Not that it mattered – Aaron Rodgers’ injury crippled the Green Bay Packers’ chances last year – but in early September, soon-to-be-former general manager Ted Thompson made two big mistakes when he trimmed the final roster down to its league-mandated 53 players.

The first was one letting go of former BYU quarterback Taysom Hill.

The second, and most prescient given the current roster makeup, was letting Reggie Gilbert sit on the practice squad for all but two games.

Gilbert, who went undrafted out of Arizona, came into Green Bay from a 4-3 system where he played with his hand in the dirt. As expected, it took Gilbert some time, but he eventually found his way during his second year in training camp. Through four preseason games, Gilbert collected two sacks and eight tackles.

By late August, it looked like Gilbert was well on his way to becoming that next undrafted Packer who cuts his teeth as an unheralded undrafted free agent on the practice squad before eventually making an impact on the active roster.

Then nothing.

On a team that signed Ahmad Brooks to bring in emergency veteran depth, it was puzzling as to why Thompson thought it best to leave Gilbert on the practice squad.

Nevertheless, once the season was out of reach, the Packers brought up Gilbert, who in turn flashed glimpses of playmaking ability akin to what we saw during the preseason, concluding with a Week 17 sack of Matthew Stafford. He also added four pressures against Vikings’ quarterback Case Keenum as well as three hits, per Jason Wilde of the Wisconsin State Journal.

For Gilbert, the last two weeks were merely vindication of his hard work and talent. From his teammates’ perspective, they were surprised it even took that long.

“I was glad you asked about (Gilbert),” Matthews said, according Michael Cohen of PackersNews.com. “I was going to bring something up. I’m really happy for Reggie that he got an opportunity. I joked with him after the Carolina game looking at the number of injuries at outside linebacker that he should go upstairs and make a case for being on the active roster, and he must’ve listened to me. Or it was just coincidence that he got activated.”

Coincidence or not, it wasn’t just Matthews who understood what Gilbert was bringing to the table as a practice squad member – or what he could contribute if given a shot on the roster. Other high-pedigree players on the Packers also sung praise for No. 93.

“He’s good,” left tackle David Bakhtiari said. “I’ve gone against him a lot, me and Bryan (Bulaga) have. We’ve been kind of baffled that he hasn’t had his chance.”

“To be honest, I’m not too shocked about his production,” Bakhtiari said.

“I tell you what,” Matthews said. “I’ve never seen a guy that’s progressed as much as he has over the past two years. And I think that stems from the way in which he practices.”

“Being on the practice squad and going up against guys like Dave (Bakhtiari) and (Bryan) Bulaga…he probably gives them the most fits in practice,” Matthews said.

Based on a solid, albeit small, sample of production and peer feedback, the steam is beginning to billow through the chimney on the Reggie Gilbert hype train. The momentum began late last season, but it’s continued its year-long stretch into rookie orientation – in which Gilbert was still eligible to attend.

“I’ll tell you what, Reggie Gilbert looks great,” Mike McCarthy said at the team’s rookie orientation camp in May, according to Jason Wilde of the Wisconsin State Journal.

“It’s incredible what he’s done in his time here,” McCarthy said, echoing much of what Matthews alluded to in December.

There’s still a long road – nay, track – ahead for Gilbert and the Packers. And despite the momentum, both Gilbert and second-year outside linebacker Vince Biegel have to bear the weight of significant playing time and expectations.

Matthews and Nick Perry are penciled in as the front-line starters, but both are injury prone and pass rushers work best in a steady rotation. Kyler Fackrell hasn’t been consistent enough, so expect Gilbert to have every shot at getting snaps.

The Packers took a flyer on the seventh round on Kendall Donnerson, but he’s much more of a project than anything else at this point. The Packers need Gilbert to produce.

Brian Gutekunst avoided any high-dollar pass-rushing free agents, and while there’s still time to sign someone like Connor Barwin for additional depth, it’s clear the Packers as a roster are flying a little close to the sun.

“You look at the depth at the outside linebacker position and it’s not that great,” Matthews said during OTAs in May, via PackersNews.com. “That’s not a slight to the guys who are behind Nick and myself, but you look around the league, a lot of times they’re rotating in pass rushers. You can look a couple years ago when we had Mike Neal and Julius (Peppers) here, Datone (Jones) as well. We had a pretty good rotation.”

The pass rushing machine, significantly fractured by injuries and a disinterested secondary in 2017, will need a B-team buttressed by Gilbert if this defense is to develop material improvements from last year. And if injuries strike? Well, they – the roster architects – are going to get burned.

With training camp only 15 days out, hopefully Reggie Gilbert doesn’t eat too much of mom’s spaghetti, for this is his shot, his opportunity.