Packers sign most of 2024 practice squad to futures contracts for 2025 offseason

The “reserve/futures” contract is an intriguing part of the NFL’s roster construction process. Following the conclusion of a team’s season, the players on that team’s practice squad effectively become free agents, so in order to retain their rights — and in order for the players to be eligible to work out with the team in the offseason — they must be signed to some sort of contract.

Enter the reserve/futures contract. Effectively, this type of deal is a non-guaranteed one-year, league-minimum contract that allows the player to participate in all offseason activities and compete for a spot on the roster the following season. Generally, teams sign several members of their practice squads to these types of deals, while occasionally picking up a player who was on another team’s practice squad and who did not sign with that prior team.

With the Packers’ 2024 season now concluded, their practice squad contracts are up, and on Monday the team announced the signing of 12 members of the 16-man squad to futures contracts. The list of players signed on Monday is as follows:

• DE Deslin Alexandre
• S Omar Brown
• DT James Ester
• CB Kamal Hadden
• K Alex Hale
• G Marquis Hayes
• WR Julian Hicks
• OL Donovan Jennings
• WR Cornelius Johnson
• CB Kalen King
• DE Jeremiah Martin
• TE Messiah Swinson

The most notable of these players is King, who was a 7th-round pick by the Packers in the 2024 NFL Draft. King is one of only two members of this group to earn an elevation from the practice squad to the gameday roster at any point this season, getting that designation for the team’s week 14 game against the Detroit Lions. Although he was on the active roster for the game, he did not line up on the field for a single snap.

So far, the Packers have elected not to retain five players who ended the season on the practice squad. That group includes linebacker Michael Barrett, running back Deshaun Fenwick, offensive lineman Michael Jordan, and wide receiver Alex McGough. The fifth player is running back Ellis Merriweather, who was on the practice squad/injured list and did not count against the 16-man limit.

Barrett, who was elevated for the week 18 game against the Chicago Bears, was also a 7th-round pick last spring, having been drafted by the Carolina Panthers. They later traded him to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for cornerback Michael Jackson, but Barrett did not make the opening-week roster in Seattle. He spent some time on the Seahawks’ and Cleveland Browns’ practice squads before landing with the Packers late in the season.