Chris Brooks Camp Update — August 31: The Hard Vote Came Back Yes
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Chris Brooks made the initial fifty-three, one of three running backs, after the Packers released Martinez, Strong and Nixon. The qualifier is that the staff also traded for another back the same day, and the beat's read on Brooks is the least flattering of the three.
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The hard vote came back yes. Chris Brooks is on the initial 53 the Packers announced Sunday — one of three running backs, per Wes Hodkiewicz at packers.com — after two weeks in which his file collected no attributed item at all. The backs he outlasted are real names: Damien Martinez, Pierre Strong Jr. and Jaden Nixon were all released, per Evan Siegle at packers.com. And the room he made changed shape the same day: Josh Jacobs went to the Commissioner's Exempt List, indefinitely, per Kevin Patra at NFL.com, and Green Bay traded a sixth-round pick to Pittsburgh for Kaleb Johnson, who joins pending a physical, per Siegle and Hodkiewicz.
The beat's read on him is candid. Bill Huber at Packers On SI, on the post-Jacobs room: "They'll be banking on Lloyd to stay healthy and live up to his potential, Brooks to be something he hasn't been and Johnson to be a quick study capable of restarting his career." Steve Henson at the Los Angeles Times writes that Brooks "served primarily as a blocking back and special teams contributor last season" — one reporter's description of last year's role, not a stated Packers plan for this one; no coach or general manager ranked this room on the record in the window.
Our last episode framed the Brooks case as losing ground by silence, and the silence did continue — he appears in no finale or practice account this week either, though Kyle McCord played the whole game Friday and no starters appear in the beat's account of it, per Mike Spofford at packers.com. But that framing retires now, because the roster vote answers louder than the silence did: the episode's own stated test was whether he would be on the roster after the cut, and he is, in a three-man room. Since our June preview, the Brooks case has been positional — a rugged rotation back who backed into the number-two job behind Jacobs. There is no behind-Jacobs left to stand in; Brooks is one of three backs, on the two-year contract nothing this week touched, and what he is when the games count is the question the August file never got to answer. We'll see what the role looks like once real games arrive.
_Data via nflverse._
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