2022 NFL Season To Start With 29 Cal Affiliates

BERKELEY – Cal has 29 former players who finished their collegiate football careers with the Golden Bears affiliated with NFL teams at the beginning of league's 2022 campaign that starts Thursday when the Super Bowl LVI champion Los Angeles Rams host Buffalo at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood (5:20 pm PT).

Cal has 17 players on active NFL rosters with 16 of those looking to make their 2022 debuts Sunday including WR Keenan Allen (Los Angeles Chargers), DE Tyson Alualu (Pittsburgh), TE Stephen Anderson (Arizona), P Bryan Anger (Dallas), S Camryn Bynum (Minnesota), S Ashtyn Davis (New York Jets), QB Jared Goff (Detroit), S Jaylinn Hawkins (Atlanta), S Elijah Hicks (Chicago), WR Marvin Jones Jr. (Jacksonville), DE Cameron Jordan (New Orleans), LB Jordan Kunaszyk (Cleveland), OL Patrick Mekari (Baltimore), QB Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay), TE Richard Rodgers II (Los Angeles Chargers) and TE Jake Tonges (Chicago). OL Jake Curhan (Seattle) begins his campaign Monday when the Seahawks host Denver in final game of Week 1 (5:15 pm PT).

All former Cal players have previously played in a regular-season game in the NFL other than Bears' rookies Hicks and Tonges.

In addition, TE Ian Bunting (Dallas) and CB Josh Drayden (Washington) will start the 2022 season on injured reserved.

Four former Cal players – Chase Garbers (Las Vegas), Cameron Goode (Miami), Davis Webb (New York Giants) and Patrick Laird (Tampa Bay) – will begin the 2022 campaign on practice squads.

Cal also has five former players on NFL coaching staffs including three with Washington in head coach Ron Rivera, assistant linebackers coach/defensive quality control coach Vincent Rivera and assistant defensive backs coach Richard Rodgers, while Austin Clark is the defensive line coach at Miami and Bert Watts the outside linebackers coach for Denver.