Several reports, including Jason B. Hirschhorn of The Leap, state that former Green Bay Packers tight end John FitzPatrick has re-signed with the team per the NFL transaction wire. This is not a surprise, though, the timing of it seems odds.

FitzPatrick was originally a restricted free agent for the Packers this offseason, as he was plucked off of the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad and had yet to accrue four full years in the NFL. Because of that, the cheapest tender Green Bay could have placed on the tight end was the right of first refusal tender at $3.3 million for 2025 — a much higher number than the league minimum.

In the past, the Packers have turned down a player’s RFA tender option, allowed them to hit unrestricted free agency and quickly re-signed the player to a league-minimum deal. The team even did this with another tight end in the recent past — Tyler Davis.

So it’s not a shock that FitzPatrick is coming back to Green Bay, only that this didn’t happen a full month earlier.

FitzPatrick is best known as a blocking tight end, a role he’s played since his college days back at the University of Georgia, where he split playing time with future NFL starters Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington. The Packers invited FitzPatrick for a pre-draft visit back in 2022, but the Falcons ended up taking him in the sixth round before Green Bay could pull the trigger.

Last October, FitzPatrick was promoted off the Falcons’ practice squad to the Packers’ active roster following Luke Musgrave’s placement on the injured reserve. FitzPatrick ended up playing nine regular-season games for Green Bay and outsnapped Ben Sims — who had previously been the team’s third tight end — on both offense and special teams toward the end of the season. He played a season-high of 26 offensive snaps against the New Orleans Saints in Week 16 and a season-high of 12 special teams reps in the regular season finale against the Chicago Bears.

Contract details on FitzPatrick’s new deal have yet to be announced, but the expectation is that he came back on a near league-minimum contract.