According to James Larsen, who covers the United Football League for Pro Football Newsroom, the Green Bay Packers will have a workout with DC Defenders guard Liam Fornadel at some point this week. While Fornadel wasn’t named on the All-UFL team that featured three former Packers, he was an All-XFL guard for the 2023 season — prior to the XFL and USFL merging to make the UFL.
#JamesMadison OT Liam Fornadel (6-4, 310, Sr., #77) is one of the highest ranked prospects in action today.
29 straight starts at RT (played in 44 career games). Also has experience at guard. pic.twitter.com/L1yrojaYRk
— Jordan Reid (@Jordan_Reid) February 20, 2021
After going undrafted out of James Madison, Fornadel signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ practice squad in 2022. Eventually, he made his way back stateside and signed with the Defenders, who have played in both the XFL and UFL over the last two seasons.
Despite the lack of accolades in 2024, he was graded out as one of the best pass-blocking offensive linemen in the UFL by Pro Football Focus. The former FCS All-American not only has a workout with the Packers on the docket, but he’s also traveling to New England to meet with the Patriots and Cleveland to meet with the Browns.
Interestingly, he can’t sign with an NFL team yet because UFL contracts have their players on hold until the end of the postseason — which will be June 16th. So while Fornadel’s Defenders went 4-6 and missed the playoffs, he still won’t be able to sign for another two weekends.
Expect to hear a lot about UFL players taking visits over the next couple of weeks. The UFL regular season just concluded, and several spring league players end up on 53-man rosters by the time cutdowns come around in the late summer.
At the moment, the Packers currently have one roster spot available on their offseason roster, despite them having contracts with 90 players already. This is because international player pathways player Kenneth Odumegwu has a roster exemption. Green Bay was once at their 91-man roster limit, but former Michigan offensive lineman Trente Jones retired from football a month ago. Since then, the Packers haven’t made any transactions. Fornadel is the first player to have a reported workout with the club since rookie minicamp concluded for Green Bay in early May.
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