Growing up in Wisconsin Rapids, Vince Biegel was just like any other Green Bay Packers fan, with his number four Brett Favre jersey on his shoulders and a cheesehead to top off his Sunday best.
He cheered his heart out for the green and gold with visions of someday turning that four on his back into a 45 with the word BIEGEL spelled out across the top.
On April 29, 2017, that childhood dream came true, as the Packers selected the redshirt senior Wisconsin outside linebacker with the 108th overall pick in the NFL Draft.
“This is every Wisconsin kid’s dream, and I feel incredibly blessed,” Biegel told reporters on a conference call following the draft. “To be able now to go to the Packers and learn from great players like Clay [Matthews] and the rest of the linebackers, I can’t be more excited.”
Biegel joins a roster in Green Bay that will allow him to compete for some playing time at the outside linebacker position right away. Gone are Julius Peppers and Datone Jones, and the rookie fourth-round pick has an opportunity to step in and earn snaps in the rotation behind Clay Matthews and Nick Perry.
At Wisconsin, Biegel was moved around quite a bit in the front seven, lining up everywhere from the defensive line to inside linebacker. Now in Green Bay, Packers’ defensive coordinator Dom Capers may opt to take advantage of his rookie’s wide skill set.
“Dom Capers is a guy who I have a tremendous amount of respect for,” Biegel said. “Whether it’s outside, inside linebacker, wherever they need me out pass-rushing, coverage, I’m excited to go in there and show my versatility and just work.”
He’s already had the opportunity to show fans at Lambeau Field what he’s capable of. He may be the only rookie in the league to have already played a game in his NFL team’s stadium, as Wisconsin beat LSU 16-14 back on September 3 in the Lambeau Field College Classic.
Before they played that game, the whole Badgers team was able to tour the stadium and the Packers’ facilities, and even then, Biegel was in awe of his favorite team.
“To be able to practice in some the facilities we had today, to be able to go through the Hall of Fame stuff, to kind of be around that presence, it’s something you’ve always dreamed about,” Biegel told the Daily Cardinal at the time. “It’s something special and it’s something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.”
Little did he know, he’d be spending a lot more time in that stadium just a year later, and he’d have plenty to take with him for the rest of his life.
Going forward into his first season in the NFL, the key for Biegel is to get healthy and stay healthy. He suffered a hand injury on the first day of Packers’ rookie minicamp, and the very next day, he went down with another foot injury that required surgery.
Still, the team expects their rookie outside linebacker to be ready for training camp in late July, and when that number 45 jersey is back on the field, the face inside that helmet will be smiling from ear to ear.
He isn’t going to let a few nicks and bruises keep him from living out his childhood dream in the green and gold.
