Most Important Packers – 55 to 59: ‘Embraced the Competition’

Part 5 of our 90-to-1 countdown of the Green Bay Packers’ roster continues with an undrafted free agent with a rare contract and a couple returning defensive backs.

Green Bay Packers safety Anthony Johnson Jr. (36) intercepts a pass to Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) on Nov. 5 at Lambeau Field. / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers will take a 90-man roster to the field for the first practice of training camp on July 22.

Here is Part 5 of our ranking of the most important players on the Packers’ roster. This isn’t just a listing of the team’s best players. These rankings consider talent, importance of the position, depth at the position, salary and draft history. More than anything, we hope you learn something about each player.

No. 59: G Donovan Jennings

The Packers have had at least one undrafted rookie make their opening 53-man roster for each of the last 19 years. Who will run that streak to 20?

The smart money is on Jennings.

Pun intended.

The Packers typically haven’t spent a lot on their undrafted rookies. Rather than enticing players with money, they persuade them with opportunity. The 19-year undrafted streak, which included running back Emanuel Wilson, receiver Malik Heath and defensive end Brenton Cox last year, speaks volumes.

In 2023, the NFLPA reported that the Packers’ average signing bonus for its undrafted rookies in 2022 was the lowest in the league.

Jennings is a noteworthy departure. Along with a $10,000 signing bonus, the Packers took the unusual-for-them approach of guaranteeing $100,000 of his salary. While all of Green Bay’s draft picks received a signing bonus, nobody taken in the third round or later received even a penny of guaranteed salary.

Jennings started 47 games at South Florida, including 45 at left tackle. After taking a predraft visit to Green Bay, he spent the offseason playing left guard.

“My athleticism comes first and foremost,” he told The Draft Network’s Justin Melo. “I have a background as a basketball player. My athletic ability to redirect is pretty rare. I’m a heavier-set dude that moves very well for 328 pounds. My physical ability allows me to move people off the ball. I’m a strong and powerful blocker. I can bend well. I have an all-around skill-set to be a great football player.”

No. 58: LB Kristian Welch

After playing 43 games for the Ravens from 2020 through 2022, Welch failed to make Baltimore’s roster last summer. The Packers signed him to their practice squad, and he wound up playing in each of the final 14 games plus both postseason contests. He wound up third on the team with six tackles on special teams during the regular season and added another in the playoffs.

Welch was a fun story last year. He grew up in Iola, Wis., which is located about 60 miles from Lambeau Field.

“There’s 32 teams, right? It’s crazy to end up back home,” Welch told Packer Central at the time. “There’s a lot of guys that don’t ever get that chance. Look across the league, right? Like, you pick any player and you say, ‘OK, he’s from Atlanta. What are the chances that he plays for the Atlanta Falcons?’ Very small chance. There’s a lot of guys that don’t get that opportunity, so I’m very fortunate.

“I don’t take anything for granted to be this close to home. It’s a dream come true. I just take every day as it comes and I’m enjoying it.”

Welch, who has played 1,101 snaps on special teams compared to 44 on defense in his four seasons, signed a one-year contract with the Packers in free agency.

No. 57: TE Ben Sims

Sims signed with the Vikings after going undrafted out of Baylor last year but was released in the final roster cutdown. A day later, he was in a meeting with some of Minnesota’s other practice-squad candidates. About 30 minutes into it, Sims was pulled out of the meeting.

He had been claimed off waivers by the Packers.

“They said, ‘When can you get here?” Sims recalled at the time. “I mapped it on my phone and I said, ‘I can be there in 4 hours.’ Coach (Matt) LaFleur goes, ‘Great. See you then.’”

With veteran Tyler Davis out with a torn ACL, Sims joined the Packers’ other rookie tight ends, Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft, and fit right in. He played all 17 games and caught four passes for 21 yards. The highlight of his season was scoring the opening touchdown in the victory over the Chiefs.

Sims fought back tears during his Lambeau Leap.

“It was just such a special moment,” Sims said a few days later. “Your adrenaline is so high that you really don’t know what’s going on. So, I was pretty emotional.”

After playing 189 snaps on offense and 97 on special teams last year in helping to replace Davis, it might be Sims vs. Davis for a roster spot at training camp.

“Ben, he’s thrown right in and didn’t blink,” tight ends coach John Dunn said at the start of OTAs. “That’s what I love about him. The interesting part and cool part, he wasn’t part of the offseason program last year. So, kind of learning it [the playbook] from the ground level as opposed to [learning it by] the game plan and, ‘Here we go’ is going to be really beneficial to him.”

No. 56: S Anthony Johnson

The Packers nuked last year’s safety corps. Gone are last year’s primary players, Darnell Savage, Jonathan Owens and Rudy Ford. In are veteran Xavier McKinney and rookies Javon Bullard, Evan Williams and Kitan Oladapo.

Not gone and definitely not forgotten is Johnson. A seventh-round pick last year, Johnson joined McKinney as the No. 1 pairing for most of the offseason.

Presumably, McKinney and Bullard will be the Week 1 starters. But Johnson had a solid rookie season with one interception and three passes defensed. That’s better production than the regular starters, Savage (zero interceptions, one pass defensed) and Owens (zero interceptions, three passes defensed).

Johnson didn’t get on the field for the first 10 games of his rookie season. With eight defensive snaps under his belt, Johnson started against the Rams and intercepted a pass. A few weeks later, he had a career-high eight tackles and broke up a pass in the Thanksgiving win at Detroit.

“It’s kind of wild because you go from inactive to right into the action,” Johnson said last year. “As far as the preparation piece and stuff like that, when you prepare like I do, it’s fun. You just step right in.

“Even when I wasn’t active, I was still getting the call and going through checks. I was playing the game on the sideline. I wasn’t standing back with everybody. I was playing the game on the sideline so that when I do get an opportunity, I can step in and the defense doesn’t skip a beat and I know the flow of the game.”

While McKinney and Bullard presumably will start, the No. 3 safety position will be quite a battle between Johnson, Williams and Oladapo.

“He’s trying to take his game to the next level,” coach Matt LaFleur said during OTAs. “Certainly, it’s definitely a different scheme, so there’s a lot of new learning. It’s far from perfect but you attack it the right way with the right mentality, you’re going to get the most growth.

“That’s what we’re seeing from him. He’s done a great job and he’s embraced the competition, because that is going to be a great competition there with the number of young guys that we got coming in. There’s a couple vets there, too, that are going to push him.”

No. 55: CB Robert Rochell

You can never have enough cornerbacks. The Packers learned that last year. They opened training camp envisioning Jaire Alexander, Rasul Douglas and Eric Stokes manning the secondary. Instead, none of the three played even 50 percent of the defensive snaps.

Green Bay’s biggest addition at cornerback this offseason was Kalen King, the fourth-to-last player selected in the draft. So, with a new defensive scheme meaning a clean slate, he’s got a chance to push for playing time behind Stokes, Carrington Valentine and Corey Ballentine.

Due in part to his excellent athleticism, Rochell was a fourth-round pick by the Rams in 2021, starting five games for the Super Bowl champions. The Packers grabbed him off Carolina’s practice squad in late October, and he wound up playing 112 snaps on special teams in nine games.

Upon joining the Packers, he said: “I definitely look at it as a reset, mentally and physically, to come in and realign myself with the game of football and show the attributes that I can do on and off the field.”

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