The Packers are heading toward one of those roster crunches that forces a team to make real choices, but Kamal Hadden has made his case about as loudly as a player can.
After three strong weeks in camp, the backup defensive back looks like he has done enough to lock down a spot on Green Bay’s 53-man roster. He signed with the Packers in 2024 after the Kansas City Chiefs took him in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL Draft and then waived him. Most of that first season was spent on the practice squad, and 2025 brought its own setback.
Hadden appeared in 10 games for Green Bay, but his season ended in Week 17 against the Baltimore Ravens when he broke his tibia and fibula and dislocated his ankle. That kind of injury can wipe out momentum for plenty of players. Hadden has pushed through it and found himself back in the mix.
This summer, he has spent a lot of his time working as a backup safety to Javon Bullard, who is coming back from an ankle injury. Though he came into the league as a cornerback, Hadden has been used mostly in the slot, where Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon has at times turned to safeties in the preseason.
And then came last week against the Denver Broncos, where Hadden made his best argument yet.
He finished with five tackles, including two for a loss, and Pro Football Focus gave him a 79.8 overall grade and a 77.3 mark in coverage. It was preseason football, sure, but the performance still stood out. Hadden showed he was willing to jump into the run game and make plays, and he kept doing the kind of work that gets coaches’ attention.
The challenge for Hadden is that the room he’s trying to crack is loaded. The Packers’ safety group is likely the strongest spot on the defense, and maybe on the whole roster. Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, and Bullard are already locked in.
That makes Hadden’s path a little unusual. He’s competing with safeties rather than cornerbacks, and that’s where the roster math gets tricky. Still, it’s hard to picture Green Bay moving on from him now.
He probably wouldn’t clear waivers to make it back to the practice squad, and he has checked every box you’d want from a player fighting for his job. He returned from a major injury, changed positions, and kept producing whenever he got the chance.
From an NFL standpoint, players like that are hard to let go. From the Packers’ side, a secondary that has been shaky over the years could use that kind of reliability, even if it means keeping an extra safety.
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