Familiar Face McCallan Castles Returns to Aid Packers' Depleted Tight End Room
Keep your eyes open—you might be next up on the depth chart.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Sorry, you were only allowed to enjoy Tucker Kraft’s return to practice for about two days before you have to come back down to reality and acknowledge the carnage around him.
That reality is the fact that the Green Bay Packers’ depth chart at tight end—or, well, what’s left of it—might as well be a MASH unit at this point.
Not including Kraft, who has yet to participate in 11-on-11 team drills as he continues to work his way back from the torn anterior cruciate ligament he sustained last season, three of the Packers’ seven tight ends are hindered by injuries.
Luke Musgrave is battling a concerning neck injury that head coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t have an approximate timetable on. Undrafted rookie RJ Maryland missed the first padded practice of training camp Monday with a hamstring injury, and Luke Lachey was seen in the locker room donning a walking boot on a mobility scooter, according to The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman. That leaves Josh Whyle, Drake Dabney, Messiah Swinson, and Australian-born Thomas Yassmin, who qualifies as an international exemption player.
A fifth healthy body is entering the fray on Tuesday, assuming he passes his physical. Sports Illustrated indicates that the Packers intend to sign 6’4”, 244-pound McCallan Castles, a familiar face who spent time in Green Bay last season.
With Castles coming aboard, the Packers’ roster will be at full capacity, so they’ll have to make a corresponding move.
Funny enough, Castles, Whyle, and Dabney were all components to the same roster transaction in 2025. Two days after Kraft sustained his Nov. 2 season-ending knee injury, the Packers promoted Whyle to their 53-man roster and signed Castles and Dabney to their practice squad. Dabney stuck around, whereas Castles, who ended the season on the practice squad injured reserve list, was released by the Packers in April.
Back with the team now, Castles could ensure that he sticks around this time with a preseason audition.
The 26-year-old Castles was one of three tight ends hosted in the facility for a workout last week. He’s a former undrafted free agent who has spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers, and Los Angeles Rams, but has never appeared in an actual game. Not even in the preseason. That could change this summer assuming the Packers’ decimated tight end unit isn’t alleviated in some capacity by next week.
A native of South Lake Tahoe, California, Castles began his collegiate career as a redshirt freshman at California in 2018. He spent two seasons with the Golden Bears before transferring to UC Davis in 2020, finishing his senior season with 30 receptions for 347 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Castles earned All-American status in back-to-back years at UC Davis.
Because he played during the 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Castles was one of the college athletes granted an extra year of eligibility. He entered the transfer portal for a second time, committing to Tennessee in 2023. He concluded his college career by playing in all 13 games for the Volunteers, registering 22 catches for 283 yards and five touchdowns.
Castles—or “Cali” as his Tennessee teammates would refer to him as—was primarly an in-line tight end that helped block for one of the most lethal rushing attacks in the conference. He paved the way for the rushing tandem of Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson, who were fourth-round draft picks in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
The Packers are still determining how to move forward with Musgrave’s neck injury. Anything relating to the head, neck, and heart are going to be handled with an abundance of caution, but it isn’t believed that it’s a season-ending issue. The former second-round pick was projected to enter the season as the Packers’ No. 2 tight end once again, but that role will now go to Whyle, which likely would’ve been the case anyway.
Lachey could miss significant time. It’s a tough break for the former seventh-round pick of the Houston Texans, who originally signed with the Packers in May. The signing never processed because Lachey failed his physical, but he returned a month later and passed, signing a contract with a team whose offense would greatly benefit from his skill set. With the exception of Kraft, the Packers don’t have anyone else who can handle the duties of a Y tight end with any semblance of consistency.