Packers’ First Free-Agent Addition Hasn’t Played in Game Since 2015

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers added their first free agent to the roster on Wednesday. But they still haven’t added a free agent who’s played in an NFL game.

The team announced the signing of long snapper Joe Fortunato, a transaction that provided a needed challenger for Hunter Bradley but otherwise brought derision from impatient Packers fans.

Fortunato hasn’t played in a game that counted since 2015, his senior season at Delaware. He went undrafted and unsigned in 2016. He signed with the Indianapolis Colts in March 2017 but lasted barely a month and was released after the draft. He wasn’t on a team at any point in 2018 and 2019, then spent last offseason on the Dallas Cowboys’ roster but was released before the start of training camp.

So, if Fortuanto lasts through the offseason, he will compete in his first NFL training camp in six years.

According to his Delaware biography, he arrived at the school as a walk-on tight end in 2012. He snapped in all 46 career games, with four seasons of experience on punts and two years on kicks. He carried sheetrock as part of his father’s business during the summer.

New special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton was in Indianapolis during Fortunato’s five weeks on the roster.

Asked about the performances of punter JK Scott and Bradley, both of whom were drafted in 2018, Drayton said, “They both know that they have to be more consistent in the things that we need them to do to be successful. They have a prescription that we’ve written for them to work on. They also have their own personal what I call kick doctors or specialist doctors that they’re working with who I’ve fostered a relationship with. They’re getting better and they will be better, and they understand that their backs are against the wall.”