MISSOULA — Montana natives Dylan Cook and Patrick O'Connell survived the NFL's initial round of cuts Sunday to make it onto the 53-player active rosters for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks, respectively.
Cook, from Butte, and O'Connell, from Kalispell, both played in college for the Montana Grizzlies. They were the only former Griz to make it onto active NFL rosters after Junior Bergen and Michael Wortham were waived Sunday by the New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars. Wortham, who returned a punt for a touchdown in Jacksonville's preseason game against Tampa Bay, signed with the Jaguars' practice squad Monday.
Three former Montana State Bobcats — Daniel Hardy with the Chicago Bears, Ty Okada with the Seahawks and Alex Singleton with the Denver Broncos — also made it onto active NFL rosters. Lance McCutcheon was waived by the Tennessee Titans, and Troy Andersen was let go by the Atlanta Falcons in early August.
At least 20 former Big Sky Conference players are on NFL rosters as of Aug. 30. Eastern Washington has a conference-high four players in the NFL: wide receivers Kendrick Bourne (Arizona Cardinals), Efton Chism III (New England Patriots) and Cooper Kupp (Seahawks) and defensive end Samson Ebukam (Falcons).
The Seahawks have four former Big Sky players on their active roster, the most of any team in NFL. Along with O'Connell, Okada and Kupp, former Weber State receiver Rashid Shaheed is on the Seahawks' roster.
NFL teams were required to cut their rosters down to 53 players on Sunday. They will also fill 16-player practice squads in the coming days.
Keyshawn James-Newby, a Helena High School alum, signed with the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad Monday. James-Newby started his college career at Montana Tech before playing at Idaho and New Mexico. The Eagles selected James-Newby in the seventh round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Below is a list of players with Big Sky colleges listed on NFL active rosters. Players who played at Big Sky programs but finished their college careers in other conferences (like Teddye Buchanan, who started at UC Davis before finishing his college career at California) are not included.
Please email any errors or omissions to scores@montanasports.com.
Montana — Dylan Cook, OL, Pittsburgh Steelers; Patrick O'Connell, LB, Seattle Seahawks.
Montana State — Daniel Hardy, DE, Chicago Bears; Ty Okada, DB, Seattle Seahawks; Alex Singleton, LB, Denver Broncos.
Cal Poly — Elijah Ponder, LB, New England Patriots.
Eastern Washington — Kendrick Bourne, WR, Arizona Cardinals; Efton Chism III, WR, New England Patriots; Samson Ebukam, DE, Atlanta Falcons; Cooper Kupp, WR, Seattle Seahawks.
Idaho — Kaden Elliss, LB, New Orleans Saints; Christian Elliss, LB, New England Patriots; Hogan Hatten, LS, Detroit Lions.
Northern Arizona — Khalil Dorsey, CB, Detroit Lions.
Southern Utah — Braxton Jones, OT, Chicago Bears; Miles Killebrew, DB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
UC Davis — Daniel Whelan, P, Green Bay Packers.
Weber State — Taron Johnson, CB, Las Vegas Raiders; Winston Reid, LB, Cleveland Browns; Rashid Shaheed, WR, Seattle Seahawks.
