It was only a year ago when James Ester was regularly tearing through opposing offensive lines as the leading man on NIU’s defense. His veteran experience made him a respected voice in the Huskies’ locker room. 

Now, Ester is back to being the rookie in the room as he lives out his lifelong dream of playing in the National Football League.

Ester is midway through his first season with the Green Bay Packers as a member of the team’s practice squad. The Packers signed Ester as an undrafted free agent out of NIU on April 27, shortly after the conclusion of the 2024 NFL Draft.

“It’s been nothing but a blessing, honestly,” Ester said. “It’s what you dream about your whole life when you play football.”

As of Nov. 19, Ester is one of three NIU alums signed to an NFL roster, along with Pittsburgh Steelers guard Max Scharping and Houston Texans safety Jimmie Ward.

The Detroit native’s ability to stick on an NFL roster thus far isn’t a surprise to his former head coach Thomas Hammock, who brought in Ester as one of his first recruits after taking the NIU job in 2019.

“He cares; he loves the game; he’s a competitor, and he played really, really well for us,” Hammock said. “And so when you start looking at the NFL, they want guys like James Ester.”

Hammock knows a thing or two about what it takes to be in the NFL. Before he was NIU’s head man, Hammock coached running backs for the Baltimore Ravens from 2014 to 2018.

With a coaching career dating back to 2003, Hammock has worked with hundreds of players. The former NIU running back said watching pupils like Ester grow and develop under his tutelage is a very rewarding experience.

“Makes you feel good as a coach,” Hammock said. “That’s what you do it for – to help guys reach their full potential. And James was the type of young man that was going to get everything out of his potential as possible. And so he was easy to coach and certainly easy to root for.”

Gaining pro experience

In the nearly half year since he arrived in Titletown, Ester said he’s been able to learn from teammates – especially veterans like Kenny Clark, Rashan Gary and Preston Smith before he was traded to Pittsburgh on Nov. 5.

“Kenny, RG are constantly giving gems and just trying to let me know what’s going on and the right way to do things in order to stay in this league,” Ester said. “Preston Smith, he’s been in the league 10 years now, so he knows, if anybody knows, how to keep a job in this league. I’m taking everything they say and trying to put it to use every day.”

Ester saw his first NFL action Aug. 10 when the Packers visited the Cleveland Browns in their preseason opener. With 12:09 left in the fourth quarter, Ester took the field to make his NFL debut. When his big moment came, he didn’t have any butterflies in his stomach. After all, he’d played plenty of football during his college days.

“You just kind of take in the moment, get the play, line up and do what you know how to do,” Ester said. “But it’s an amazing feeling to know how far I came, how long I’ve been playing this game to get to this level.”

The Packers went on to beat the Browns 23-10 and split their next two games to finish the preseason 2-1. Ester finished his first preseason having played 69 snaps, recording two QB hurries, a batted pass and two assisted tackles.

Waiting for an opportunity

When Ester eventually became one of the nearly 1,200 players cut Aug. 19 as NFL teams trimmed their rosters from 90 players to meet the league’s 53-man roster, he had already known for a while what his fate would be. He knew how stiff his competition on the defensive line was.

“You just take it for what it is,” Ester said. “I kind of had an understanding of my position. I’m really just striving to find a way to stick around here, because I think I can make a name for myself.”

Ester also said he was offered a spot on the Packers’ practice squad at the same time he was notified that he’d been waived, so there “wasn’t too much sadness that day.”

As a practice squad player, Ester isn’t one of the guys you see on the field on Sundays (or Mondays or Thursdays). He also doesn’t make nearly as much as a player on the active roster – his current salary being $946,000, according to Spotrac.

But Ester’s football future is far from bleak. As Hammock said, a practice squad player is only “one snap away” from being promoted to the active roster.

“The one thing people don’t realize about the practice squad is you are an NFL player on the practice squad,” Hammock said. “You are only one snap away, and a lot of things happen where those guys get elevated all the time.”

With hundreds of players having already been promoted from practice squads this season, Hammock believes it’s only a matter of time until Ester gets his shot.

“I’m sure his time is coming; I’m sure he’ll be ready for the moment and I can’t wait to watch him play.”