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A former Green Bay Packers third-round pick has found his way back to the NFL and will attempt to earn a place with the Buffalo Bills for the 2023 season.
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, the Bills are signing former Packers tight end Jace Sternberger to their 90-man roster after he had a successful workout with the team on Monday, July 24. He most recently played for the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions, who released him from his contract in order to allow him to sign with the Bills.
Sternberger, 27, won’t have an easy time trying to make the Bills’ 53-man roster with Buffalo touting two premium talents at the tight end position. Not only do they return veteran starter Dawson Knox, but they also used their first-round pick (No. 25 overall) to add Utah standout Dalton Kincaid to quarterback Josh Allen’s passing arsenal.
If Sternberger wants to make things last with the Bills, he will need convincingly to beat out Nick Guggemos, Quintin Morris and Joel Wilson for the third tight end spot on their roster throughout the next month of training camp.
Jace Sternberger Fizzled Out Early on With Packers
Sternberger was a 2019 third-round pick for the Packers who never lived up to the high expectations put upon his shoulders. A preseason injury derailed his rookie season with the team and kept him off the field for the majority of the year. He then underwhelmed in his first healthy season with the team in 2020, catching just 12 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown while other tight ends, including Robert Tonyan Jr., outshined him.
Sternberger’s bust status was confirmed the following offseason when the NFL handed him a two-game suspension for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy. While he remained with the team through camp and for the duration of his suspension, the Packers cut ties with him when he returned and waived him on September 21, 2022.
Since then, Sternberger has bounced around to a few other NFL teams, including the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Commanders, but the only real playing time he has received since leaving Green Bay came with the Stallions. He finished the most recent USFL season with 33 receptions for 591 yards and seven touchdowns, catching passes from league MVP Alex McGough — who signed with the Packers last week.
Packers Entering 2023 Camp With Little TE Experience
The Packers are going to look much different at the tight end position when they open the 2023 season against the Chicago Bears in Week 1. Gone are veterans Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis (who remains an unsigned free agent) and in their place are a pair of rookies, second-rounder Luke Musgrave and third-rounder Tucker Kraft, who could be asked to carry a bulk of the workload at the position early in the NFL careers.
Fortunately, the Packers are not completely without experience in their tight end room. They still have Josiah Deguara, a 2020 third-round pick who has caught 38 passes for 359 yards and two touchdowns over the past few seasons. They will also have backup Tyler Davis in the fold again; although, his contributions have mostly come on special teams over his 31 games played with the Packers over the past two seasons.
That said, the hierarchy of the Packers’ tight end position is something that will likely have to be determined during training camp. Deguara is the most experienced option and is entering a make-or-break period with the Packers in the final year of his rookie contract, but Musgrave took first-team reps during OTAs and could lock down the primary starter role if he can continue to live up to expectations in the preseason.
Kraft could also threaten Deguara’s status on the Packers’ roster. He caught 99 passes for 1,218 yards and nine touchdowns during his four seasons with South Dakota State. Whether his transition into the NFL will be seamless remains to be seen, but the lack of depth could create an opportunity for him to earn a role in the rotation early on.
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