Rivers, Heflin Navigate Winding Roads to Long-Shot Roster Spots

While Chauncey Rivers almost squandered his football opportunity, Jack Heflin created his own. Ultimately, both players earned spots on the Green Bay Packers' defense.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For Chauncey Rivers and Jack Heflin, 2015 couldn’t have been more different. At the same time, their wildly different experiences blazed their path to earning unlikely roster spots with the Green Bay Packers.

Rivers, an outside linebacker, went undrafted in 2020, a byproduct of off-the-field issues early in his career and a poor showing at the Scouting Combine. Heflin, a defensive lineman, went undrafted in 2021, a byproduct of so-so success in his one year of big-time college football and the lack of a Scouting Combine.

“Most appreciative of the opportunity, for real,” Rivers said after Wednesday’s practice. “Just getting an opportunity to come into another organization and prove that I’m worth being in the NFL.”

After playing in four games at Georgia as a true freshman in 2015, Rivers was kicked off the team in May 2016 following a third arrest for marijuana possession in a span of seven months. Rivers spent the 2016 season at East Mississippi Community College – the school featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U. A big-time season there got Rivers to Mississippi State. However, he had to sit out the 2017 season for academic reasons.

Once he got his act together, he was a quality player. Playing off the bench in 2018, he tallied 2.5 sacks and seven tackles for losses. As a starter in 2019, he was second-team all-SEC with five sacks and eight tackles for losses.

Rivers, who went to the same high school in Stone Mountain, Ga., as Preston Smith and played at Mississippi State with standout Packers lineman Elgton Jenkins, was bypassed in the draft. The early-career baggage and a plodding 4.97 in the 40 at the Scouting Combine were too much for teams to overlook. He spent his rookie season on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad, playing 15 snaps in his only game. When the Ravens released him in August to bolster their receiver depth, the Packers grabbed him off waivers.

Given all that, perhaps Rivers is the only person who saw this coming.

“I would’ve believed them. I would’ve believed them,” he said.

Why?

“Just because of my hard work and my dedication. Football, I love football, and I just know what I can do. I know that I’ve got a hell of a work ethic and I just want to put out there I’m going to grind. I know where I want to go and I know where I want to be in life.”

While Rivers was rated a four-star recruit by Rivals, Heflin was a zero-star guard. Hailing from Prophetstown, Ill. – population 2,062 – Heflin was an all-state lineman as a senior in 2015. However, recruiters steered clear of the small town located in the middle of nowhere in western Illinois. So, he enrolled at Northern Illinois, one of his three walk-on offers.

While Rivers almost wasted his opportunity, Heflin created his own. During his sophomore and junior seasons, he tallied a combined nine sacks, 16.5 tackles for losses and three forced fumbles. Having earned his degree, he transferred to his dream school, Iowa, in hopes of catching the eyes of more NFL scouts.

In eight games in 2020, he posted one sack and 3.5 tackles for losses. With unimpressive stats and unimpressive athleticism (5.33 in the 40), Heflin went undrafted. Green Bay signed him with a $7,000 signing bonus. A strong training camp and preseason put him in position to make the 53-man roster.

Every year, a feel-good story makes the #Packers' roster. This year, it was Jack Heflin.https://t.co/c8YX88hM3b

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) September 1, 2021

“I went out there and did everything I could do,” he said on Wednesday. “I left a lot of plays out there, in my personal opinion, so I was at peace with whatever happened. If I was going to get cut, if I was going to get signed to the 53, I went out and gave it my all. So, I’m not going to live with regret. So, like, whatever happened, I wasn’t going to be like, ‘Oh, man, I wish I did this, I wish I did that.’ So, I guess I wasn’t really nervous. I was nervous (during) OTAs. Like, ‘Oh, I’m getting cut.’ Every day. But you go out there and just give what you’ve got. And sometimes it’s enough, and sometimes it’s not.”

It was enough. With the team cutting its roster to 53 players on Tuesday, defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery called Heflin to break the news. Seeing who was calling, though, Heflin feared the worst.

“I was like, ‘Oh, no,’” he said. “I was nervous right away when I got the call. But he’s like, ‘Hey, you made the 53.’ He’s like, ‘Congratulations.’ And I was like, ‘Wow.’ I started kind of shaking a little bit, I’m like, ‘There’s no way. Am I being pranked? Am I still dreaming?’ Because that’s how I got woken up. So, I’m like pinching myself and making sure I’m awake. But, yeah, that was the call. And he was like, ‘Call your folks.’ And I called my mom right away, and then I hustled straight to the facility like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to go to meetings and stuff.’ But it was the greatest day of my life. If I get a phone call like that every single morning, I’d be pretty happy, if that’d be my alarm clock. That wouldn’t be too bad.”