Rookie minicamp opens Friday for the Green Bay Packers, giving the club’s six draft picks their first on-field work of the spring and starting a two-day stretch that also includes reported undrafted free agents and a host of tryout invitees.
The first practices come today and continue Saturday as the Packers begin preparations for the 2026 season. For the draft class, the weekend is a first look at the team’s facilities and an early chance to settle in. For the undrafted free agents, it is a chance to make a quick impression and force their way into the conversation for a 53-man roster spot later in the year.
The tryout players have a narrower path but a real one. They are trying to land a place on the 90-man roster by making a couple of splash plays and showing they belong. The Packers could even keep a couple of them, although that would mean making room on the roster to do it.
That is not new ground for Green Bay. The Packers have found useful players this way before, with Lucas Patrick standing as a recent example of a tryout addition who stuck around and made himself relevant.
The number of rookies under contract is a little lower than usual this year because the Packers already had so many players on the 90-man roster before the draft. That leaves the camp with less crowding than some recent springs, but the same basic pressure remains: new players get a brief window to show they can help, and some of them will have to do it fast.
For the Packers, the weekend is less about evaluation in the abstract than about sorting through layers of opportunity. Draft picks get acclimated. Undrafted signings try to argue for more. Tryout players try to turn a look into a job. By the time Saturday is over, Green Bay will know a little more about who can make the next step and who has already run out of runway.