Green Bay Packers 2025 schedule: Breaking down each game
Sports reporter JR Radcliffe breaks down each game on the Green Bay Packers’ 2025 schedule.
Aaron Rodgers isn’t the only 41-year-old free agent and former veteran of the Green Bay Packers still on the market as the calendar turns to June.
Marcedes Lewis is available. But unlike Rodgers, though, Lewis has said he still wants to play but just needs to find a team. And he also has made it clear that the 2025 season will be his last.
Could the Packers be where he ends his eventual 20-year career?
If he had his way, it appears he would like that. However, barring an injury from one of the players in the Packers tight end room, it’s unlikely to happen.
Even so, Lewis, who spent five seasons with the Packers from 2018-22, told Kay Adams on the “Up & Adams” show on May 29 his time in Green Bay were “the best years of his life” and that he didn’t want his tenure there to end.
Lewis talked about his career with the Packers, relationship with head coach Matt LaFleur and whether he could play with Rodgers again during his conversation with Adams this week.
Marcedes Lewis on the Packers
Lewis joined the Packers ahead of the 2018 season after 12 years with the Jacksonville Jaguars where he established himself as powerful blocking tight end and locker room leader.
He brought all these traits to the Packers while also becoming close with Rodgers.
The Packers, though, were rebuilding with a new cast on offense after the 2022 season led by quarterback Jordan Love, new wide receivers and two new tight ends they drafted in 2023.
“That last year when I was (in Green Bay) they were close to bringing me back for another year before I signed with Chicago,” Lewis said. “But the direction they were going was going to be young.”
Eventually, Lewis signed with the Bears where he has spent the last two seasons.
Lewis said he was just talking to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur in recent days about his future and appeared to hint LaFleur would like to have him back.
“Matt is one my best friends now,” Lewis said. “He FaceTimed me last week and we were kind of talking about it. It’s really out of his hands.”
Lewis has no hard feelings, though, about his career.
“I understand the business side of it,” Lewis said. “If you can compartmentalize what you do well and understand this game is still a business and it’s not necessarily personal you’ll always get the best out of yourself. I’ve been able to understand that since I’ve been in Jacksonville. Never let my feelings get in the way of the work I put in. … That’s what I have complete control over: my attitude, my effort regardless where I am.”
Still, there is still a sense of what-if.
“It’s just one of those things I feel like it ended a little too soon in Green Bay,” Lewis said. “Obviously guys were leaving. A-Rod left, Cobby (Randall Cobb), it was just guys leaving from that team, my boy Davante (Adams) went to Vegas (a year earlier). So it was just a lot going on.”
Marcedes Lewis on his NFL career, future
It would be hard to envision Lewis, known as the Big Dog, not on an NFL roster in 2025. While he’s 41 years old, he continues to be as reliable and durable as they come. He hasn’t missed a game in four years.
But he’s ready for this to be the end after one more season.
“Yeah, I think mentally I’m going into it as my last year,” Lewis said. “Blessed to have 19 amazing years.”
He said in Jacksonville he learned “so many lessons along the way” that prepared him for what he would experience with the Packers.
“In some ways I felt like I was reinvigorated and rejuvenated in Green Bay,” Lewis said. After his 12 years with the Jaguars, he felt in some ways like he was drafted by the Packers as he began his second act. “That’s how much the people accepted me.”
Lewis added: “My five years there was some of the best years of my life. It just felt really good. I’ll never forget those years I spent in Green Bay.”
He wasn’t used in the passing game in Chicago the last two years but he felt a comfort in Chicago with Luke Getsy, who was formerly in Green Bay, as the Bears’ offensive coordinator in that first season. Getsy was fired after the 2023 season, spent a year with the Las Vegas Raiders and is now back with the Packers for a third stint.
Lewis, who is the last player still in the NFL from his 2006 draft class, said what keeps him energized about football is he’s always learning.
Marcedes Lewis on Aaron Rodgers
Like Lewis, Rodgers is without a team, though the Pittsburgh Steelers are the front-runners to sign the quarterback if he decides to sign up for a 21st season.
Has Lewis talked with Rodgers about teaming up again?
“It’s always been something that A-Rod would bring up, even when we were in Green Bay,” Lewis said. “He’s like, ‘Hey we got to retire together,'” Lewis said.
So, how about Pittsburgh?
“We haven’t talked about playing with the Steelers,” Lewis said.
Marcedes Lewis on Caleb Williams wanting to be like Aaron Rodgers
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who will be entering his second season in the NFL, grew up cheering for Rodgers.
Did Williams ask Lewis about Rodgers in the locker room last year?
“It’s more so not necessarily direct questions but more so you could just tell that was his favorite guy,” Lewis said, explaining the 2024 No. 1 overall pick tries to model his playstyle off Rodgers’, his mindset, his ability to take over games, demeanor and ability to lead.
Lewis said he can speak to that given how close he was to Rodgers.
“That’s a thread in how A-Rod and I connected and became really good friends,” Lewis said. “How we come to work. No matter how you look at it, professional sports especially with football so many guys, your value hinges on how you come to work, how are you in meetings, do you take notes, are you on time, are you early, do you stay late? That right there alone sets the tone for your relationships and friendships in this league.
“Guys like Davante Adams, Aaron Rodgers, Dave Bakhtiari, Randall Cobb just true professionals and it was easy when I got there for me to fit in a way to where I didn’t have to try, just be myself because that type of workload or that type of work and professionalism I’m already attached to.”
Marcedes Lewis statsGames: 285Receptions: 437Yards: 5,115Touchdowns: 40