Acme Packing Company
The all-star game slate starts this week as the American Bowl began practices on Sunday. After two practices and a walkthrough, the American Bowl will be broadcast on Thursday, January 22nd, on NFL Network at 7 pm CT. The game will be coached by a mostly veteran staff, as Brian Billick’s Warhawks will be taking on Mike Smith’s Guardians.
I wanted to know who the draftable prospects are who are competing in this game, instead of the East-West Shrine Bowl or Senior Bowl later on down the line. So here’s who I found in the 256 prospects on the consensus board (the NFL draft is usually 256 players because the general structure is seven rounds of 32 draft choices each and then an extra 32 compensatory picks sprinkled in throughout).
Leigh isn’t very heavy (came in at 308 pounds), which could be a problem for non-center offensive line prospects for the Packers moving forward. Green Bay has pivoted significantly towards relying on bigger bodies in recent seasons. Leigh was a three-year starter at Clemson, but he played a little right guard back in 2023.
McAlister, a college teammate of Packers 2025 third-round pick Savion Williams, caught 169 receptions for 3,084 yards at the college level with both Boise State and TCU. The average Green Bay receiver under LaFleur is around 208 pounds, while McAlister was measured in at just 193 pounds. McAlister also has an assault with a deadly weapon on his record, for which he received probation.
Here is finally a player who I believe has a decent shot of coming to Green Bay. Onianwa was a three-year starter at Rice before transferring to Ohio State last year. In his one year with the Buckeyes, he only managed to get on the field for 90 snaps in a pretty deep unit. He played tackle at Rice but was in the field more at Ohio State as a guard, despite his size (6’6”-flat, 333 pounds). This week of practice should be pretty big for a hyped up transfer who didn’t see much playing time in 2025.
Arkin wasn’t a guy who racked up receiving yards at the college level, finishing with 45 receptions for 351 yards and six touchdowns over five seasons, but the Kenosha, Wisconsin-born, Fort Collins, Colorado-raised player was a team captain for the Illini. He was measured in at over 6’3”, 262 pounds and has the fourth-largest hands of any of the 119 players at this event at 10 and 3/4”.
In college, Kpeenu carried the ball 434 times for 2,283 yards and 32 touchdowns, including a 191-carry, 1,005-yard and 20-touchdown season in 2025. As of now, the only FCS prospect ranked ahead of him on the consensus board is his teammate, receiver Bryce Lance, brother of...
