Packers Tried to Trade for Receiver; Now He’s at Rookie Camp for Tryout

Rookie minicamp is off and running after the completion of last week’s NFL Draft, and the Green Bay Packers have done something that is surprising.

There is a list of names that was distributed of all the players participating in rookie camp with most of the usual suspects. Brandon Cisse, Chris McClellan and Dani Dennis-Sutton are all present and in camp.

Someone else that is present in camp is veteran receiver Chase Claypool, who is in Green Bay for a tryout to make the offseason roster.

After not drafting a receiver in this year’s draft class, the Packers are still relatively well stocked at the position.

Their top four receivers includes two guys that they want to keep around for the foreseeable future in Christian Watson and Jayden Reed. The other two guys were top-100 draft picks a season ago in third round pick Savion Williams and first round pick Matthew Golden.

In addition, Skyy Moore is likely to make the roster as the team’s return man, so a path to the roster could be difficult for Claypool, who looked like he was an emerging star in Pittsburgh after catching 62 passes for 873 yards and nine touchdowns during his rookie season.

He followed that up with another solid year in his sophomore campaign, where he had 860 yards receiving on 59 catches.

Claypool and the Packers have been connected to each other in the past. He fits the model of the receiver they typically would like during the draft process. He measured in a 6-foot-4 during the NFL Scouting Combine in 2020 and ran the 40-yard-dash in 4.42 seconds.

His size and speed combination made him someone the Packers likely considered during the 2020 draft where they ultimately took Jordan Love in the first round.

Perhaps he would have been a consideration in round two, but Claypool went 49th overall, which was 13 slots ahead of where the Packers ultimately took AJ Dillon.

Three years later, the Packers were connected to Claypool again when his name hit the trade market.

The Steelers were ready to move Claypool before having to potentially give him a contract extension, and the Packers were in need of a receiver.

The Packers brought back Aaron Rodgers for the 2022 season, but traded Davante Adams shortly thereafter, and were mostly relying on Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb to go with their rookie receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.

2022 was supposed to be a season where the Packers were to compete for the Super Bowl after securing the top seed in the NFC playoffs in both 2020 and 2021.

Instead, they were floundering, sitting at 3-5 around the trade deadline and looking to give their offense a boost.

According to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Packers made a big play for Claypool, offering the Steelers a second-round pick in exchange for him.

However, the Steelers sent the receiver to Chicago for their second round pick. The bet the Steelers likely made at the time was that Chicago’s pick would end up better than that of Green Bay’s.

Thanks to a late season run by the Packers where they ultimately fell short of the playoffs, Pittsburgh turned out right.

The deal that Chicago made was supposed to be about more than the 2022 season by pairing Claypool with their exciting young quarterback Justin Fields.

Instead, Fields, Claypool, and the whole organization flopped. Claypool caught 18 passes in 10 games for the Bears, and just one touchdown. He was eventually traded along with a seventh round pick during the 2023 season to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a sixth round pick.

Merely months after being a prized trade acquisition for a premier franchise, he was traded for a pick swap.

" It went worse than anybody could have expected. Claypool looked disinterested during his time with the Bears and caught a total of 18 passes before the organization gave up on him and shipped the mercurial wideout to the Dolphins for a swap of Day 3 picks," ESPN’s Bill Barnwell wrote.

"This wasn't Claypool's fault, but the Bears didn't win a single game in 2022 after the trade and ended up sending the top pick in the second round to the Steelers. Pittsburgh used it on Porter, who was a revelation as a rookie cornerback before taking a bit of a step backward last season. This was a disaster, albeit one overshadowed by the success of the trade down with Carolina."

After being traded to Miami, Claypool caught four passes in nine games. Claypool spent all of 2024 out of the NFL after reaching an injury settlement with the Buffalo Bills in training camp due to injury.

"Signing with Buffalo was the best thing that could've ever happened to me," Claypool wrote on his Instagram page.

"I was the strongest, fastest, and most prepared I had ever been. I was playing my best football -- working my way up from LAST (14th) string to taking first-team reps by camp. Most of all, I was doing it with a group of guys I truly appreciated."

Now, he’s hoping to make his way back into football, facing similar odds to the ones he described. If he can make an impression in his tryout, he could earn a chance to turn even more heads in training camp in July.

Packers Sign Five Draft Picks

Of course, Claypool was not the only news of the day, the Packers got to work on getting their draft class signed.

The Packers announced before practice on Friday that they had signed Chris McClellan, Dani Dennis-Sutton, Jager Burton, Domani Jackson, and Trey Smack.

That leaves Brandon Cisse as the only draftee that has yet to be signed by the team. It took some time for Anthony Belton to sign his deal last year as a second round pick, so that could be something worth monitoring in the coming days.

All Eyes on QBs

Kyle McCord has a chance to win a job this spring as well. With Malik Willis leaving town for the Miami Dolphins, the Packers are on the hunt for a backup quarterback.

They did not acquire one via the draft or free agency this offseason, meaning the incumbents on the roster are Desmond Ridder and Kyle McCord.

Ridder is not in camp, but is likely as the edge early as someone who has experience starting in the NFL

“Yeah, absolutely. I think any time you’ve got guys that have put regular-season games on tape, I think that gives you a little bit of comfort, but at the end of the day, it’s about how they acclimate themselves to your offense and just how they go out there and perform,” Matt LaFleur said after the draft.

Kyron Drones will be in camp as he signed with the team as an undrafted free agent. Drones will be looking to make a run at a spot on the back of the roster, or the practice squad.

Brotherly Love

Rookie camp will have a family feel to it as well as Josh Jacobs’ brother, Isaiah Jacobs will be in camp for a tryout.

“A lot of times when we were a child, we were just happy that we were all together,” he said to Packers on SI. “We didn’t really feel any different than any of the other kids. But then as time continued to persist on, we matured and quickly realized that how we were living was very different from others around us.

Now, for awhile at least, Jacobs and his brother Josh are together this weekend in Green Bya.

Packers rookie camp will start in about 90 minutes. One of the players on the field will be explosive running back Jaden Nixon, who I talked to a couple days ago. ⬇️https://t.co/e2jQNtu6CO
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) May 1, 2026

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