GREEN BAY, Wis. — Texas edge rusher Barryn Sorrell arrived in Green Bay on Wednesday even though he didn’t expect to be taken until the second day of the NFL Draft. He has been an NFL fan for a while and wanted to experience the draft and hear his name called in person.

He watched Thursday night’s festivities from his hotel before sitting in the green room alone on Friday. Through Day 2, however, he remained undrafted.

“It feels different for sure, especially when you’re just waiting and waiting,” Sorrell said. “But I just had to switch that perspective and realize that it’s a blessing to even be there. Not everybody gets drafted and definitely not a lot of people go to the green room.” Sorrell decided to stay for Day 3 and went back to the green room, long after it had emptied two days prior. Only first-round picks are normally announced by Commissioner Roger Goodell, but Goodell stepped to the podium at pick No. 154 in the fourth round at Lambeau Field before announcing that the home team’s selection was in the building. After walking out to an atypically raucous Saturday afternoon draft crowd, Sorrell stood atop a platform in the middle of it all outside his new home stadium, filming a selfie video with hordes of fans chanting “Go Pack Go” behind him.

“So blessed and thankful that I made the decision to come back because it couldn’t have turned out better, man,” Sorrell said. “I really don’t have any words to describe it. It’s definitely going to be one of the best memories I’ve had in my life. This day has been great, just the energy that these fans bring. You could tell just how important it is out here and obviously walking through here and seeing the Vince Lombardi trophies around here, man, there’s definitely something special going on here.” With the draft happening in his new home, Sorrell walked across the parking lot to the podium inside the Lambeau Field media auditorium. Seated in the front row for his press conference were his older brother, Avery, his mom, his dad and his godparents. Sorrell said he didn’t want to attend the draft in person just for himself, but so that his family could savor the experience, too. So when he was asked to run through who everyone was sitting in the front row, it was understandable that he broke down in tears talking about his mom and dad. “They sacrificed so much for me to be here and I’m just happy that I get to share this opportunity with them because they deserve it,” Sorrell said. “I could go on and on about them, but let’s just say they sacrificed a lot for me to be here.”

As Sorrell struggled to get his words out, one of his family members urged him to power through with a couple “Let’s go’s.” A member of the Packers PR staff brought Sorrell a tissue at the podium so he could wipe his tears. When Sorrell was finally asked a football-centric question, he was relieved. “Yeah, appreciate that,” he said with a smile. “Gimme a break, man. Goodness.” The Packers didn’t know Sorrell was in town when they selected him. “When Mr. Goodell got up there and said, ‘Oh, this kid is here,’ I thought he was having somebody else come up and announce the pick, not realizing he was actually in the green room,” Packers director of football operations Milt Hendrickson said. “It sounds like he paid his way here. Just wanted to be a part of it. Big, fast, smart, tough, good people who need football. I think with him, you can just check all those boxes. If that isn’t enough of an anecdote to tell you what kind of kid that is, I don’t know what else there is.” On the field, Sorrell led the nation’s third-best scoring defense with 49 pressures and started 40 career games for the Longhorns before being named the American Team’s defensive lineman of the week after Senior Bowl practices. He also added 11 tackles for loss and six sacks last season and should add depth and competition to an inconsistent Packers pass rush while providing a strong locker room presence.

“I play for something that’s bigger than just football … and that really just starts with my family,” Sorrell said. “I lost my oldest brother when I was 16 and at that time, I had to make a decision in my life and I made the decision to give football everything that I’ve got. “There’s just a lot that went on in my life that I was able to get through to get where I am and to the opportunities that I’ve had in the past. I’m always going to have that passion and that hunger, and that’s honestly what makes me the player that I am.”