Acme Packing Company
On Monday, the Green Bay Packers announced the signing of 16 players to reserve/futures deals, essentially minimum contracts that tend to go to former practice squad players at the beginning of the offseason. With all the reshuffling the Packers have done over the past couple of weeks, let’s go over every single one of these reserve/future players, where they stand on the roster, their experience with the team and try to handicap how likely it is that they make the 53-man roster in 2026.
I would not be surprised if you see either of these backs in the 2026 regular season, either as backups or as injury replacements. The Packers only have two members of the 53-man roster under contract at the position, Josh Jacobs and MarShawn Lloyd. That means there’s an opportunity here, if Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks, who are restricted free agents, aren’t tendered (they won’t be tendered), hit unrestricted free agency (they will hit unrestricted free agency) and sign with someone else (TBD).
Strong was signed by the Packers’ practice squad in Week 2 after he reached an injury settlement with the Cleveland Browns. He’s a former fourth-round pick who was elevated in Weeks 7, 12 and 15 for game action, due to running backs being game-time decisions in those weeks. Strong never played a snap for Green Bay, but they were obviously comfortable with him going into games.
Martinez was considered to be a borderline top-100 pick (#101 on the consensus draft board) in the 2025 draft, but he fell to the seventh round and eventually resurfaced on the Packers’ practice squad in Week 18.
Out of the four receivers on the Packers’ practice squad, the only one they announced as a signing today was Will Sheppard, who was activated to play against the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Sheppard has been with Green Bay since training camp and got return snaps during the preseason. Had Sheppard not gotten hurt and been placed on the team’s practice squad injury list, essentially the injured reserve for the practice squad, he likely would have played in Week 18 (over Jakobie Keeney-James) and in the wild card round (over Isaiah Neyor).
I don’t think these players have a good chance to make the 53-man roster, because I think that Josh Whyle, a restricted free agent in 2026, will eventually re-sign with the Packers after going untendered. Green Bay has done this in the past with backup tight ends, like John FitzPatrick and Tyler Davis. Bringing back Whyle would give the Packers a room of Tucker Kraft, who is expected to...
