2025 Packers roster ranking, 70-61: Betting on upside

The Leap ranks the Green Bay Packers' 90-man roster in order of player caliber.

Our methodology: We ordered the players based on ability relative to their respective positions rather than the value of those positions. Put another way, this exercise prioritizes the "best" players, not necessarily the ones who offer the most "value." That means the starting quarterback doesn't have to top the list because of the position he plays.

Each edition of the 90-man roster ranking will include a batch of roughly 10 players. Due to voting ties, some batches will feature slightly more or less.

Today's slate features almost exclusively the young, high-upside players who will battle for spots on the 53-man roster and practice squad. Some could realistically earn meaningful roles during the season, though most will have to undergo some development in order to hold those jobs in the long term.

70. Gregory Junior

Position: cornerback
How acquired: street free agent (2025)

Every few years, the Packers make an under-the-radar addition during the late spring or summer which ends up having a meaningful impact on the season. The most notable example came in June 2021 when the team signed journeyman linebacker De'Vondre Campbell, who went on to win a starting job and then delivered the best season of his career, earning first-team All-Pro honors.

The expectations shouldn't come anywhere near that high for Gregory Junior at this stage, but some encouraging signals have emerged in his short time with the team. Junior signed in Green Bay on May 21 and, within a week, began working with the No. 1 defense in nickel. The Packers have a clear top four at cornerback -- Nate Hobbs, Keisean Nixon, and Carrington Valentine with Javon Bullard serving as an option in the slot -- but the depth behind them features no proven players.

Can Junior, a former sixth-round pick, come in and bolster the position? He has experience in a similar defensive scheme after spending most of 2024 on the practice squad of the Houston Texans. He also has decent size (6-foot, 203 pounds) and athleticism (9.05u Relative Athletic Score) for a corner. His background and physical traits will have to carry him as he tries to beat out multiple cornerbacks that the Packers drafted over the past 16 months.

69. Taylor Elgersma

Position: quarterback
How acquired: undrafted free agent (2025)

With the Packers one season into Jordan Love's four-year, $220 million extension, their willingness to spend significant cap resources on a backup quarterback has diminished. That doesn't mean they will simply punt on the role, but their ideal No. 2 signal-caller will have a rookie contract for the foreseeable future.

For 2025, Malik Willis will serve in that role. The Packers acquired Willis for a seventh-round pick shortly before Week 1 last year and, due to Love's knee injury, he started multiple games before the end of his first month in Green Bay. Though he performed more than admirably under the circumstances, Willis enters the final season of his rookie contract and can likely demand more on the open market than the team wants to invest in a backup QB.

Enter Taylor Elgersma. Barring a truly improbable series of events, Elgersma won't see the field during the upcoming season. He arrives in the NFL after five years with the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks, a Canadian program that played under different rules than its American counterparts. Elgersma excelled as the starting quarterback and won the Canadian equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, but he'll need time to adjust to the NFL.

However, the Packers have set him up to make that transition in as smooth a fashion as possible. Elgersma doesn't need to back up Love in 2025 or even spend time on the 53-man roster. Instead, he likely only needs to demonstrate that his physical tools and upside translate in Green Bay. Accordingly, if he can perform anywhere close to the level of Sean Clifford, his primary competition, Elgersma could reasonably win the No. 3 job and spend the season developing on the practice squad.