Ranking Every Player on Packers Roster, Part 2: Can Son of Legend Make 53?

Barring some last-minute tinkering, the Green Bay Packers have their roster ready to rumble for the first practice of training camp on July 29.

Teams are allowed 90 players on the offseason roster. International player Dante Barnett will compete under a roster exemption to make it 91. After ranking the top 25 players on the roster, a list that obviously starts with Jordan Love, we start from No. 91 and work our way through the rest of the team.

No. 91: Edge Dante Barnett

The native of Birmingham, England, became the Packers’ International Player Pathway participant at midseason. He began playing American football when he was 16 and spent the 2022 season at Division III Dickinson College.

“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.

Barnett got a job on the assembly line at a Jaguar-Land Rover plant, where he worked on luxury cars, and continued his training before entering the IPP program. He spent part of the 2025 offseason with the Bengals but was released before training camp.

Even during the offseason program, with Micah Parsons and Collin Oliver out with injuries, Barnett got limited opportunities. He will be a project.

No. 90: CB Marlon Jones

Marlon Jones Jr. will be one of the great stories of training camp.

After a strong season at Eastern Washington in 2023, he was set to transfer to Vanderbilt but was diagnosed with lymphoma.

“I can remember sitting across from the oncologist when he said, ‘You will get healed from this cancer, but you won’t play football again,’” his mother, Amena, told Packers On SI. “And we were like, ‘Yes. Yes, you will. You will play football again.’”

Jones sat out the 2024 season for treatment and returned to the field for 2025. He went undrafted and unsigned; he didn’t even get an invite to a rookie minicamp. He started to contemplate life after football when the Packers invited him for a tryout. He did well enough to earn a spot on the roster for training camp.

Marlon Jones Jr. wasn’t supposed to have signed with the Packers. His oncologist said as much after he was diagnosed with stage-3 lymphoma.

“I don’t believe in coincidence,” his mom said. “And somehow, some way, this team had one (roster) spot left.”https://t.co/aWjVfBw6u0
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) May 22, 2026

Working against Jones will be the Packers’ crowded cornerback room, which includes the selections of Brandon Cisse and Domani Jackson in the draft.

No. 89: WR Brenden Rice

The Packers could use another receiver behind their new top trio of Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Jayden Reed.

How about the son of Jerry Rice?

The Packers claimed Brenden Rice off waivers from the Raiders before the start of OTAs.

Rice was a standout receiver at USC – he was Caleb Williams’ top target and scored 12 touchdowns as a senior in 2023 – and was drafted in the seventh round by the Chargers in 2024. He played a few snaps as a rookie and not at all last season.

“Certain things aren’t always going to fall your way,” Rice told Packers On SI. “You could be doing everything right, and God has a different plan for you. So, you just always have to be ready for that next step and just going ahead and being prepared each and every day, preparing for that next opportunity, because that next opportunity could propel you forward into a whole new light that you couldn’t even imagine.”

No. 88: LB TJ Quinn

Green Bay Packers linebackers Edgerrin Cooper (56) and TJ Quinn (40) warm up during minicamp. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

This is not a ranking of the team’s best players. It’s a ranking of the most important players. So, this number is no knock whatsoever on TJ Quinn’s long-term viability in the NFL.

Instead, it’s the number of proven veterans ahead of him on the depth chart. Edgerrin Cooper and Zaire Franklin will start. Isaiah McDuffie, who recently signed a contract extension, and Ty’Ron Hopper, a former third-round pick, presumably will be the top backups. Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch were re-signed in free agency for their work on special teams.

That’s six players ahead of Quinn, with Cooper, Franklin, McDuffie and Hopper probably locks and Niemann perhaps not far behind because of his excellence last season. The Packers might keep five.

Quinn is a good player, though, with developmental upside, which is why he got a $15,000 signing bonus and $150,000 of guaranteed salary as an undrafted free agent.

Quinn had a predraft visit with the Packers after leading Louisville in tackles during each of his final three seasons.

“If you hit somebody hard,” he told WDRB, “they’re going to feel that.”

No. 87: CB MJ Devonshire Jr.

After two seasons at Kentucky, MJ Devonshire spent his final three seasons at Pittsburgh, where he intercepted eight passes. The Raiders selected him in the seventh round of the 2024 draft. The Packers are his fifth team, having claimed him off waivers from the Bills in May.

Athleticism will give him a chance, but the Packers have a lot of depth at cornerback.

M.J. Devonshire was drafted in round 7 pick 229 in the 2024 draft class. He scored a 6.61 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 839 out of 2472 CB from 1987 to 2024. https://t.co/mMKUaet48W pic.twitter.com/nP205ldqCp
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 27, 2024

“You got to want it,” Devonshire said on the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast after he was drafted, “and you got to want to be special. But you got to love the process as much as you love the outcome, if not more. And the process is being there in the offseason and going and working out and going and doing the things that the media or anybody might not see.”

No. 86: Edge Nyjalik Kelly

Like we just said with TJ Quinn, this ranking has nothing to do with Nyjalik Kelly’s ability to carve out a successful NFL career. It’s be a surprise if he doesn’t spend the entire season with the team in some capacity. However, it’s a realization that, even without Micah Parsons to start the season, the Packers have Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox, Collin Oliver, Dani Dennis-Sutton and Arron Mosby on the edge.

Kelly, indeed, is a good prospect, as evidenced by the fact he is the most expensive undrafted free agent in Packers history. He received a $15,000 signing bonus and $247,500 in base salary. That money is a bet on his long-term potential.

Kelly transferred from Miami to Central Florida for his final two seasons. He had 5.5 sacks, 9.5 tackles for losses and three forced fumbles in 2024 and three sacks, 7.5 tackles for losses, two forced fumbles, one interception and four deflected passes as a senior. He was all-Big 12 in athletics and academics.

He had a predraft visit with the Packers.

Kelly said he “came out of the womb” dreaming of playing in the NFL.

“I'm most proud that I can play a lot of positions,” he said at pro day. “I'm versatile. You guys seen me drop back in coverage, guard people down the field, come off the edge, cause disruption to the quarterback, get tackles for loss, stop the run.”

Every year, I rank every player on the Packers roster based on talent, importance, salary etc. I will again this year, too.

For now, let's cut right to the chase. Here is a quick-hitting look at the 2⃣5⃣ most important players for the 2026 season.⬇️https://t.co/ezDAkl7vmd
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) June 17, 2026

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