On Friday, the Green Bay Packers surprisingly brought in former Oregon TE Colt Lyerla for a tryout after he went undrafted and wasn’t signed to a contract as a free agent.
According to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com, it appears as though the Packers are “leaning” towards signing Lyerla to a contract at the end of rookie orientation camp.
Packers GM Ted Thompson is expected to “sleep on it,” but he did say that they have done extensive work on him throughout the draft process and see him as a very talented player.
“We did a lot of work on Colt,” Thompson said Saturday. “He’s a very talented athlete. We interviewed him at the combine. We went through all those procedures, talked to a lot of people. He’s a young man that made some mistakes, and we feel like he was worth bringing in and taking a look at.”
Lyerla comes with numerous off-the-field issues in recent years as he did not travel with the Ducks for a game against Colarado last season, and later made the decision to leave the team all together. Shortly after that, he arrested and later plead guilty to the unlawful possession of cocaine.
The Packers could really use some extra competition at tight end as there is no guarantee that Jermichael Finley will be able to continue his NFL career.
Lyerla tested so well at this year’s Scouting Combine that his talent would be extremely hard to pass up given that it wouldn’t cost much at all to sign him to a contract. Lyerla posted a forty time of 4.61 forty, a 39-inch vertical, and 10-foot-8 broad jump.
Just for the sake of comparison, UNC TE Eric Ebron — who was taken No. 10 overall — ran a 4.61 forty, posted a 32-inch vertical and a 10-foot broad jump.
We’ll have more regarding Lyerla and the Packers as the news is available.
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