When it comes to former Green Bay Packers who were playing elsewhere in 2025, Arizona Cardinals tight end Josiah Deguara is probably not the first name that would come to mind for most fans. After all, he only had two TDs during his four-year stint with the team from 2020-23 before going to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2024 and Arizona this season.
Since Deguara left the Packers, his production has been limited, with only three receptions for 14 yards with the Jaguars and three receptions for 21 yards and a TD with the Cardinals. However, that one TD catch came in Sunday's 37-20 loss to the Los Angeles Rams when Deguara somehow kept his feet in bounds and made a miraculous catch in the end zone.
That was only Deguara's third career TD. It served as a reminder that the former third-round pick out of Cincinnati, who signed a one-year deal with the Cardinals before the 2025 season, can still make catches like that and be a worthy free-agency acquisition, especially as the NFL becomes more TE-heavy.
Josiah Deguara May Have Saved His Career with Incredible TD Catch
Deguara's best season with the Packers came in 2021 when he posted career-highs in catches (25), yards (245), and TDs (two). He backed that up with 13 receptions for 114 yards the following season, but did not find the end zone again during his tenure with the Packers. In fact, since the career year he experienced in 2021, Deguara has combined for 27 catches and 214 yards in the last four seasons, including just six total receptions since the start of the 2024 season.
Deguara has been on the same team as Trey McBride this season, a player who set the single-season receptions record for a TE with 126 catches for 1,239 yards and 11 TDs. He even has the sixth-most receiving yards of anyone in the league, so it is clear most of the attention went McBride's way on an offense that was tied for 22nd in the NFL in scoring (20.9 PPG). Third-year TE Elijah Higgins also stepped up with 30 catches for 301 yards, which were fourth-most on the team.
In recent years, most teams around the NFL have turned to their TEs more often and utilized them more in the offense. Aside from McBride, some other notable examples include Atlanta Falcons TE Kyle Pitts (928 yards), New Orleans Saints TE Juwan Johnson (889 yards), and, of course, Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce (851 yards). That does not even include the TD catches from TEs this season, including Philadelphia Eagles TE Dallas Goedert (11), Dallas Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson (eight), Rams TE Colby Parkinson (eight), and Packers TE Tucker Kraft (six), who was Green Bay's leading receiver before a torn right ACL ended his season prematurely.
That does not even begin to describe the importance of the TE position in the league today and why so many players at the position are becoming focal points of the offense. Deguara is by no means anywhere near some of the top TEs in the NFL, but his incredible TD catch on Sunday gave other teams something to look at going into the offseason as they look to make some moves in free agency. If he is seen as someone worth taking a chance on, that type of play may be enough to do some convincing and earn himself another opportunity at a position that seems to be gaining more attention.