40 Osayi Osunde LB Villanova
46 Andy Mattingly LB Washington St.
61 Jonathan Jones LB Wake Forest
62 Bryan Wilson LB Morgan State
99 Antwyne Zanders LB Louisiana-Lafayette
64 Drew Berube DE Hillsdale
60 Aleric Mullins NT North Carolina
67 Mundrae Clifton NT Nevada
69 Daniel Calvin NT Kansas State
In an interview Sunday afternoon, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy indicated that the Packers will most likely sign one or two of the tryout invitees.While I had grand plans of evaluating all the prospects and making a bold prediction, I encountered a big problem. There just isn’t much information out there about most of these guys.
So instead of predicting individual players, I’m just going to predict positions. My feeling is that the Packers will surely sign a wide receiver (most likely Shawn Gore from Bishop University in Canada, who is expected to be a first round pick in today’s CFL draft).
Every year the Packers like to bring 10-11 wide receivers into training camp. Some are purely camp bodies, to keep the veteran wide receivers fresh with all the passing drills that are performed. Some are looked at for special teams skills that might stand out. Most, however, have no realistic chance at making the roster. In any case, the Packers only have 9 wide receivers on the current roster, so adding another seems like a sure thing.
Note: From the time I stepped away to have dinner to when I came back, it seems the Packers have indeed signed Shawn Gore and he was the #10 overall pick in the CFL draft. Gore will report to the Packers OTAs in a few weeks.
As for the other position, cornerback would appear to be an obvious choice. Most draft experts had the Packers focusing on cornerbacks in this draft, yet they came up empty-handed. Either everyone was wrong or things just did not fall the right way for the Packers as far as cornerbacks that interested them. In any case, while CB would seem like the other likely position for a tryout invitee signing, keep in mind the Packers already have 11 cornerbacks on their roster.
For that reason, unless one of the tryout invitees just blew them away, I don’t see the Packers signing another CB. The same goes for linebacker. Having already signed three undrafted free agent linebackers, and with a total of 13 linebackers already on the roster, signing a fourteenth seems a bit silly.
Therefore, I think the most likely position for adding another player would be at safety, where the Packers currently have 6 on the roster and one of them is a WR attempting to convert to safety. A little more depth would make sense here, even if just for training camp. So my prediction for the final spot on the 80 man roster is one of the safety tryout invitees:
28 Anthony Levine S Tennessee State
13 Robert Vaughn S Connecticut
Of course, the Packers don’t have to sign an 80th player. They may decide to just stay with what they have, snce players will need to be cut anyway as draft choices are signed. So it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they didn’t sign anyone.
In any case, we should know very soon who gets the distinction of being the last man on the Packers roster. Was it Shawn Gore or will there be one player on the totem pole lower than he?
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Jersey Al Bracco is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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Jersey Al Bracco is the founder and editor of AllGreenBayPackers.com, and the co-founder of Packers Talk Radio Network. He can be heard as one of the Co-Hosts on Cheesehead Radio and is the Green Bay Packers Draft Analyst for Drafttek.com.
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Thanks Al. This will get very interesting very fast. I cant wait to see it all get going. I do like the idea of Shields gunning for us. I would like to see if we can replace Bush but not sure if Shields will be enough of a CB. Like the speed and attitude.
Yes, Shields will have to do much more than just be a gunner to make this team. If he can be a return guy and a better-than-Jarret-Bush CB, then he has a shot.
Dontcha think an OLB is due? We are kinda thin in that position. We have CM3, Jones, Poppinga, Obiozor, and? Just 4 guys…
They have already signed 3 OLBs as undrafted free agents. Knicky, Zombo and Russell.
I thought we had room to sign 5 more guys.
At the moment we have 75 out of 80 on the roster. Our restricted free agents (Jolly, Williams, Colledge and Bigby) have not yet signed their tenders. If they did then your article would be correct.
That’s a good question. Everything I have read seems to indicate that teams count those tendered players towards their roster. I don’t know if that’s by choice or if the NFL determines that.
Well, we have our answer. The Packers signed two players today, the safety Levine and the NT Mullins. If the RFAs counted that would put them one over, so you are correct Mr. Green, they don’t count. Greg Bedard actually had confirmed that on twitter this morning…
Good stuff Al, was pulling for Vaughn, just cuase he’s from UConn, too bad.
When comparing what little I could find on Vaughn and Levine, it did seem like Levine had more going for him, so I’m not surprised he got the nod. Safety is traditionally a position where UDFAs have had good careers (ala Bigby), so maybe we’ll get lucky again.
Sadly, the thing that caught my eye the most in this post was the fact that our best hope to cure the punting problem is a guy that didn’t go to college.
As the Monty Python troupe once sang, “Always look on the bright side of life…”
God i hope one of these DB steps up this season.
Are you referring to one of these UDFAs or guys from last year’s roster?
Ooooooh! My head hurts. Joe Thomas? Be still my heart. Wait a minute it says Pittsburg. Shucks!
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This roster affirms something MM said before the draft and during the FA period. They are building this team with a business plan in mind. We may see some Vets hit the road before the season.
Low cost UDFAs is definitely part of the “business plan” Look at how many were on the roster last season? Grant, Jenkins, Bigby, Williams, Havner, Bush, Goode, Obiozor, Evan Dietrich-Smith,Josh Bell and I may be missing some more…
It’d make sense to take a chance at the safety position with Connecticut’s safety, four year starter Robert Vaughn. If the initial impression is that he has great footwork and years of collegiate experience, it does not hurt that he has been through emotional hardship and an even tougher senior season. The entire country knows what happened to the University of Connecticut and the lost of their player/brother Jasper Howard. Taking that into account, Vaughn seems to be a valuable asset when it comes to working through difficulty situations. The NFL can be that challenging at times and we need more strong minded men playing in the league with positive morals and an even better appreciations for life and all of its opportunities
Very true, but unfortunately, the Packers did not offer him a contract, instead offering one to the other safety invitee. Perhaps Vaughn can get a tryout commitment from another team.
I sure wish that the Pack could find a way to get Desmond Bishop into the starting line-up. He is a vicious hitter and could strike fear in some would-be-receivers over the middle! BAM!!! Da Pack iz Back!!!