GREEN BAY, Wis.— With the Green Bay Packers wrapping up Organized Team Activities this week, the focus will shift toward training camp and the season ahead.

Tight end Josiah Deguara could be one of the key players for this year’s Packers team.

With starting tight end Robert Tonyan still recovering from a knee injury, there’s opportunity for Deguara to blossom.

“I just do as much as I can, and whenever my number is called, I just want to go out there and make a play,” Deguara said.

Deguara was a third-round pick out of Cincinnati in 2020. His rookie season was cut short by an ACL injury. He started to flash his potential late last season.

“To have my first offseason, it’s felt great,” said Deguara. “I’ve been able to work on things I want to work on. Last offseason, I was just trying to get my knee right. This offseason, to be able to work on stuff that I took from the season, learn from it, and get better from it has been a tremendous opportunity. I’m just trying to take advantage of it.”

“Josiah’s had a great mindset,” said Matt LaFleur, head coach. “I think that you can really kind of see him, as the season progressed last year, it seemed like he was playing faster. He definitely knew what to do. Anytime you’re coming off a pretty significant injury like that, it takes some time. We were really happy with him at the end of the year and hopefully he can build upon that.”

Deguara is versatile with the original vision that he’s even capable of lining up at fullback. The Packers offense will look different this season and Deguara wants to be part of positive change.

“Davante [Adams is] gone,” said Deguara. “All the balls he got was much deserved. There’s opportunity for guys to step up and I’m gonna try to be one of those guys. For me, it’s just my overall game. I learned a lot from this last season. Being able to play 16, 17 games, only missing one game the whole time last season and it was in the beginning. I went through a lot of ups and downs and I was able to learn what going through a full NFL season was like mentally, physically, and everything. I’m taking every lesson I learned and I’ll be better because of it.”

Deguara said there wasn’t one big breakthrough moment last season but that he gradually felt normal, forgetting about his knee injury.