GREEN BAY — With the Green Bay Packers having shown little to no interest in bringing them back in 2025, two former second-round draft picks found new NFL homes on Wednesday as the new league year began and the free-agent frenzy petered out.

Center Josh Myers, a 2021 second-round pick from Ohio State who started 56 games over his four seasons in Green Bay, landed with the New York Jets on a one-year deal worth a reported $3.5 million.

And running back AJ Dillon, a 2020 second-round pick from Boston College who spent all of last season on injured reserve because of a neck stinger he suffered during a training-camp practice last summer, went to the Super Bowl LIX-champion Philadelphia Eagles on a one-year deal as well.

Myers, who missed just one start over his final three seasons in Green Bay, was not expected to be re-signed, and the Packers’ decision to add former San Francisco 49ers left guard Aaron Banks on a four-year, $77 million deal (with a $29 million guaranteed up-front signing bonus) sealed Myers fate.

The Packers plan to plug Banks in at left guard and shift Elgton Jenkins over to start at center.

With right tackle Zach Tom, left tackle Rasheed Walker and right guard Sean Rhyan all entering the final years of their rookie contracts, general manager Brian Gutekunst clearly has more offensive line decisions to make in the coming months.

But given how little Myers got from the Jets, the Packers certainly could have afforded to bring him back for one more season. Instead, he heads to a Jets team that just signed his former college teammate, ex-Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields, to be their new starter after moving on from four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers.

Although he played the best football of his career in 2024, Myers admitted during the Packers’ Jan 13 locker clean-out day following their NFC wild card playoff loss to the Eagles that it had been an “up and down” year.

He missed time during training camp following the death of his father, Brad, from cancer and missed one regular-season game with a wrist injury after attempting to play through it.

He also revealed late in the year that he’d played with a torn pectoral muscle for the final six regular-season games and the loss to the Eagles after suffering the injury in the team’s Nov. 24 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

Myers suffered what initially appeared to be a major left leg injury against the Eagles and was carted off Lincoln Financial Field during the fourth quarter. He later learned that he likely sustained a hairline fracture in his lower leg but escaped a more catastrophic injury.

“There were certainly games I didn’t feel like myself,” Myers admitted. “It feels weird saying that because it feels like an excuse, but that’s how it’s been.

“It’s been a hell of a year, man. First my dad, then all this (expletive).”

Dillon, meanwhile, had stinger issues at the end of the 2023 season and was shut down by the team’s medical staff when it happened again during camp. But he said while cleaning out his locker in January that he would be “good to go” in 2025 while admitting that it had been “hard to find” a silver lining in his lost season.

“I understand everybody’s got their opinions, but I kind of just focus on myself,” Dillon said at the time. “I’m real confident in being able to be back next year. It’s going to be awesome as a running back trying to go into Year 6.

“I don’t need to prove anything to anybody. I think my tape speaks for itself. There’s going to be people who want me on their team, who don’t want me on their team. That’s free agency and the nature of the NFL.

“I really think it’s just about getting there, whatever team it is, and just going out there and playing ball.”

Dillon ends his Packers career having rushed for 2,428 yards and 16 touchdowns and having caught 86 passes for 763 yards and two more TDs in 60 regular-season games (11 starts). In Philadelphia, he’ll compete to back up star running back Saquon Barkley, who is coming off a 2,000-yard season.

Nicknamed “The Mayor of Door County,” and with a strong connection to Wisconsin having married a Green Bay-area native and pursued a host of business and charitable endeavors around the state, Dillon said he planned to make Wisconsin home after his career is over.

But for now, it’s time to get to work with his new team.

“Wisconsin has given so much to me, and Wisconsin’s the place I try to give so much back to with my foundation, with everything that I do, and I don’t think that’s changing anytime soon,” Dillon said in January. “We’ve got great friends and family, great businesses and great relationships that we’ve built from Green Bay to Door County, down to Milwaukee and Madison. So, that’s something that will continue, regardless.”

With Myers departing, defensive tackle T.J. Slaton having joined the Cincinnati Bengals on a two-year, $15.1 million deal on Monday and cornerback Eric Stokes getting a one-year, $4 million deal from the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday, the only player still on roster from the Packers’ 2021 draft class is linebacker Isaiah McDuffie, a sixth-round pick who re-signed with the team before free agency opened.

With Dillon’s departure, the only remaining player from the 2020 draft on the roster is quarterback Jordan Love.

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