{"id":687392,"date":"2026-01-18T23:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687392\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T23:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T23:04:15","slug":"packers-draft-2026-american-bowl-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/687392\/","title":{"rendered":"Packers Draft: 2026 American Bowl Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The all-star game slate starts this week as the American Bowl began practices on Sunday. After two practices and a walkthrough, the American Bowl will be broadcast on Thursday, January 22nd, on NFL Network at 7 pm CT. The game will be coached by a mostly veteran staff<\/a>, as Brian Billick\u2019s Warhawks will be taking on Mike Smith\u2019s Guardians.<\/p>\n

I wanted to know who the draftable prospects are who are competing in this game, instead of the East-West Shrine Bowl or Senior Bowl later on down the line. So here\u2019s who I found in the 256 prospects on the consensus board<\/a> (the NFL draft is usually 256 players because the general structure is seven rounds of 32 draft choices each and then an extra 32 compensatory picks sprinkled in throughout).<\/p>\n

Expected draftable prospects – American Bowl<\/p>\n

#191 Tristan Leigh, OL, Clemson<\/p>\n

Leigh isn\u2019t very heavy (came in at 308 pounds), which could be a problem for non-center offensive line prospects for the Packers moving forward. Green Bay has pivoted significantly towards relying on bigger bodies in recent seasons<\/a>. Leigh was a three-year starter at Clemson, but he played a little right guard back in 2023.<\/p>\n

#200 Eric McAlister, WR, TCU<\/p>\n

McAlister, a college teammate of Packers 2025 third-round pick Savion Williams, caught 169 receptions for 3,084 yards at the college level with both Boise State and TCU. The average Green Bay receiver under LaFleur is around 208 pounds<\/a>, while McAlister was measured in at just 193 pounds. McAlister also has an assault with a deadly weapon on his record,<\/a> for which he received probation.<\/p>\n

#204 Ethan Onianwa, OL, Ohio State<\/p>\n

Here is finally a player who I believe has a decent shot of coming to Green Bay. Onianwa was a three-year starter at Rice before transferring to Ohio State last year. In his one year with the Buckeyes, he only managed to get on the field for 90 snaps in a pretty deep unit. He played tackle at Rice but was in the field more at Ohio State as a guard, despite his size (6\u20196\u201d-flat, 333 pounds). This week of practice should be pretty big for a hyped up transfer<\/a> who didn\u2019t see much playing time in 2025.<\/p>\n

#214 Tanner Arkin, TE, Illinois<\/p>\n

Arkin wasn\u2019t a guy who racked up receiving yards at the college level, finishing with 45 receptions for 351 yards and six touchdowns over five seasons, but the Kenosha, Wisconsin-born, Fort Collins, Colorado-raised player was a team captain for the Illini. He was measured in at over 6\u20193\u201d, 262 pounds and has the fourth-largest hands of any of the 119 players at this event at 10 and 3\/4\u201d.<\/p>\n

#224 Barika Kpeenu, RB, North Dakota State<\/p>\n

In college, Kpeenu carried the ball 434 times for 2,283 yards and 32 touchdowns, including a 191-carry, 1,005-yard and 20-touchdown season in 2025. As of now, the only FCS prospect ranked ahead of him on the consensus board is his teammate, receiver Bryce Lance, brother of 2021 third overall pick Trey Lance. Kpeenu came in at 217 pounds.<\/p>\n

#226 Damion (DJ) Harvey, S, USC<\/p>\n

Harvey is on the smaller side at just 5\u201910\u201d-flat, but I don\u2019t expect the Packers to be in the market much at the safety position anyway, as Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard and Kitan Oladapo are all under contract in 2026 \u2014 before a potential return for Zayne Anderson is even a part of the equation. USC was Harvey\u2019s third stop in college, after starting his career at Virginia Tech and then transferring to San Jose State.<\/p>\n

#229 Cole Brevard, iDL, Texas<\/p>\n

Brevard is the only one of two draftable defensive linemen (at least per the consensus board) in this game. The big (346-pound) nose tackle played 258 snaps for the Longhorns this year after starting for two seasons at Purdue. He also began his career at Penn State before he jumped to Purdue for playing time.<\/p>\n

#241 Miles Kitselman, TE, Tennessee<\/p>\n

Kitselman (6046, 247 pounds) was a high school offensive lineman who went to Hutchinson Community College instead of taking non-Division 1 offers coming out of high school. After a year there, he jumped up to Alabama, where he only made two receptions, before transferring to Tennessee, where he\u2019s had 48 receptions for 553 yards and six touchdowns over two seasons. He played 250 snaps at true tight end, 111 in the backfield and 132 in the slot in 2025.<\/p>\n

#251 Bryce Foster, OL, Kansas<\/p>\n

The 317-pound center was originally a super recruit who played at Texas A&M before the coaching staff pressured him to focus solely on football. Instead, Foster elected to transfer to Kansas, where he was a two-sport athlete. Last year, he competed in the NCAA\u2019s outdoor track and field championship as a discus thrower.<\/p>\n

#256 Aaron Graves, iDL, Iowa<\/p>\n

Green Bay won\u2019t have a lot of wiggle room in their defensive tackle room this year, as basically everyone returns from 2026. What they really need is a starting nose tackle, more than another body, and it\u2019s tough to imagine that Graves, a 298-pounder, sort of fits into their plans. Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and Warren Brinson already play three-tech on the team, and Colby Wooden should probably be playing more of the position, too, if the team can land a new starting nose tackle in 2026 (which they should do). Graves had 25 tackles for losses and 16.5 sacks in college as a four-year contributor.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re watching this game or following the week of practice, the players I\u2019d keep an eye on (from a Packers perspective) are:<\/p>\n

Ethan Onianwa, OL, Ohio StateTanner Arkin, TE, IllinoisBarika Kpeenu, RB, North Dakota StateCole Brevard, iDL, TexasMiles Kitselman, TE, TennesseeBryce Foster, OL, KansasThomas Castellanos, the smaller (5091, 197 pounds, 8 7\/8th\u201d hands) quarterback from Florida State, was actually the starter at Boston College when Packers DC Jeff Hafley was still the head coach there in 2023.Max Tomczak (5107, 194 pounds) from Youngstown State was the top prospect for his team this year. Green Bay got a look at the receiver when they sent a scout to watch Michigan State (who doesn\u2019t have many pro prospects themselves) play Youngstown State back in Week 3. He is the nephew of Mike Tomczak, a former NFL quarterback.The Tokyo Toe, Hawaii kicker Kansei Matsuzawa, will be in this game. The 27-year-old was a consensus All-American this year after going 27-29 on field goals and 40-40 on extra points. He\u2019s only hit one 50-plus-yard field goal in his career, but was efficient in short ranges at the college level.San Diego State tackle Christian Jones is truly a ginormous human. He came in at nearly 6\u20199\u201d (6087), 341 pounds with the third-largest hands in the event (10.5\u201d), the longest arms (36 3\/4\u201d) and by far the longest wingspan (89 1\/8\u201d, close to 7.5\u2019). They haven\u2019t made many people like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The all-star game slate starts this week as the American Bowl began practices on Sunday. After two practices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,623,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-687392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-green-bay-packers-draft","12":"tag-greenbay","13":"tag-greenbaypackers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115918606667645889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}