GREEN BAY – There have been times, Ben Braden will admit, when he has wondered if he should keep going. Whether he owed it to his wife, Andrea, and their son, Barrick, to give up his NFL dream and give them normalcy instead of a nomadic, go-where-the-game-takes-us life.
“I’d say in the last couple of years, there were some moments where I was kind of …” the Green Bay Packers offensive lineman said Monday afternoon, his voice trailing off.
He regrouped, then tried again.
“I was very proud of what I had done to that point,” he continued. “But, at the same time, I have a wife and a son. I have a family. I was kind of like, ‘At what point is this too much on all of us?’ And, ‘Do I need to make a decision that’s best for our family?'”
The answer, after conferring with his wife, was that continuing to play the game he loves was best for his family – and for him.
“At the end of the day, I love football. Being here, I love it even more. I’ve made so many great friends,” Braden continued. “In my heart, I felt like I wasn’t done yet.
“I’m so grateful. I’m really glad that I haven’t stopped and I decided to keep going, even at those points when I wasn’t sure. I’m super-happy about, obviously, where I’m at right now. It’s just been awesome.”
Where he is now is in legitimate competition not just for a spot on the Packers’ 53-man roster but a spot in the opening-day starting lineup.
With five-time All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari unlikely to be medically cleared for the Sept. 12 regular-season opener at New Orleans as he rehabs from a torn ACL that he suffered during a New Year’s Eve practice, the Packers’ line is in flux.
Left guard Elgton Jenkins has been working as the No. 1 left tackle, with veteran Lucas Patrick, second-year man Jon Runyan and Braden sharing the first-team reps at left and right guard. Braden even worked with the starters at left tackle in Bakhtiari’s place during the offseason for portions of organized team activity practices and the mandatory minicamp.
Entering Saturday’s preseason opener against the Houston Texans at Lambeau Field, Braden is squarely in the mix despite having played only five career offensive snaps in his three NFL seasons – four kneel-downs at the end of the Packers’ Nov. 5 win at San Francisco last year, and one kneel-down to end the Packers’ NFC divisional playoff win over the Los Angeles Rams on Jan. 16. (He did play 27 snaps on special teams last year in the regular season and playoffs, giving him a not-so-grand total of 45 snaps of actual NFL experience entering camp.)
“It’s going to be great to have these three preseason games to roll everybody through,” coach Matt LaFleur said Monday. “We’ve been putting a lot of different combinations out there, and it’s great to have a lot of people that could potentially fill that role. But typically, that stuff will play out over the course of the next four weeks.”
Asked specifically about Braden’s development, LaFleur replied: “He’s a massive guy that has really good athleticism for his size. He’s got good ownership of what we’re asking these guys to do, and he’s done a nice job. We feel really good about the possibilities of many different people for that position. We’ll let them battle it out.”
The 6-foot-6, 329-pound Braden started 36 games at left guard and left tackle during his five-year career at the University of Michigan but went undrafted during the 2017 NFL draft. His NFL odyssey began with signing a free agent deal with the New York Jets.
Released on the final roster cutdown and re-signed to the practice squad, Braden spent all of 2017 with the Jets, who brought him back the following year. He made the active roster for their 2018 opener, then got cut again and was relegated to the practice squad again – until being called up late in the year and making his NFL debut with a seven-snap stint on special teams against the Packers on Dec. 23, 2018.
He spent the 2019 offseason and training camp with the Jets before being released again at the end of camp – and the whirlwind began: Re-signed to the Jets practice squad Sept. 1. Released Sept. 11. Signed to the Packers’ practice squad Sept. 12. Cut from the Packers’ practice squad Nov. 7. Signed back to the Jets’ practice squad Nov. 13. Added to the Jets’ active roster Dec. 28. Played in the Jets’ regular-season finale (five snaps, all on special teams) on Dec. 29.
“In the NFL, you’ve got to be flexible. Things can change at any moment,” Braden said. “You may only get one opportunity, so you have to maximize that opportunity no matter what it is.”
It was more of the same last year. After starting camp with the Jets, he was cut Aug. 3. He signed with the New England Patriots on Aug. 17, but only lasted a few weeks there and was cut again on Sept. 5. Out of football for nearly six weeks, the Packers brought him back on their practice squad on Oct. 21. He was promoted to the active roster three days later, only to be released again two days after that and re-signed to the practice squad yet again on Oct. 28, seeing action in three more games as a practice-squad activation, including one as a COVID-19 replacement. The Packers then added him to the playoff 53-man roster, and he played in both postseason games on special teams.
In all that back-and-forth, though, the 27-year-old Braden showed LaFleur, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and offensive line coach Adam Stenavich enough that they saw potentially big things for him this season – and told him to get himself for them.
“They just said, ‘Be prepared. There’s a lot of guys moving around in the room. Just be ready to play anywhere, and just keep working,'” Braden said. “They were really happy with my performance last year in how I was practicing, and they said, ‘We’re just going to keep building on that. Just be ready for anywhere.’
“When Steno reached out to me in the offseason, I’d never had a coach text me or even call me in the offseason to say that. I think that really lit a fire in me even more to really keep pushing and find out how I can really push the envelope as far as my level of play and just keep trying to find areas to grow.”
General manager Brian Gutekunst was eager to see more of him, too, despite having drafted six offensive linemen in the previous two drafts.
“I think offensive line as a whole is one of those positions in our game that we never put enough development into,” Gutekunst said. “It’s hard, but I think offensive line play is one of those things that I do think takes time. Ben’s put in a bunch of work and he’s been in our system for a while. I think those things are kind of coming together. And he’s playing the best ball that we’ve seen him play.”
While Braden credits Stenavich, assistant offensive line coach Luke Butkus and a demanding group of veterans (Bakhtiari, Patrick, Billy Turner) for helping him get to this point, he is in no way taking anything for granted. For now, the only pat on the back he’s giving himself is that he made the right call by continuing to chase his dream.
“I’ve allowed myself to feel like, ‘OK, I’m happy about the decision I made,’ but I know that I’ve really got to keep pushing,” Braden said. “You can’t be content, but there was a sense of relief of, ‘I’m so glad I didn’t stop and I kept going.’ Because obviously I wouldn’t be here enjoying this.”
Extra points
LaFleur wouldn’t say which players, but given the conservative approach he took to preseason in 2019 in his first year as head coach, look for most of the Packers’ most important players – led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers – to sit out Saturday night’s preseason opener against Houston. “We’re not going to play everybody in that first preseason game,” LaFleur said. “There’s going to be some select vets that aren’t going to play.” … Jordan Love is expected to start at quarterback, and LaFleur’s assessment of his performance on Family Night after watching the film was about what you’d expect. “There were some really good things, and then there’s some things we’ve got to clean up,” LaFleur said, speaking specifically about two fumbled center-quarterback exchanges and a Love fumble. “He’s touching the ball every snap, so he’s got to be great with (ball security), and he knows that. I thought he was able to make a couple nice throws.” … Pro Bowl running back Aaron Jones did not practice Monday because of a hamstring injury. It’s unclear whether the injury is reason for concern, but Jones did take part in the Family Night practice on Saturday night. Also missing practice were defensive tackle Kenny Clark (groin), outside linebacker Rashan Gary (groin), wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown (hamstring) and wide receiver Juwann Winfree (shoulder). Clark, St. Brown and Winfree missed Family Night. … Tight end Dominique Dafney (knee) was activated from the physically unable to perform list.
