Packers Fill International Position With Player Who Was Working at Jaguar Plant

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers filled their International Player Pathway position on the practice squad on Wednesday by signing defensive lineman Dante Barnett, a native of Birmingham, England.

Barnett spent most of the offseason with the Cincinnati Bengals but was released before the start of training camp. He worked out for the Packers on Tuesday.

“I just love the sport of football,” he told The Daily Mail before this year’s draft.

Barnett was big and athletic but didn’t play a sport growing up. He became a fan of the NFL when he was 14 and quickly decided he wanted to play.

“I just liked the competitive nature,” he told Cincinnati TV station WKRC. “I kind of resonated with it because of the bigger guys. I wasn’t really around many people with my kind of physique.”

In 2019, one of his coaches, Steve Kilvington, suggested Barnett try out for the new NFL Academy, which had recently formed at Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England.

“At 15 or 16, I didn’t know what I was going to pursue and I didn’t do too well academically, so I picked it up just as a hobby and then after that I took it more seriously when I entered the NFL Academy for the three years,” Barnett said.

Just as he was getting started, his stepfather passed away. Football, he told The Daily Mail, kept him “level-headed.”

“I used it not as a distraction, but just something to keep me balanced,” he said. “So, it was an amazing opportunity that came up just in the right time.”

Having played soccer, hockey and rugby as a kid, the NFL Academy changed his life and opened doors.

“It was a complete and utter change for me,” he said. “I didn’t exactly come from the best of places growing up. Just having that opportunity that football provided for me, it was phenomenal. I had never traveled, so traveling to different parts of Europe, traveling to different parts of America was amazing. Just getting an opportunity for a free education was the No. 1 goal. I didn’t even think I could go to college at that point.”

Barnett received scholarship offers from Houston, TCU and SMU but didn’t qualify academically. So, he played the 2022 season at Dickinson College, a Division III program located in Carlisle, Pa. Barnett hoped the opportunity would re-open doors for Division I programs. That didn’t happen, and the cost of tuition at Dickinson was too expensive, so he went back to England.

“It was difficult, because I didn’t think I’d ever be playing again,” he said. “I kind of accepted the fact that maybe football is ending for me.”

Barnett got a job on the assembly line at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant, where he worked on luxury cars, and continued his training.

“I think for the first month or so, it was just a bit of a blur because for the past four or five years, it’d just been football,” Barnett said. “All I’ve ever done is football. So, adjusting to doing nothing for a minute was just a bit difficult for me. I think I was still processing my feelings and how I was going about that.”

In December, he was approached about entering the IPP program that would begin in January. The IPP players trained at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla, for 10 weeks to get ready for South Florida’s pro day.

The 6-foot-1, 275-pounder ran his 40 in 4.69 seconds. He went undrafted, and the Bengals signed him shortly thereafter.

“It didn’t quite seem real in that moment in time just because the league is phenomenal,” Barnett told WKRC.

Among Barnett’s football role models are Efe Obada. A native of Nigeria and went to high school in England, Obada played in 80 games with three starts in seven NFL seasons. He finished with 15 career sacks.

“The advice he’s given me, sometimes I’ve been able to just call him and sit down and talk for hours,” Barnett told The Sun. “He’s been a big part of my football journey and I’m very grateful for him – there’s not enough words I can give for him.”

Obada is one of seven IPP players who have been on active rosters, highlighted by standout Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata, a native of Australia, as well as Ravens defensive tackle C.J. Okoye, who has played the last four games, and Texans fullback Jakob Johnson (Germany), who is on injured reserve. Sammis Reyes (Chile) played for Washington in 2021, David Bada (Germany) played for Washington in 2022 and Thomas Odukoya (Netherlands) played for the Titans last year.

The Packers’ IPP slot had been vacant since releasing Irish kicker Mark McNamee. McNamee replaced another kicker, Australia’s Alex Hale. Hale replaced Nigerian-born defensive end Kennth Odumegwu.

As part of the IPP program, Barnett does not count against the Packers’ 16-player practice-squad limit.

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