Packers add depth at tight end by signing veteran Jonnu Smith to 1-year deal

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Packers add depth at tight end by signing veteran Jonnu Smith to 1-year deal

2026-08-28 02:01 Last Updated At：02:10

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers have addressed their depth issues at tight end by signing veteran Jonnu Smith to a one-year contract.

Rosenhaus Sports, which represents Smith, announced the signing in a social media post on Thursday.

Smith, 31, caught 38 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns last season in 17 games with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who released him in March. He has 345 receptions for 3,529 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career.

Green Bay expects starting tight end Tucker Kraft to be available for the start of the regular season after he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament last November, but the Packers lacked proven options behind him while Luke Musgrave recovers from a neck injury.

Smith made the Pro Bowl in 2024 while catching 88 passes for 884 yards and eight touchdowns with the Miami Dolphins, setting or matching career highs in all three categories.

Green Bay will be his fifth team in as many seasons. He played for New England from 2021-22 and was with Atlanta in 2023 before going to Miami two years ago and Pittsburgh last season.

He spent his first four seasons with the Tennessee Titans, who selected him out of Florida International in the third round of the 2017 draft.

Smith now gets a chance to back up Kraft, who caught 32 passes for 489 yards and six touchdowns in eight games before getting injured last season.

Green Bay also returns Josh Whyle, who caught five passes for 36 yards and one touchdown in eight games for Green Bay last season. Another Green Bay tight end is Drake Dabney, who played two games in 2025.

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' in the United States

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States as he exacerbates his trade war with Canada.

The Republican president signed an executive order that updated the lake's name for the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.

Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Trump has been needling America’s northern neighbor since he returned to the White House last year, suggesting the ally with whom the U.S. once had warm relations should instead be absorbed as the 51st state.

Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment

Trump, who signed the order as he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him propped on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.”

On the other wide of the president was another map with the words, “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

He told reporters that Canada is “the worst” to deal with on trade. “They feel entitled and we can’t have that,” he said.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along.

The move, which Trump said was “effective immediately,” is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.’”

Trump on Thursday suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished.

“So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”