Most Important Packers – 70 to 79: Five D-Linemen, One Draft Pick

Part 2 of our 90-to-1 countdown of the Green Bay Packers’ roster includes five defensive linemen and one of last year’s draft picks, receiver Grant DuBose.

Green Bay Packers receiver Grant DuBose catches a pass before last year's preseason game at the Cincinnati Bengals. / Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports

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 2 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. 79: DT Spencer Waege

Who is Spencer Waege, perhaps you’re asking yourself.

He’s one of the most athletic big guys in the NFL. As an undrafted free agent out of North Dakota State in 2023, he measured 6-foot-4 3/4 and 295 pounds. With a 4.91 in the 40 and other strong testing numbers, his Relative Athletic Score was 9.58.

A first-team All-American and finalist for the Buck Buchanan FCS Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2022, Waege went undrafted and spent the second half of the season on the 49ers’ practice squad. He was on the sideline for the playoff game against the Packers as well as the Super Bowl.

He grew up on a farm in South Dakota.

“Some of them [his 49ers teammates] can’t actually believe the stuff we have to do,” he told Keloland earlier this year. “We talk about the process of pulling a calf and you start telling them what you got to do with your arm and right after that they are like ‘Hold on. You have to do what?’”

No. 76: DEs Arron Mosby, Deslin Alexandre, Keshawn Banks

The Packers split their roster in half for most of the offseason practices, with the starters and key backups on one end of the field and everyone else on the other end. In this case, Rashan Gary, Preston Smith, Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare and Brenton Cox were the defensive ends on one side. These three were on the other.

Mosby had 15.5 tackles for losses at Fresno State as a senior in 2021. He went undrafted in 2022 and spent the year on the Panthers’ practice squad. He played a couple snaps on defense in three appearances. He spent last year on the Packers’ practice squad but did not see any action.

Banks had 11.5 tackles for losses at San Diego State as a senior in 2022. He went undrafted in 2023 and spent the year on the practice squad. He made his NFL debut when he played ahead of Cox in the playoff game against the 49ers with two snaps on defense and nine on special teams. Interestingly, Banks spent some of the offseason playing defensive tackle, where he could provide some juice as an interior rusher.

Alexandre matched his career high with 5.5 sacks as a senior at Pittsburgh in 2022. He went undrafted and spent training camp with the Jets. The Packers signed him to a futures contract after the season.

In 2022, he won the prestigious Jason Witten Man of the Year Award.

“He is a great leader and a role model for young athletes,” Witten said. “He came to the U.S. from Haiti at a young age and overcame a lot of challenges to become a great player and leader, both on campus and in the community. He is a perfect example of what a college student-athlete can be.”

Athletically, Alexander’s RAS was 8.42, Mosby’s was 3.93 and Banks’ was 2.10.

No. 75: DT James Ester

The Packers didn’t draft a defensive lineman, making Ester the biggest addition at the position with an $8,000 signing bonus.

At Northern Illinois, he started 43 games. As a senior, he was a second-team all-conference choice and team MVP after recording career highs of 49 tackles, four sacks and 6.5 TFLs. PFF credited him with 24 pressures in 2023 and 22 in 2022.

He was a four-year team captain – yes, four years – and was a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy – aka the Academic Heisman.

“James is a guy who came into our program, he has developed and is very deserving of this honor,” coach Thomas Hammock said. “He's an excellent student, a strong player and a great leader who understands what leadership takes both in the good times and through adversity. James is the heartbeat of our defense, he's given his all to this program and he's got a very bright future.”

At 6-foot-2 1/2 and 289 pounds, his RAS was 4.12.

No. 74: RB Jarveon Howard

With the re-signing of AJ Dillon, the return of Emanuel Wilson and the addition of MarShawn Lloyd with a third-round pick, did the Packers need another running back? Maybe not, but the Packers thought enough of Howard to give him a $10,000 signing bonus, tied for tops among this year’s undrafted free agents.

Howard opened his career at Syracuse before spending his final two seasons at Alcorn State. In 2022, he was the SWAC Newcomer of the Year, when rushed for a career-high 1,273 yards. In 2023, he rushed for 764 yards (same 5.0 average as in 2022) and set a career high with 31 receptions.

It came against the lower-tier competition of the FCS, but Howard averaged a solid 3.2 yards after contact last year, according to PFF. In those two seasons, he had 443 touches, forced 113 missed tackles and fumbled only twice.

Howard measured 5-foot-9 7/8 and 219 pounds. With a 4.53 in the 40, his RAS was 7.39.

He played at the same high school as former Packers safety Johnathan Abram.

“If I need something, if I’m down, I need to talk about things, you need someone to lean on and Johnathan is the guy to go to,” he said at the HBCU Legacy Bowl. “Just having the opportunity to speak to him, he just told me to clear my mind and just do what I need to do. He was telling me you might run into things that you think you can’t handle, but you can overcome that. He just showed me that you can do it.”

