How a Young Cornerback Made Packers’ Roster 

When asked who he thought might have come out of nowhere during the final game of the preseason to earn a spot on the Green Bay Packers’ 53-man roster, general manager Brian Gutekunst considered the question for a moment before mentioning Kamal Hadden. 

Gutekunst had high praise for Hadden, who spent all last season on the practice squad.  

“Kamal Hadden had an opportunity,” Gutekunst said. “He was nicked up there a little bit at the beginning, and he played really well in the last couple preseason games, the last couple of weeks. But I wouldn’t say they just rose up and surprised anybody. I think it was just a matter of him getting out there and getting his opportunities, because he had a nice spring, as well.” 

When Gutekunst mentioned Hadden being “nicked up,” he is referring to a hip injury that kept him off the field at the beginning of camp. After he healed, he was practically thrown right out onto the field for the second preseason game against the Colts. 

Naturally, he struggled.  

“Coming in, referring to that first game, I was coming off an injury and I didn’t have a lot of time to shake back,” he said, “so everything was new and kind of fast for me, just being back out there and playing a whole game like that.” 

A bad game for a guy looking to crack the roster as a backup can sometimes be seen as a death sentence, but Hadden didn’t see it that way. 

“It wasn’t really much, because a lot of people may think things, but it wasn’t much I had to shake off,” he said in how he rebounded from the Indianapolis game. “It was just basic things, little things that I knew and the team knew I can do.  

“Not really like man-to-man things but more like scheme things, stuff like that. It wasn’t really much, just getting back to being confident, at the end of the day playing my game, doing what I do. One-on-one, that’s my game and I can hone in on that and I can see that, but zone coverage, knowing my keys, knowing where I need to be, focusing on what I need to focus on, and not just playing to look for plays but knowing my job and doing my job.” 

Five days later, when the Packers went against the Seahawks in a joint practice, Hadden played with a new confidence that he didn’t have against the Colts. The smack talk between himself and Seattle’s receivers only fueled him. 

“I feel like when people talk, it gets more competitive, your antennas go up,” he said. “I just wanted to go out there and prove what I could do and show everybody what I could do and ultimately prove to myself, getting back to doing what I do.” 

In the final preseason game against the Seahawks, Hadden was targeted five times in pass coverage and allowed zero completions. 

A performance like that is exactly what Hadden, who was a sixth-round pick by the Chiefs in 2024 and spent all the regular season on Green Bay’s practice squad, was looking for when trying to make his first 53-man roster. He quickly put that accomplishment in the rearview mirror. Now, he wants to make a lasting impact on the team. 

How? 

“Just being a pro,” he said, and following the lead of his veteran teammates. 

“I look after guys, some of the older guys, like Zayne Anderson,” Hadden said. “That’s one guy I feel like a real true pro, just having a process to this thing, not just come in every day and follow everywhere, doing anything. Just having a pro mentality and locked in every play, even when you’re not in, just being that role model for a young guy. I feel like he is a perfect example of that.  

“Also, Xavier McKinney, just the way he moves about his game, how he goes about things like that. Just picking up little tips like that, just being a pro all the time, staying locked in, that’ll help me with my consistency all the time.” 

While he is happy to have made the roster, he won’t spend too much time thinking about it, as he has loftier goals in mind than just suiting up for the Packers in Week 1. 

“Like I said, I can’t let it get to my head all the way,” he said, “because it’s a real good feeling but, at the end of the day, we’ve got to get ready for something big. We’re trying to do something serious here, and that’s go win a Super Bowl.”