Added Off Waivers, Anderson No Stranger to Challenges

A shoulder injury cost Zayne Anderson most of two seasons at BYU. Added off waivers, he will look to build upon the special teams resume built with the Chiefs.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – After missing most of two seasons at BYU due to a shoulder injury, Zayne Anderson wasn’t sure he’d ever get to the NFL, let alone be on the practice field with the Green Bay Packers as part of their 53-man roster.

“Yeah, there’s definitely those doubts, and you have other people telling you you’re not going to heal and stuff with your shoulder,” Anderson, who was claimed off waivers from Buffalo on Wednesday, said after his first practice with the team on Thursday. 

“I’m grateful, man. I’m grateful to be able to push forward, and sometimes you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I was able to see it and here we are, man. I’m ready to work.”

Having gone from safety to linebacker and back to safety, Anderson started 11 games as a sixth-year senior in 2020. While he measured 6-foot-2 and ran his 40 in 4.44 seconds and was a state-champion sprinter at Sansbury Park (Utah) High School, he went undrafted and signed with the Chiefs.

In two years in Kansas City, he played in 10 games (seven regular season, three playoffs). All his action has come on special teams, with 110 snaps in the regular season and 60 during the team’s three playoff games in 2021; he did not get on the field for the Chiefs’ run to the championship last year.

This offseason, Anderson signed with the Buffalo Bills but was released on Tuesday. He was at a hotel in Buffalo on Wednesday contemplating his practice-squad options when he learned the Packers had claimed him off waivers.

“It’s something that’s crazy in this league, but it’s something that happens and this year it was a blessing to kind of be on the other end of it,” Anderson said of landing on a roster rather than a practice squad. “Getting cut is never a good thing, but you keep that same attitude of showing up to work every day, the same work ethic, and it’s a blessing to be able to see it pay off. It’s back to work now.”

Zayne Anderson (Photo by Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports Images)

While most of his new teammates will be relaxing after the grind of training camp, Anderson will spend the next three days studying. There’s a lot to learn before the team returns to the practice field on Monday. His early playing time figures to come on Rich Bisaccia’s special teams, but he’ll also need to learn the finer points of Joe Barry’s defense.

“It’s pretty crazy. It’s something that not a lot of people have to do, but it’s something that we signed up for and something we’re going to have to do,” he said of the crash course into the playbook. “So, just focusing on what I can do for today and what can I learn today. I just got in last night, the first practice today, taking a few things away from that practice, and just being able to go home and start to reset, then get back to studying and catching up to where I need to be.”

The challenge that’s ahead is nothing like the challenge he endured at BYU. He was hoping the 2018 season would be his launching point to the NFL. Instead, during the fourth game of the season, he sustained a shoulder injury that ended his season. Two games into the 2019 season, it was clear the surgery wasn’t a success.

“We didn’t know that until the very first game,” he recalled. “First game, it just didn’t feel right so they went back in and it was still messed up. I had two senior years, which was unfortunate.

“It was super-frustrating, but I feel like with everything you take what you can take from it. I learned a lot from that process, learned a lot of gratitude toward the game and really figured out what I wanted to do. I wouldn’t take it back. As much as I [wonder] where I would be if that wouldn’t have happened, I’m here now.”

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