The Green Bay Packers officially kick off preseason play this week as they face the New York Jets. Despite games getting underway, there's still plenty of roster tinkering going on in Green Bay and across the league as teams look to find the right guys for 2025.
Just this past week the Packers opted to release safety Kahzir Brown and sign linebacker Jared Bartlett, in addition to working out pass-rusher Amare Barno. All are to serve the purpose of improving their current crop of players.
Fortunately for one former GB wideout, he was just tabbed by a desperate AFC team for the same reason.
We have signed WR Kawaan Baker and TE Albert Okwuegbunam. In a corresponding move, we have waived TE Pat Conroy and WR Kyle Philips. pic.twitter.com/yRQhwLfJBQ
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) August 3, 2025
Ex-Packers Practice Squad WR Kawaan Baker Signs with Raiders
On Sunday, the Las Vegas Raiders announced they had signed WR Kawaan Baker. His name may ring a bell to diehard cheeseheads, as the South Alabama product had a brief stint on Green Bay's practice squad.
He signed with the Packers in October 2022 as the team dealt with injury concerns around Christian Watson, Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb. However, the Packers decided to cut Baker in early November, ending his short time in the green and gold.
Baker's NFL journey has been an incredly rocky one since he entered the league with the New Orleans Saints as a seventh-round pick in 2021. He was demoted to the practice squad as a rookie, then picked up a six-game suspension for a violation of the performance-enhancing substances policy to begin 2022. In all, Baker has just two NFL appearances (both from 2021) to show for his career to this point.
Given all of that, this is likely Baker's last chance to prove he belongs on an NFL roster. Zero teams took a chance on him following his release during the 2024 preseason, and he joined the UFL this past March but failed to record any statistics.
Baker's stock could not be much lower, which explains why the rebuilding Raiders are the ones taking a closer look. However, other franchises aren't going to be eager to give more opportunities to an almost 27-year-old with little NFL contributions to his name, so he either needs to make the most of this shot or consider career alternatives.