For nearly two decades, the Green Bay Packers started the year with at least one undrafted free agent on the active roster, a streak that appears to be coming to an end.
The streak dates to 2005, the dawn of the Ted Thompson era. The quirk became one of the general manager's trademarks, finding talent in unusual places.
But there's a little bit of trickiness in defining what "undrafted free agent on the initial 53-man roster" means, and it's why this isn't quite a done deal yet. We're talking about players who made the roster in their first year of NFL eligibility; that is, they had been eligible for draft selection the preceding April and didn't get taken.