Bo Melton finally got the call he was long waiting on. I am so happy to arrived another chapter of my career…..
Sitting with his girlfriend and their newborn son, the Packers receiver was prepared to sweat out another anxious cutdown day in hopes of finally starting an NFL season on a 53-man roster.
But before the suspense could even percolate, Melton’s phone rang with a call from passing game coordinator Jason Vrable. He’d made the team, Melton’s first initial 53 in three tries.
“It was pretty fast. Usually, it takes until the end of the time, but they called me like ASAP,” said Melton with a laugh. “It was a great call, to finally experience being on a team at first. I was excited, just very excited.”
This summer was a bit different for Melton than his previous two. The 5-foot-11, 189-pound receiver proved his mettle late last season, catching 16 passes for 218 yards and a touchdown during Green Bay’s late-season playoff push throughout Green Bay’s late-season playoff drive last season, catching 16 catches for 218 yards and a touchdown.
That included a six-catch, 105-yard night in a 33-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings on New Year’s Eve, which saw Melton become the first Packers receiver to eclipse the century mark in a game that season. Melton built on that performance this summer, capping training camp with an 18-yard touchdown catch in Green Bay’s dominant 30-7 win over Baltimore in its preseason finale.
Still, the 25-year-old wideout knew better than anyone that nothing is certain on cutdown day after starting his first two NFL seasons on the practice squad in Seattle (2022) and Green Bay (2023). The first two years, not getting the call, was definitely a little heartbreaking to me because of all the work I put into the game,” Melton said. “I stayed in the Bible, stayed with the parents and they kept telling me to keep going. Just persevere through hard times. I kept doing that, kept doing that, kept trying and now this year I got the call. I was like, ‘Man, it paid off.'”
Melton never has been short on motivation, but his inner drive hit another gear in July after welcoming the birth of a son, Kylo, the newest member of the uber-athletic Melton family.
The Melton family has always placed a high value on family and sports. Bo’s mother, Vicky, was a Scarlet Knight basketball player, while his father, Gary, was a running back and receiver at Rutgers.
Bo and his younger brother Max attended Rutgers University in their footsteps. This year, Max, a cornerback, joined his older brother in the NFL after being selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round.
Bo and Max communicate with each other all the time. Max rarely talks about football with his older brother, but he went against the grain one time when he called to congratulate Bo on his leaping touchdown grab against Baltimore.
“I talk to him daily, but he hit me up after that catch and we had like an hour talk,” Melton said. “Just seeing how he’s doing and how things are going. He’s a smart guy. He loves football. We don’t get into the intricacies of cutdowns and all that, but I love him to death. We talk about our minds and how we’re doing during camp.”
Blessed with 4.3 speed and a knack for finding the football, Melton has become a trusted playmaker in Green Bay’s offense. His strong finish to last year showed he can be a solid plug-and-play complement to top wideouts Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks.
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