Bo Melton on Two-Position Future with Packers: ‘I’m Still a Receiver’

Bo Melton was a receiver on the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad in 2023 when coach Matt LaFleur first mentioned it.

“He was like, ‘You ever play cornerback?’” Melton said at Packers minicamp on Wednesday. “That’s when it first got in my mind. And then after that I forgot, and now it came back. And everybody was hinting at it. When you’re out there playing special teams and on punt, you’re on the corner side and you’re out there doing crazy stuff, strapping people, they like, ‘Yeah, you could play some DB.’ So, the situation we’re in now, it was like, ‘Let’s see if he can really do it.’ I don’t care, let’s do it.”

Last week, as the second and final week of organized team activities wrapped up, LaFleur mentioned it again. Before Tuesday’s first practice of minicamp, Melton talked to assistant coach Derrick Ansley, the team’s defensive passing-game coordinator who focuses on cornerbacks.

“I knew I was going to play a little corner, but I was in the fire quick. We met,” Melton said, and Ansley told him, ‘You’re going to be doing indy with me, individual drills.’ So, I went straight to indy.”

To the surprise of the rest of the cornerbacks. Nobody knew. Not Carrington Valentine and the rest of the cornerbacks. Not his brother, Arizona Cardinals cornerback Max Melton. Not the receivers.

“Everybody turned and looked at me like, ‘What are you doing?’” Melton said. “I said, ‘I’m with y’all today.’ I was telling everybody before, and they were like, ‘You lying. You lying.’ I started putting bets on it, so people owe me money now. They see me over there, CV, Carrington, like ‘Yeah, bro, this is crazy.’ They see me move a little bit. It was straight, though.”

This is not a position change for Melton. It’s an additional position. As was the case at Tuesday’s practice, Melton spent most of his day focusing on defense. However, he had 11-on-11 reps at receiver with Jordan Love and the No. 1 offense as well as on defense with Xavier McKinney and the No. 1 defense.

“I’m still a receiver. We’re trying stuff out right now,” Melton said.

So that makes Melton “Travis Hunter 2.0.” Or maybe Hunter is “Bo Melton 2.0.”

“Travis is a different athlete, as everybody knows,” Melton said. “He’s a Heisman Trophy winner, won a lot of awards. I’m not going to compare myself to somebody that’s done that. But what I will say is I like to run for days. Back in high school, college, I’m very versatile. It’s just something they want to look at. I don’t have a problem with it as long as everything’s right.”

Melton played receiver and cornerback in high school. At Rutgers, he worked some at cornerback before focusing on receiver. So, it’s not totally foreign to him. Plus, some of his work on special teams should translate.

More than anything, Melton can lean on his elite speed – he ran his 40 in 4.34 seconds before being drafted in the seventh round by the Seahawks in 2022 – along with his work ethic, team-first attitude and football intelligence.

“I like it (playing cornerback) because I know concepts, I know routes,” he said. “When I see certain stems and certain things, the nature of jumping routes, it was kind of fun the last couple of days. I’m going to joke with my brother today and be like, ‘Yeah, I’m doing a little something.’ That’s the part I do like about playing corner. Tackling and stuff like that, I do play gunner (on punt team), so tackling in the open field and stuff like that, I’ve been doing it for a little bit.”

Max Melton was a second-round pick and the 43rd overall selection by the Cardinals in 2024. He started three games as a rookie.

They are tight, but Bo didn’t tell him about the career change-up; Max found out via social media.

“He kind of was shocked. I didn’t tell him. So, when he saw it, he called me and was like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” Bo Melton said, with “hell” being a tamer version of the word he really said.

“I didn’t tell him, just because I’ve been playing wideout. It’s just something that came up. I want to give it a shot. I’m still a wide receiver, so I’m not really transitioning to no cornerback, but if it works, it works.”

When they’re together, they talk ball. With the six-week break between the end of minicamp and the start of training camp, they’re sure to talk a bit more if the minicamp experiment is going to continue when training camp begins on July 23.

“I work out with Max in the offseason sometimes and he’ll be down in Jersey,” Bo Melton said. “So, right now, it’s just a feel thing. I still don’t know if it’s going to be true or not. Coach Matt, we’ll figure that out. When I meet with Coach, we’ll see what’s going on. Right now, I’m just going to go train for wideout. I feel like that’s where I thrive at, that’s where I make plays at. And defense, if it comes, it comes. And we’ll see.”

Whatever comes his way, Melton will give it his best shot. He wasn’t looking at a two-position future as a way to improve his odds of making the roster this summer. Rather, he sees it as a way to help the team.

“I’m a team-guy first. That’s the first rule here,” Melton said. “I’m going to be for the team. Whatever the team asks me to do, Coach LaFleur came up and asked me would you ever think about doing it. I was like, if it’s going to help the team, I might as well, you know what I mean? That’s my motto since I’ve been here. I’m a team-first guy. I’m going to help my team win any way I can and let’s see how it falls.”