GREEN BAY, Wis. – With right tackle Zach Tom coming back slowly from a torn pectoral and the Green Bay Packers’ offensive line under siege during the first two days of training camp, the team made an enormous change on the No. 1 offensive line on Wednesday.
Out of the lineup was former first-round pick Andre Dillard. In his place was former undrafted free agent Kadeem Telfort.
“It means a lot, you know?” Telfort said after practice. “I’m somewhat getting noticed now. Just taking advantage and taking it day by day. Taking the good with the bad.”
Telfort, an enormous man at 6-foot-7 1/2 and 322 pounds, took a long and winding road to his place with the No. 1 offense.
As a four-star recruit at Florida, Telfort was suspended with several teammates for credit card fraud. He did not play for the Gators in 2017 and left the university in January 2018. After two years at a pair of junior colleges, Telfort got a chance at UAB.
Telfort rebuilt his life and his career. Not only did he start 28 games in three seasons with the Blazers, he earned his degree. He went undrafted last year and spent his rookie season on Green Bay’s practice squad, where he got to hone his skills against the likes of Rashan Gary and Preston Smith for 19 game weeks.
With that experience, he didn’t feel out of his element facing Gary, Smith and Lukas Van Ness on Wednesday. Unlike the past two days, when Gary and Smith practically ruined practice, fill-in quarterback Sean Clifford at least had some time.
“Practice squad last year, it was a humbling experience,” he said. “Even though I felt I was ready, I really wasn’t. It didn’t really start clicking for me until I’d say third quarter, fourth quarter of the season. This offseason, I really hit the ground and attacked it.”
Telfort isn’t just more seasoned in Year 2. He’s more athletic. This offseason, receivers Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks worked out for about three months in Florida. Telfort was with them the entire time.
“It helped a lot,” he said. “It taught me to be more urgent and I could get to my spot a little more quicker. Even the guys tell me that I slimmed down a lot more. Everything else is really faster and quicker now. …
“It’s slowly paying off.”
Reed and Wicks are two of his closest friends on the team.
“Basically, he would show up when we’d do our wide receiver drills and he’ll have his helmet and he’ll be right on the side doing his drills right beside us,” Reed said. “He spent a lot of time with us. We bonded pretty well down there. As you can see, he’s elevated himself. Just happy to see him get a better opportunity. He’s just got to keep grinding and keep going up.”
Reed laughed when asked if Telfort has the footwork to cover him from the slot, but he seemed to have the feet to stick with Green Bay’s premier pass rushers on the practice field.
“Man, I just seen him elevate,” Reed said. “The eye in the sky don’t lie. The film gets better. I’ve seen him put the work in, so it’s paying off for him.”
With more experience, added athleticism and a deeper knowledge of the scheme – Telfort credited going “really into depth” with Tom and Caleb Jones – he looks like a player who could make a run at a roster spot.
“Going against one of the top defensive lines in the league, you know, iron sharpening iron. That’s all it really was,” Telfort said.
He added: “I already had the confidence. It was already in me, just needed a little opportunity to show it.”
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