Friday Cheese Curds: Work begins today with rookie minicamp

Green Bay Packers defensive back Evan Williams (33) warms up during rookie minicamp on Friday, May 3, 2024, at the Don Hutson Center in Green Bay, Wis. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Today is another important milestone for the Green Bay Packers in the start of their preparations for the 2026 season. Rookie minicamp opens today, giving the Packers’ six draft picks, their reported undrafted free agent players, and a host of tryout invitees their first chance to impress the team’s coaching staff and front office.

Because the team had so many players on the 90-man roster before the draft, the number of rookies under contract during this year’s camp will be a bit lower than usual. That means that there will probably be a bigger group of tryout players than normal this season, and we will bring you the rookie minicamp roster this afternoon as soon as possible. Still, this two-day event serves multiple purposes.

For the draft picks, it’s their first chance to start getting acclimated to the Packers’ facilities, knowing that they will be around for the foreseeable future. For the UDFA signings, they will get their contracts signed then have a chance to make an early statement that they deserve serious consideration for a 53-man roster spot during the season. And for the tryout players, well, it’s even more straightforward: make a couple of splash plays and show that you belong on a 90-man roster.

The Packers could end up adding a couple of tryout players to the roster, but they would need to make room for them to do so. We’ll see if that ends up being the case — the team has unearthed some decent players in this manner before (see Patrick, Lucas as a recent example). For a quick refresher on who we already know is set to sign as UDFAs or attend as tryout players, check out our UDFA tracker here , then bring it back to APC this afternoon for a look at the full camp roster.