The Green Bay Packers are re-signing tight end Josh Whyle, a source told Packers On SI on Wednesday.
It’s a one-year deal for Whyle, who was scheduled to be a restricted free agent. He will provide critical depth at a position in which Tucker Kraft is coming off a torn ACL and John FitzPatrick is a free agent and coming off a torn Achilles.
Whyle, who was signed to the practice squad at the end of training camp when he was surprisingly released by the Titans, was promoted to the 53-man roster after Kraft’s injury. He barely played in his debut, then logged 20-plus snaps in six of his final seven games, with the exception being when he suffered a concussion on the opening series at Denver.
“Each week I’ve tried to prepare like I’m playing in the game, so I don’t think anything’s going to change towards my preparation but, obviously, what I do counts now on Sundays,” he said after Kraft’s injury.
“But Tuck and Luke (Musgrave) and John, they’ve all been great. When I first came in just learning the playbook and stuff. I’ve just noticed how they prepare, especially in the details. They really hit them each week. Sometimes it can be monotonous, over and over, but it shows up on Sundays, and it’s really cool to see.
In eight games, Whyle caught 5-of-6 targets for 36 yards and one touchdown. A fifth-round pick in 2023 – the same draft class that produced Kraft and Luke Musgrave – Whyle caught 28 passes for 248 yards for the Titans in 2024.
“He’s played before in Tennessee so it’s not like you’re getting a guy who’s never played in an NFL game before,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “He’s done it. He’s a big guy, he’s got good range, he’s fast and I like his mentality. He wants to be a physical player.”
At 6-foot-6 1/2 and 248 pounds, Whyle ran his 40 in 4.69 seconds before the 2023 draft. The Packers showed a lot of interest in him, meeting with him at the Senior Bowl and Scouting Combine and then bringing him in for a predraft visit.
“I just thought it’d be a good fit for me moving forward,” he said when asked why he chose the Packers after he was released by Tennessee.
Josh Whyle was drafted with pick 147 of round 5 in the 2023 draft class. He scored a 8.98 #RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 114 out of 1105 TE from 1987 to 2023. https://t.co/74bp9vlBYc pic.twitter.com/ImbVM6iE0v
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 29, 2023
With the Titans, Whyle caught nine passes for 94 yards in 11 games (three starts) as a rookie and 28 passes for 248 yards in 17 games (four starts) in 2024.
“I don’t know,” why he was released, he said. “Maybe things didn’t fall my way through camp. But ended up here and happy about it. It’s a good room I’m a part of. Yeah, just looking to do what I can.”
Whyle is an all-purpose tight end – perhaps not a standout at one thing but a capable producer at everything. He lined up at tight end, slot and fullback.
“He has really good ball skills for a big guy,”Titans offensive coordinator Nick Holz said last year. “So, that kind of target, especially in the red zone and on third down and things like that, he’s more of a matchup (problem) than he is probably given credit for. So, we'd love to get him in some of those one-on-one situations (because) he has so much height and he has really good ball skills.”
This story will be updated.
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