Packers To Host Elite Size-Speed Receiver With NFL Genes on Predraft Visit

As if there were any doubt after trading Dontayvion Wicks, the Green Bay Packers are in the market for a receiver in the 2026 NFL Draft. They are going to host Tennessee star Chris Brazzell II for a predraft visit this week, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Brazzell is an elite size-speed threat. At 6-foot-4 3/8 and 198 pounds, he ran his 40 in 4.37 seconds. He did not take part in enough testing to have a Relative Athletic Score.

After two seasons at Tulane, he transferred to Tennessee. As a senior in 2025, he caught 62 passes for 1,017 yards (16.4 average) and nine touchdowns to earn third-team All-America. He had four 100-yard games, including six catches for 177 and three touchdowns against Georgia.

The Packers own the 54th pick of the 2026 NFL Draft. They have made a killing with their second-round receivers over the years, ranging from Greg Jennings to Chrisitan Watson. Selecting him in the second round, however, might require the team to get aggressive.

Chris Brazzell is Touted Receiver Prospect

Brazzell was the No. 7 receiver in a loaded class and the No. 44 overall prospect, according to NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah, but has fallen off his top-50 list.

“He doesn’t possess much twitch or suddenness, but he can build speed down the field,” he wrote as part of a longer summary. “He’s at his best on go routes, slants and posts. He tracks the ball easily and uses his big frame to win contested throws.”

Brazzell was the No. 8 receiver and the No 46 overall prospect, according to Dane Brugler of The Athletic, though he has fallen to No. 96 in The Beast.

“Brazzell gets to top speed in a hurry, which allows him to stack corners on his hip and keep them there,” Brugler wrote. “He can sink to smoothly get in and out of breaks, although scouts want to see him improve his consistency on intermediate routes and expand his route menu (48.7 percent of his routes in 2025 were either a hitch or a go).”

Tennessee wide receiver Chris Brazzell II (17) catches the ball in the end zone for a touchdown against Vanderbilt. | Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The track record for Tennessee receivers in the NFL isn’t strong. To that, Brazzell has a response.

“What I tell them is if y’all really watch the film, like this year, it was completely different from the past Tennessee offense,” he said at pro day. “Like we’re running real routes. We got a whole lot of stuff on film. I’m running pro routes. ... I’m telling the scouts like if you go watch my film, I’m running real routes, and they agree.”

According to Pro Football Focus, 100 FBS-level receivers in this draft class were targeted at least 57 times. Brazzell ranked eight with 16.5 yards per catch and tied for 26th with a 3.2 drop percentage.

The Fit With Green Bay

The Packers traded Wicks on Friday to the Eagles. With only Matthew Golden and Savion Williams under contract for 2027, there is a need to add a receiver. Brazzell has the field-stretching ability that matches the stretch-the-field approach of the Jordan Love-led passing game.

“I don’t think that there’s just one” standout trait, Vols coach Josh Heupel said. “His length is a great attribute. He’s got speed, that’s rare at that size, and then his ability to be extremely loose, to sink and get out of cuts, is catch radius over the middle of the field or a deep ball down the sideline. He’s got some unique physical traits, and put that with his playmaking ability, those are hard to find.”

Tennessee wide receiver Chris Brazzell II (17) catches the ball in the end zone for a touchdown against Georgia. | Angelina Alcantar/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Brazzell was fourth in the draft class with 13 receptions on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. Of the 60 FBS-level receivers in the class who were targeted at least 15 times on deep passes, he was sixth with a 56.5 percent catch rate.

With a huge catch radius, it’s a bit of a disappointment that he was only 7-of-17 in contested-catch situations, his 41.2 percent success rate ranking only 70th.

Football is in his DNA. His father, Chris Brazzell, was a sixth-round pick by the Jets in 1998. He spent a couple seasons with the Cowboys and seven seasons in the NFL.

After a so-so first season at Tennessee, a father-son conversation sparked Brazzell’s huge final season with the Volunteers.

“My son told me things that he was going through – about being 21 years old and playing big-time SEC football in front of 100,000 people. Things that I didn’t understand because I played at a Division II school at that age,” his father told The Knoxville News.

“I told him that I knew he’d have ups and downs in his first year. He didn’t know that. But this is why we came to Tennessee – for the second year. This is his time now.”

Brazzell was teammates with his brother, Colin, at Tennessee.

“It means a lot being able to have my little brother come to school with me and I go with him,” Brazzell told MRT.com. “Being able to be on different sides of the ball, I can get him better every day and he can get me better every day at practice or in our free time. Being able for our parents to make just one trip, one trip to college. They don’t have to split up and go take different trips to go see one kid one weekend and the other on another weekend. It does mean a lot.”

Brazzell was a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. The Brazzell brothers and their parents were active with the Second Harvest Food Bank.

“For them to be young men, and they still want to do these type of things that you instilled in them when they were young, you don't have to push them now,” their mom said. “They are calling you and saying, ‘Hey, we have this going on, we want you and dad to come down and be a part of it,’ it just makes us happy.”

Brazzell is not the only receiver with a predraft visit to Green Bay. They also are hosting a potential third-round receiver.

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