The Green Bay Packers have quietly maintained one of the more understated traditions in the NFL. For 21 consecutive seasons, an undrafted rookie has made the club’s initial 53-man roster.
Heading into the final cuts of 2026, that streak looked vulnerable until wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant delivered a performance that changed the conversation.
Sturdivant had already been climbing the depth chart because of his work on special teams. Then, in the preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals at Lambeau Field, he caught six passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.
That outburst put him on virtually every 53-man projection and marked the most receiving yards by a Packers wideout in a preseason game since 2011.
“J. Michael Sturdivant was already ahead of Isaiah Neyor, in terms of what the team asked the two to do on special teams, but Week 3 of the preseason also featured Sturdivant going for 112 yards in the air — putting him over Neyor in both aspects of the position,” wrote Justis Mosqueda of Acme Packing Company.
Zach Kruse of PackersWire reached a similar conclusion. “Sturdivant beats out Will Sheppard and Isaiah Neyor for the seventh spot,” Kruse wrote. “The rookie has obvious pass-catching potential, and he could play a role on special teams.”
Sheppard had a strong camp as a returner, but the Packers signed Skyy Moore, who is expected to handle those duties. That shift elevated Sturdivant’s non-return special-teams versatility.
Bill Huber of Packers OnSI noted the team’s willingness to keep seven receivers if the players on the back end of the depth chart earned it. “Are the Packers going to keep seven wide receivers? If they don’t, it won’t be because the players on the back end of the depth chart did not make a heck of a run at a roster spot,” Huber wrote.
General manager Brian Gutekunst had already signaled openness to that approach. “If you’re gonna do that, there’s gonna be a couple of those guys that have to be pretty valuable teams guys,” Gutekunst said. “I think we have some of those.”
Sturdivant, an undrafted free agent out of Florida, arrived with a winding college path that included stops at Cal and UCLA before his final season with the Gators. His career-high receiving total remains 755 yards from 2022.
Through the first two preseason games he had just three catches for 30 yards, but he logged 20 snaps across four special-teams phases and spent the summer on the starting units.
Those contributions, combined with the late receiving explosion, have most observers expecting the Packers to keep the streak alive.
The final roster decision will be close, yet Sturdivant now looks like the undrafted rookie most likely to extend a run that has lasted more than two decades.
Be the first to comment