Jaguars Place Dede Westbrook on IR, Activate Aaron Lynch to Roster
The Jacksonville Jaguars made two roster moves on Monday afternoon, one of which likely ends the season of one of their most experienced receivers.
The Jaguars announced Monday that wide receiver Dede Westbrook had been added to the team's reserve/injured list with a knee injury. Westbrook was carted off of the field following the injury, which was inflicted while Westbrook was returning a kick.
Head coach Doug Marrone did not have specifics on Westbrook's injury after the game aside from it being a "pretty significant" injury. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported on Monday morning that the team "feared" an ACL tear for the fourth-year player.
Westbrook is tied for the second-most NFL experience among the team's receivers, trailing just Chris Conley and joining fellow fourth-year receiver Keelan Cole. Westbrook, a fourth-round (No. 110 overall) has been active in two games this season, catching one pass for four yards and returning four kicks for 89 yards and four punts for 44 yards.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars also activated defensive end/outside linebacker Aaron Lynch to the active roster. Lynch has not played a game this season after retiring from the league in August, though he came out of retirement last week. He has now officially joined the team after being activated from the exempt/commissioner permission list to the active roster.
“You know, obviously he’s not in the building, we’ve got to wait six days for all the protocol stuff to kick through. He’s able to be in meetings by Zoom and what we see is a real long athlete, has the ability to rush the passer," defensive coordinator Todd Wash said last Thursday.
"Obviously, we were excited about him when we signed him in the offseason. [He] had a little time off, so it’s going to take him some time to get back into shape, but once he gets back in here and gets working out, I think we’re going to see the player that we signed in free agency; it’s the ability to play on the line of scrimmage and affect the quarterback.”
Lynch, a seventh-year veteran, was drafted in the fifth-round (No. 150 overall) by the San Francisco 49ers in 2014. At the time, current Jaguars director of player personnel Trent Baalke was the 49ers' general manager.
In 2019, Lynch played in all 16 games with the Chicago Bears and recorded six tackles, 2.0 sacks and two passes defensed. Before spending the last two seasons with the Bears, Lynch played four seasons for the 49ers from 2014-17. In 2015, he started 13 games and registered career highs in tackles (38), sacks (6.5) and tackles for loss (13). In his first two seasons, he recorded 12.5 sacks. He has recorded 7.5 sacks in the four seasons since.
