You don’t have to be a star to be a part of history. Sometimes you just have to be there.

Mike Montgomery fits the bill for the second definition. He was never a core part of shaping Packers history, but he was right there on the front lines.

It started the moment he entered the league. Montgomery joined the Packers as a sixth round pick in 2005. Montgomery was a true son of Texas. He had been born there. He played his high school ball there. He played his college football at Texas A&M. You’d think it would take a unique alignment of circumstances to get him out of the Lone Star State, and as it happened, that’s exactly what went down.

But Montgomery wasn’t just a random selection. He was a key part of Ted Thompson’s first draft class as the general manager of the Green Bay Packers — arguably his greatest and most important work during his long run in that role.

You know the headliner of the 2005 class: Aaron Rodgers is as big of a name as it gets in Packers history. Thompson followed up that selection with Terrance Murphy, an athletic and exciting wide receiver whose career was unfortunately cut short due to injury, and Nick Collins, an equally exciting safety who may have been on track for the Hall of Fame before an injury ended his career, too.

Rodgers and Collins would be bedrock pieces of a Super Bowl-winning roster a few years later, but Thompson also needed a few bridge pieces to get him through the rebuild from Mike Sherman’s misspent years as the Packers’ general manager, and to that end he made eight picks in the final four rounds of the 2005 NFL Draft. They included Long-time special teamer Brady Poppinga, backup defensive backs Marviel Underwood and Michael Hawkins, offensive linemen Junius Coston and Will Whitticker, and Montgomery.

Many of those late-round picks came and went quickly. Hawkins and Underwood both played a single season in Green Bay, as did Whitticker. Coston held on through 2007. But Montgomery persevered, appearing in 58 games across six seasons in Green Bay, including eight starts in 2008.

He was never statistically dominant, but he hung around, witnessing some significant moments in the process. He was there for the transition from Mike Sherman to Mike McCarthy. He was on the field for Brett Favre’s final game with the Packers, logging three tackles in the 2007 NFC Championship loss to the Giants. He was there for Aaron Rodgers’ first start. He even returned to the Packers for two games during their 2010 Super Bowl season after departing for a training camp stint with the Vikings after the 2009 season, one that saw him released in the same roster cutdown that also eliminated former Packers wide receiver Javon Walker.

And during all that, Montgomery put up a workmanlike five sacks, taking down a murderer’s row of backup quarterbacks and middling starters including Kyle Orton, Joey Harrington, Kerry Collins, and Marc Bulger. Five sacks isn’t enough to make a big dent in the Packers’ record books, but it’s more than enough to prove Montgomery belonged in the NFL, and he did.

He was never a star, and most players aren’t. But he was there, and earned every rep he got along the way.