No. 73: TE Messiah Swinson

Swinson is unmistakable. At 6-foot-7 and 259 pounds, he stands out as a big man on a team filled with big men.

Swinson spent his first three seasons at Missouri before finishing with two years at Arizona State. He caught 28 passes in his five collegiate seasons, with 15 catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns in 2022 and six catches for 48 yards in 2023.

Following last year’s transformation of the tight end room – Day 2 picks Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft might be the best young tandem in the NFL and another rookie, undrafted Ben Sims, was a reliable role player – the only “addition” at tight end was the return of Tyler Davis from last year’s torn ACL. Swinson was given a $10,000 signing bonus, tied for No. 1 on the team.

“It’s awesome. When I got the call that they were signing me right at the end of the draft, the feeling was indescribable,” he told his hometown Suffolk County (N.Y.) News. “Playing for the Green Bay Packers, [they’re] such a historic franchise, and it was just an amazing feeling being up here in Green Bay.

“It’s a first-class organization. Everyone around the building has a championship standard. Everybody has that mindset and it’s just a great place to be. It’s a super-young team. All the guys are not too much older than me, so we can all connect on the same things. Guys have the same interests and easy to talk to, so I love my time here. It’s just a great place to come and focus on football and doing your job, so it’s an amazing job to wake up every day and go clock into.”

To make it, he not only will have to break through the returning group but overcome poor athleticism that resulted in a RAS of 1.50.

No. 72: LB Ralen Goforth

Goforth spent four years at USC, where he started 17 games and tallied 149 tackles (career-high 60 in 2021), before finishing his career last year at Washington. The Huskies reached the national championship game, with Goforth contributing 37 tackles in 15 games.

Even after the Packers drafted Edgerrin Cooper in the second round, Ty’Ron Hopper in the third round and re-signed Eric Wilson and Kristian Welch in free agency, the Packers gave Goforth a $10,000 signing bonus, tied for No. 1 on the team. With Wilson and Welch headed to free agency at the end of the season, Goforth could stick around as a developmental prospect.

“One thing I'm impressed with is he does some good things out in space, and that's something I probably didn't know about him,” UW co-defensive coordinator Chuck Morrell said. “But he's also got a box presence.”

He’s 6-foot-1 1/4 and 227 pounds with a 4.62 in the 40 and a 4.21 in the shuttle. His RAS was 7.81.

No. 71: OT Caleb Jones

Before the 2022 NFL Draft, Jones measured 6-foot-8 7/8 and 370 pounds with 36-inch arms. The Packers signed him as an undrafted free agent, and he worked to get his weight down to 338 pounds.

“Obviously, he’s got rare length and I think he’s one of those guys for as big as he is – everyone wants to talk about his size – he’s a little bit better foot athlete than I think people give him credit for,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said at the time.

“We liked his play temperament coming out of college. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit. He’s made the most of his opportunities. He’s gotten himself in really good shape, probably the best shape he’s been in since high school. He’s done a really nice job, so I’m excited for him, among others, to get out there Friday and really have an opportunity to see what they can do.”

At some point, Jones has to put it all together. He spent last season on the 53-man roster but played only one snap on special teams in his only appearance.

So, it might be now or never for, unofficially, the tallest player to suit up in a game in Packers history.

No. 70: WR Grant DuBose

Last year, the Packers drafted Jayden Reed in the second round, Dontayvion Wicks in the fifth round and DuBose in the seventh round. Reed and Wicks could become stars; DuBose will enter training camp fighting for his NFL career.

DuBose started his college career at Division II Miles College. In 2020, he worked four jobs when the pandemic canceled the football season.

“I bagged groceries, I had that job since I was 16,” he said at the Scouting Combine. “I worked at Hyundai Glovis, a manufacturing plant. I was responsible for basically getting the cars, loading them on the train. I also did a little Door Dash for chump change.”

He bet on himself and transferred to Charlotte, where he caught 62 passes for 892 yards and six touchdowns in 2021 and 64 passes for 792 yards and nine touchdowns in 2022.

DuBose spent his entire rookie season on the practice squad. He was elevated to the gameday roster for the Week 18 game against Chicago but was inactive.

Given the depth at receiver, this could be a make-or-break camp. He’ll have the same mindset as he did going into last year’s final preseason game.

“I wouldn’t say it’s pressure. It’s football. This is what you’ve been brought in here to do,” he said. “Once you prepare for something, you know don’t really feel too much pressure. You just got to go out there and execute and play at a high level. If that’s what you call pressure, I guess so, but it’s not anything I’m not new to.”

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Most important Packers: 80-90