According to Bleacher Report’s Jordan Schultz, the Kansas City Chiefs will sign former rugby player Louis Rees-Zammit to an NFL deal on Friday. Rees-Zammit had previously arranged visits with the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, and New York Jets before traveling to Kansas City. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Rees-Zammit would be visiting the Green Bay Packers on Thursday. At the time, it is unclear whether he will fly to Wisconsin.
So, what’s the big deal about a player who has never played a football game? Rees-Zammit, 23, is a professional club rugby player who has also represented Wales at the national level. In January, he opted to switch to American football and enrolled in the National Football League’s International Player Pathways Program, a 10-week training camp in Florida.
At his pro day on March 20th, he ran a 4.43-second 40-yard dash, which piqued the curiosity of NFL teams. Since his pro day, he has been available to sign as a free agent, making him the first IPP athlete to do so, rather of being allocated through the IPP process or picked in the standard NFL draft.
According to Schultz, Reed-Zammit will be evaluated as both a receiver and a running back. There are probably several reasons why he chose the Chiefs over the Packers. First and foremost, Kansas City has won two Super Bowls in a row, which is an excellent recruitment tool. Second, the Chiefs lack the youthful talent at receiver that Green Bay has. Furthermore, the Packers not only awarded a large contract to running back Josh Jacobs, but AJ Dillon, who has at least 170 carries in each of the last three seasons, will return to the team in 2023.
So, if Green Bay adds an IPP player this season, it will most likely be one of two offensive line prospects, Bayron Matos or Travis Clayton, selected in the NFL draft. The NFL has yet to declare which teams will be allotted foreign players under the regular IPP procedure, but the Packers are unlikely to be among them, given that they were awarded pass-rusher Kenneth Odumegwu in 2023.