The Green Bay Packers are officially in offseason mode after heartbreakingly losing to the Chicago Bears on Saturday night in the wild-card round.
Outside of any coaching changes, the first line of business for Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst is to hand out future/reserve deals to any practice squad players. If you aren’t familiar with these types of contracts, teams give them out following the conclusion of their season for a particular purpose.
These deals are minimum contracts, which allow players the opportunity to compete for a spot on the 53-man roster during the offseason phases. Among the 16 players Green Bay signed on Monday, they surprisingly did not give wide receiver Isaiah Neyor a futures deal.
The rookie wide receiver was elevated from the practice squad to the active roster ahead of the Packers’ playoff game against the Chicago Bears. The Packers needed another receiver on the gameday roster, as they were without Dontayvion Wicks and Bo Melton.
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Neyor played three offensive snaps in the playoff loss, and that was about it. The rookie wideout initially joined the Packers’ squad at the beginning of August after the San Francisco 49ers sent him packing.
The undrafted free agent pass catcher appeared in all three of Green Bay’s preseason contests, but only mustered four targets.
Looking at the Packers’ roster heading into 2026, there likely wasn’t room for Neyor to make a significant impact or compete for a spot in a loaded wide receiver room.
If Romeo Doubs exits in free agency, the Packers still have Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Dontayvion Wicks, Savion Williams, and Bo Melton. That doesn’t include Will Sheppard, who the team obviously likes to make him the only WR to get a futures deal.
And then there’s Jakobie Keeney-James, who made his NFL and Packers’ debut in Week 18 and showed that he could be an option on special teams in the return game. Sheppard, who is almost the same size (6-foot-3, 196 pounds) as Neyor (6-foot-4, 218 pounds), also offers some special teams abilities, giving them an advantage over Neyor.
That said, we are still in the early stages of the offseason for Green Bay, so expect the 90-man roster to undergo a few more changes before all that work is done. As for Neyor, if he doesn’t get a futures deal elsewhere in the league, he will still find a way to be on some team’s training camp roster.