From Walmart to Packers for Final Draft Pick, Grant DuBose

The Green Bay Packers’ 13th and final pick of the 2023 NFL Draft might have the best story of them all.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers closed the 2023 NFL Draft by selecting Charlotte receiver Grant DuBose.

DuBose was the third receiver selected, following Jayden Reed in the second round and Dontayvion Wicks in the fifth round. With only five receivers under contract to start the day, drafting three receivers was the expectation. They’ll likely add another couple in undrafted free agency.

DuBose caught 62 passes for 892 yards and six touchdowns in 2021 and 64 passes for 792 yards and nine touchdowns in 2022. At the Scouting Combine, he measured 6-foot-2 3/8 and 201 pounds and ran his 40 in 4.57 seconds.

According to Pro Football Focus, he caught 44.8 percent of his contested-catch opportunities and averaged 4.8 yards after the catch per catch.

“Today was just another day to come out here and show my skill set,” DuBose said at pro day. “Kind of like the last box that you have to check before draft day. So I’m just wanting to come out here and make sure I checked all the boxes. We’ve got a pretty good amount of scouts out here. So, hopefully they can say the same thing, as well.”

Being drafted puts an exclamation point on one heck of a chapter.

“My journey hasn’t been the typical journey,” he told WBTV recently. “But I’m grateful for it all...I knew what I wanted in life. I knew that I wanted to be here today.”

DuBose started his college career at Division II Miles College. In 2020, DuBose 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.”

Then, it was off to Charlotte, where he became a star following a tryout that consisted of him running three routes to impress the coaches.

“It was either bet on myself, or stay where I was,” he told WBRV. “I knew that’s what I didn’t want.”

Just like that, the former Walmart employee put himself on the NFL map.

“What it taught me about life? Just the importance of hard work,” he said at the Combine. “Going in, working those shifts and once I got off, finding time to put the extra work in, to go to the field and go to the gym. It taught me the process of hard work and working for the things you really want in life.”

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