How the hell am I supposed to know who this is?

In an occasional feature, we briefly highlight any of the lesser-known players that make an unexpected impact during camp, preseason or the regular season.

Today, we focus on wide receiver Hamze El-Zayat:

What he did:

We hadn't really heard El-Zayat's name through camp, other than when he went down with a knee injury about a week ago.

However, with a couple of other receivers out he made some catches in the Green-White scrimmage including a couple from Aaron Rodgers:

Rodgers gets another series. 1st down is a target for Conklin, but Tony Adams makes a great play to break it up. 2nd down is a deep in breaker to El-Zayat for a conversion and then some. Rookie is making the most of his reps.
— Brandyn Pokrass (@BPok24) August 3, 2024

He also made a third down catch in traffic from Rodgers down near the red zone.

Outlook:

El-Zayat faces an uphill climb to make the active roster but if he can show enough promise, the team might be interested in developing him on the practice squad. Impressing Rodgers by getting on the end of some of his passes gives him a chance.

He is small and quick, although his 40-yard dash at his pro day was slower than expected at 4.64 and making the most of his chance to get some reps in the slot while Xavier Gipson is missing time due to injury.

The rookie's easiest route to the active roster would be to win the return specialist role but it sounds like he hasn't even been practicing with that group much. At least in preseason there will be opportunities for the return specialists to actually make an impact rather than just watching touchbacks sail over their heads.

More on El-Zayat:

Here's our in-depth scouting report on El-Zayat.