The Green Bay Packers moved running back Pierre Strong Jr. from the practice squad to the active roster on Thursday, giving a veteran back a full spot on the 53-man roster as the team prepares for Chicago, via the NFL transaction wire.
Strong, 27, has been around the Packers’ building for more than a year.
Green Bay signed him to the practice squad on September 8, 2025, after the Cleveland Browns waived him with an injury designation at the end of camp. Last season the Packers elevated him three times.
He was inactive for games at Arizona and Denver and dressed without playing against Minnesota. He returned on a futures deal, then was cut again at the end of this preseason and put back on the practice squad.
Thursday’s move is the first time he has been signed onto Green Bay’s active roster rather than called up for a single week.
The path to that roster spot started in the FCS. Strong spent five seasons at South Dakota State and, as a senior in 2021, earned first-team All-America recognition from the Associated Press after leading the subdivision with 1,673 yards and 18 touchdowns on 240 carries.
He finished his college career third in school history in rushing yards, with 4,514, and fourth in rushing touchdowns, with 40.
New England took him in the fourth round of the 2022 draft, No. 127 overall, the first running back from South Dakota State selected since Darwin Robinson in 1974. A year later the Patriots traded him to Cleveland for offensive lineman Tyrone Wheatley Jr.
In the league he has been a complementary back more than a feature runner.
Across 46 games and one start with New England and Cleveland, he has 99 carries for 499 yards, a 5.0-yard average, and two touchdowns, plus 26 catches for 193 yards.
His best season was 2023, when he played all 17 games for the Browns and ran for 291 yards and a score.
In 2024, he appeared in 14 games, rushed 26 times for 108 yards, caught 14 passes for 104 yards, and returned kickoffs. He is listed at 5-foot-11 and 207 pounds and wears No. 22.
The promotion arrives while Green Bay’s ground game has been among the league’s least productive. Strong was one of the more useful backs in the preseason, with 15 carries for 58 yards, before losing the roster fight after the club traded for Kaleb Johnson.
Whether he sees meaningful snaps against the Bears is still open. What changed on Thursday is his status: he is no longer waiting on a weekly elevation. He is on the active roster.
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