RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The streak appears to have made it to 22 years.
Wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant, who finished his college career at Florida and also spent time at Cal and UCLA, made the Green Bay Packers initial 53-man roster , announced Sunday, Aug. 30. Having gone unchosen in the 2026 draft, Sturdivant is close to extending a wild Packers streak to 22 seasons of at least one undrafted free agent from that season's draft class making the Week 1 roster.
The streak dates to 2005, the dawn of the Ted Thompson era. The quirk became one of the general manager's trademarks, finding talent in unusual places.
But there's a little bit of trickiness in defining what "undrafted free agent on the initial 53-man roster" means, and it's why this isn't quite a done deal yet. We're talking about players who made the roster in their first year of NFL eligibility and were still there for Week 1.
That means they had been eligible for draft selection the preceding April and didn't get taken. So even if they were initially signed with another team first but bounced to Green Bay and made the first 53-man roster, they count. But they have to make it to Week 1; players have made the initial cutdown but not been on the roster by the time the season begins. Running back Jhurell Pressley in 2016 is one example.
More: Packers' Gutekunst does heavy lifting on cutdown day to fill roster holes
More: Breakdown of the Green Bay Packers initial 53-man roster by position
Why does Week 1 matter? Well, the streak would have died in 2020 without it. But linebacker Krys Barnes was added in advance of the first game. Players don't have to be game-day actives in Week 1 to merit inclusion here, but they also don't count if they're on an injured list.
There's also the added recent complication of practice-squad players who can be elevated for game days, even if they aren't technically on the 53-man roster.
Here's a look at the guys who made this streak last.
2025: Nazir Stackhouse
The defensive tackle from Georgia played in 13 games last year for the Packers, finishing with 12 tackles.
2024: Brayden Narveson
It appeared that the streak was about to end in 2024, but in the quest to find a reliable kicker, the Packers pivoted to claiming Tennessee Titans undrafted rookie kicker Brayden Narveson off waivers, and that gave the streak an even two decades.
Narveson didn't last long, making 12 of 17 kicks over six games before he was dropped in favor of veteran Brandon McManus . Narveson briefly returned to Tennessee late in the year and was unsuccessful in trying to latch on with a Canadian Football League team in the summer.
2023: Brenton Cox Jr., Malik Heath, Emanuel Wilson
Cox was a talented SEC player at Florida haunted by character concerns that caused him to fall out of draft position, but he made a strong impression at defensive line and made the team, ultimately appearing in four games.
The receiver Heath played in 13 games as a rookie and caught 15 passes with one touchdown after playing college football at both Mississippi State and Mississippi, though his college career included a serious car crash in 2021. He played in another 13 games in 2024, catching 10 passes and two scores.
Wilson, initially signed by the Broncos out of Fort Valley State but waived after three days, quickly found himself in Packers camp. He wound up appearing in seven games as a rookie and all 17 in 2024, with 103 carries for 502 yards in his second season.
2022: Jack Coco
The long snapper out of Georgia Tech first came to Packers camp on a tryout basis and wound up winning the job, though he was released a year later.
2021: Jack Heflin
The defensive lineman from Iowa appeared in four games and was re-signed on a futures contract after the season but was ultimately released from the practice squad in late 2022. He played in one game for the New York Giants that year as an elevated practice-squad player and one game for the New Orleans Saints in 2023.
2020: Krys Barnes
The linebacker from UCLA was signed to a three-year deal when he wasn't drafted, though he didn't make the team and was quickly added to the practice squad. But that was a short-term designation; he was immediately promoted to the active roster and started the first game of the season. There was some irony there; while his old high school teammate and friend, Jordan Love, was the team's first-round draft pick that year, it was the undrafted Barnes who would start in Week 1 while Love remained waiting in the wings. Barnes wound up starting 23 games over the next two seasons and played three years in Green Bay, though the 2022 campaign was dramatically shortened by injury. By the time Love became the full-time starter, Barnes was gone; he played 33 games with Arizona over two years and played seven games last year for Carolina.
2019: Darrius Shepherd
The receiver from North Dakota State appeared in six games in 2019 and another eight the next year, catching a total of six passes but also making an impact as a returner, with 20 total kick returns over the two seasons.
2018: Raven Greene, Tim Boyle, Alex Light, James Crawford
Greene, a safety from James Madison, signed a decently lucrative contract after the draft with the Packers and made the roster as the third free safety on the depth chart; he spent three seasons in Green Bay and appeared in 20 games, including eight that first year, with a sack and a forced fumble.
Boyle, from Eastern Kentucky, made the team as the third quarterback behind Aaron Rodgers and DeShone Kizer and stayed with the Packers through the 2020 season, even getting into a game for four passing attempts (with three completions) in 2019.
Light, a tackle from Richmond, saw three games in 2018 and 13 in 2019 before getting released early in 2020.
Crawford, an Illinois alumnus who was a late arrival into training camp, became a s...
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