Packers’ J. Michael Sturdivant Has Souvenir and a Chance

“It was great,” he said of the sequence. “We had the plays drawn up, so I knew what I was running and I knew there was a good chance that I could get the ball on both of them. So, you’ve just got to treat them like every other play and expect the ball to come your way, and then when it does, you’ve got to make the play.”

In the third quarter, Sturdivant converted a second-and-16 and a third-and-4. Finally, the third quarter concluded with a 21-yard catch to get him over the 100-yard maker and a 5-yard grab.

Quarterback Kyle McCord, who finished the night with four touchdown passes, has seen Sturdivant grow since the start of OTAs in May.

“He came in and you could tell he was one of those guys who was ready to play,” McCord said. “I think he came in with a chip on his shoulder, not being drafted; in my opinion, he should have been.

“One of those guys, really from Day 1, you don’t have to tell him too much. He’s going to know his job. He’s going to know his responsibility. Put him on the field and he’s going to make plays. I think he’s shown that throughout all of camp. He made a really strong case for himself.”

Sturdivant arrived in Green Bay with an eclectic athletic background. He played practically every sport under the sun as kid. A five-star recruit with elite size and speed, he played at three schools but never found stardom.

One thing that drew him to Green Bay was the stability with LaFleur and quarterback Jordan Love.

Whether he’ll get to enjoy an extended dose of stability remains to be seen. While he was all smiles in the locker room, the reality was he was about to suffer through a 41-hour wait until Sunday’s 5 p.m. deadline for roster cuts.

“These next 48 hours, you don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he said. “All the hay’s in the barn at this point. You’ve just got to see what the coaches and everybody else is going to decide to do and then go from there.”

He said he planned to “get on the game with my guys” to take his mind off the uncertainty and anxiousness that’s ahead. There is nothing else he can do to state his case.

“To be honest, it feels like the draft process all over again because you don’t really know what’s going to happen,” he said. “You’re just sitting by your phone all day. I would assume it’s going to feel a little bit something like that. And then, yeah, come Monday, we’ll see where we are.”

He could be in Green Bay as a member of it’s 53-man roster. He could be flying somewhere to join another team. He could be re-signing to the practice squad.

Sturdivant has been with the Packers for about four months. It would be a “dream come true” to get to spend the rest of the season on their roster.

“You dream of making it to the NFL your whole life,” he said. “Honestly, you put all the work in to make it happen, so it would be a great feeling. But it’s not the end goal. My dream wasn’t just to make the team for a day. It’s going to be a good feeling but, at the end of the day, we’re going to have a season to tackle.”

While Sturdivant was about to endure a tortuous wait to learn his fate, he at least could look at the pigskin in his left arm, a souvenir from a night he’ll never forget.

What’s he going to do with it?

“It’s going to stay in this arm until I decide to do something else with it,” he said.