J. Michael Sturdivant walked into Green Bay’s offseason program with a real chance to make noise, and the Packers’ packers depth chart at wide receiver gave him a lane that did not exist a few weeks earlier. The undrafted rookie is now competing for a roster spot later this summer after the Packers left the draft without adding another pass-catcher and then built the rest of the room around a handful of clear priorities.
That matters because Green Bay has a history of giving undrafted rookies a shot, and Sturdivant may be the next one to get it. The Packers signed him to a deal that included a guaranteed $200,000 in base salary and a $15,000 signing bonus, a notable show of faith for a player trying to force his way onto a 53-man roster. At 6-foot-2 and 207 pounds, he brings size. He also ran a 4.4-second 40-yard dash and earned a Relative Athletic Score of 9.96 out of 10, numbers that explain why the Packers were willing to make room for him in the first place.
The opening in front of Sturdivant was created in part by what Brian Gutekunst did this spring. The general manager let Romeo Doubs walk in free agency and later traded Dontayvion Wicks, then signed Skyy Moore, whose main value is expected to come on special teams. Green Bay did not add another pass-catcher in the draft, which left the receiver group thinner than it looked a year ago and made the bottom of the depth chart more competitive.
Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden are the top three receivers, while Savion Williams is being treated as a roster lock. Bo Melton could shift back to wide receiver full-time, which adds another name to the mix. Sturdivant is not competing in a vacuum, either. He is battling Will Sheppard, Brenden Rice, Isaiah Neyor and Jakobie Keeney-James for attention, snaps and eventually a place on the roster.
That is the tension in Green Bay’s wide receiver room. The Packers have enough established names to feel comfortable at the top, but not enough certainty behind them to ignore an undrafted rookie with Sturdivant’s profile. His path is narrow, and it likely depends on whether he can translate OTAs momentum into a strong summer and then carry it through the final decisions that shape the roster.
If he does, the Packers may have found another player the rest of the league overlooked. If he does not, the depth chart will still tell the same story it always does in Green Bay: opportunity exists, but only for the receivers who take it first.
