Packers Add 2025 Draft Pick; Can Son of ‘Hog’ Be Blocking Answer at TE?

The Green Bay Packers need a tight end who can block. Maybe the son of a member of the legendary “Hogs” offensive line can help.

The Packers on Tuesday were awarded tight end Luke Lachey off waivers from the Houston Texans as well as cornerback M.J. Devonshire from the Buffalo Bills.

The roster moves give the Packers a full 90-man roster with the start of OTAs about two weeks away.

Lachey was a seventh-round pick by the Texans in 2025. He didn’t make their 53-man roster and spent the entire season on the practice squad without getting in a game.

Houston drafted Marlin Klein in the second round of this year’s draft, leading to the release of Lachey.

Son of a Hog

Lachey’s father, Jim, was a first-round pick by the Chargers in 1985 and started 129 games in 10 seasons.

He was a three-time first-team All-Pro with the Washington Redskins, for whom he played from 1988 through 1995 as part of the legendary “Hogs” offensive line.

“My dad always taught me to be the hardest worker on the field and do whatever you can to stand out,” he told ForIowa.org. “He also taught me that this is a job and people are trying to take your job, so you have to work hard if you want to keep it.”

Jim Lachey was an All-American lineman at Ohio State. Now, he’s a longtime radio analyst for the Buckeyes, meaning he got to work a couple Ohio State-Iowa games, including when Luke was a senior in 2024.

“I’ll probably take a moment, look up at the press box where my dad is sitting … and take it all in,” Lachey said before that game. “At the end of the day, it’s another game. We’ve just got to be ready to play.”

Lachey was 6-foot-6 and 212 pounds in high school. Ohio State gave him an offer to redshirt, but Luke opted to pave his own trail in college.

“There’s some schools where if you’re not playing your first or second year, they’re trying to run you off and take your scholarship and give it to some other kid,” Jim Lachey said. “Where a school like Iowa, they have more one, two-year guys but they’re going to get developed.”

Tight End U

Lachey was hoping to be the next in a long line of great Hawkeyes tight ends. Instead, he suffered a season-ending ankle injury early in the 2023 season after catching 10 passes for 131 yards in a hot start.

He came back for one more season. 

“It’s definitely motivating,” he said in 2024. “You never want to be off the field. I’d say I’ve learned a lot about myself. You start to figure out a new role when you’re not out on the field, as far as leadership goes. I just feel like I learned a lot in the sense of patience, how to take care of your body when you’re out on the field.”

Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz was happy to have him.

“You look at a guy like George Kittle, who really has continued to improve, and he was starting to play at a much higher level at age 25 than he was at age 21,” Ferentz said. “That's what good players do, they just keep getting better.”

Lachey had 28 catches for 231 yards during his final season to earn honorable mention on the all-Big Ten team and was a semifinalist for the William Campbell Trophy, aka the Academic Heisman Trophy.

“I Love To Block”

Before the 2025 draft, Lachey measured 6-foot-5 3/4 and 251 pounds. He trained with former NFL receiver Ricky Proehl and former NFL tight end Dennis Pitta.

“While Lachey can do both, he lacks the core strength and consistency of a typical ‘Y’ tight end and has average quickness to escape man coverage on the next level,” NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein wrote in his scouting report at NFL.com.

“He has experience operating underneath and as an intermediate target, using proper leverage in his routes and good body control, along with strong hands, when contested. He has NFL size but needs to prove he can more consistently sustain as a run blocker.”

Lachey ultimately became the 14th Ferentz-era tight end who was drafted.

“My competitiveness, my leadership skills, and my work ethic,” he said were his top traits. “I compete as hard as I can every day and go out there and be the best player I can be. I’ve put my leadership skills to good use in college, and I’ll continue to develop as a leader. I have a strong work ethic and teams see that. I’ve gained a lot of skills and experience playing football, and I feel that my best football is ahead of me. I’m confident about that.”

In the 2025 preseason for Houston, Lachey caught 5-of-6 passes for 21 yards. At Iowa, he caught 74 passes for 877 yards and four touchdowns.

The Packers didn’t draft or sign a tight end during the offseason, so Lachey represents the lone addition to a roster group in which Tucker Kraft is coming off a torn ACL and John FitzPatrick was not re-signed following last year’s torn Achilles.

“If you can’t block, you can’t play,” he told Steelers Depot at the East-West Shrine Bowl. “Coming from Iowa, we are a very fun-heavy team. And I love to block, and that’s the first thing you’ve got to be able to do. If you’re a tight end, they’re probably not going to put you on the field very much if you can’t block. So, that’s what I take pride in.”

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow