The Green Bay Packers signed Luke Lachey on Monday and released Jakobie Keeney-James, a roster move announced by General Manager Brian Gutekunst. Lachey, a 6-6, 250-pound TE, will wear No. 86 for Green Bay.
The move gives Green Bay another body at TE as the team keeps shaping its offseason roster. For Lachey, it is a fresh chance after the Houston Texans made him the No. 255 overall pick in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft, then kept him on the practice squad through his rookie season before releasing him on May 11.
That path helps explain why the Packers could move now. A player who has already spent a season in a system without landing on the active roster can be available at a moment when teams still want size and depth, and Lachey brings both. At Iowa, he played in 42 games with 31 starts, was named a permanent team captain and finished his senior season as one of the program’s Comeback Players of the Year.
Green Bay’s decision also ends Keeney-James’ run with the club after a signing that was designed to keep the roster flexible. The Packers did not need to create a long-term answer to make room for Lachey; they needed a spot, and the release cleared it. That makes the transaction less about a finished depth chart than about a team still testing the edges of its TE room.
What comes next is simple enough for now: Lachey arrives in Green Bay wearing No. 86, and the Packers get a look at whether his size and college production can carry over. If he sticks, this will read as one more low-cost offseason move that gave them a usable TE option without waiting for the market to thin further.
