For Packers’ Kristian Welch, Homecoming Has Been ‘Dream Come True’

Linebacker Kristian Welch grew up about 60 miles from Lambeau Field. His Packers debut was a big deal for himself and the Iola-Scandinavia community.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When he was 4 or 5 years old, Kristian Welch went trick-or-treating through the streets of his hometown of Iola, Wis., dressed in a Green Bay Packers costume.

On Thursday night, a lifelong dream came true when Welch, who grew up about 60 miles from Lambeau Field, made his Packers debut.

“Very surreal feeling,” said Welch, a linebacker who signed to the Packers’ practice squad on Aug. 31 after three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. “Really, just to have the opportunity to be here – came here at the end of training camp, just kind of a whirlwind. Didn’t know where I was going to end up.

“I knew that there was interest here from the get-go and it ended up working out where I was able to get the opportunity here to be on the practice squad. I just kind of put my head down and worked. It’s kind of been the motto of my entire life and my NFL career. To get the opportunity to play, it just kind of all fell into place. It’s an awesome feeling.”

Welch was added to the 53-man roster when the Packers put David Bakhtiari on injured reserve before Thursday’s game against the Lions. He got the news about 7 hours before kickoff that he was being promoted to the roster rather than just elevated from the practice squad.

His wife was the first to get the news, followed by his parents, grandparents and sister.

“For not even having played a game, for them to sign me was a little bit surprising,” he said. “But I’m obviously glad that now I’m going to be playing for, hopefully, the rest of the year.”

At Iola-Scandinavia High School, Welch was an all-state linebacker who also had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons as a running back. He played collegiately at Iowa, getting on the field immediately as a freshman on special teams and becoming a full-time starting linebacker and team captain as a senior.

Welch went undrafted in 2020 but made his mark with the Baltimore Ravens. He played in 43 games the past three seasons. As part of the NFL’s top-ranked special teams in 2021, he finished second on the unit with nine tackles.

“It just matters to me,” he said. “It’s how we got out and play as a unit and that we’re winning games.”

Welch played 891 snaps on special teams with the Ravens; he played 20 in his Packers debut.

“You have to be versatile,” Welch said when asked what traits make a good special-teams player. “I think the great ones know that, and they are able to play a bunch of different positions. Each phase has its own element to it. There’s so many little technique things that it’s very unique in a sense.”

Kristian Welch grew up about 75 minutes from Lambeau Field / Photo courtesy the Welch Family

It also takes a mentality. At this point in his career, Welch knows special teams are his calling card. The ability to block on a return and tackle a returner are why he’s in Green Bay for Year 4 in the NFL.

“A lot of people don’t grow up to want to be special-teams players,” he continued. “They want to play on offense, they want to play tight end, they want to play quarterback. At Iowa, I didn’t redshirt when I was a freshman. The reason was because they wanted me on special teams. I adopted that role. Whatever this team asks me to do, whatever my role is that will allow us to win games, that’s what I was going to do.”

That mindset makes Welch a coach’s dream.

That was the case at Iola-Scandinavia. In his 31st year as coach, Scott Erickson asked Welch if he wanted to come back for Friday’s homecoming game.

So, one night after making his Packers debut, there was Welch on the team’s sideline and delivering a halftime pep talk.

“The big thing I always want all kids to know is if you have a goal, it can be reached,” Erickson said. “He had high goals for himself and he made it. They look at him now and go, ‘Maybe I can do that.’ You always want kids to reach their full potential, and that’s living proof. It gives a lot of kids motivation.”

Of course, Erickson had no idea that Welch would be the next Austen Lane – who went from Iola-Scandinavia to Murray State to a four-year career in the NFL a decade earlier – but he knew there was something special in his two-way star.

“I think it’s his work ethic,” Erickson recalled. “He was a three-sport athlete but he always found time to get his workouts in. Some kids just think, ‘I’m in a sport right now. I don’t have time to work out.’ He always found time before school or on the weekend to make sure he got his lifts in and do his running. He had a goal in mind to be at the highest level he could be.

“The thing I like about him the most is he’s very humble and he works his tail off at whatever he does.”

Humble then, humble now. After the game, Erickson said, Welch posed for photos and signed autographs for “oodles of kids” who will be the next generation of Iola-Scandinavia athletes.

“He treated everyone so nicely. He’s a community guy. It was really a cool experience,” Erickson said.

Taking nothing for granted, it wasn’t until Welch made his mark with the Ravens that he knew he belonged in the NFL. Now, as inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti told him, he’s “double-dipping.” What could be better than making your dreams come true by playing in the NFL? By doing it for your home-state team.

And then watching your high school play on Friday. And goose hunting on Saturday.

“There’s 32 teams, right? It’s crazy to end up back home,” Welch said. “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.”

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