What Packers’ Roster Moves Mean

The Green Bay Packers placed center Corey Linsley on injured reserve and elevated two players for Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers placed center Corey Linsley on injured reserve on Saturday, meaning the standout man in the middle of the offensive line will miss at least the next three games.

It’s been a rough second half of the season for Linsley. He missed most of the Week 11 game at Indianapolis with an injured back but returned to start the Week 12 game against Chicago, only to suffer a knee injury on the opening series. The MCL injury potentially could hold him out for the rest of the regular season.

Playing his final season under contract, Linsley was having an excellent season. According to Sports Info Solutions, he has not allowed a sack in the passing game or a stuff (tackle at or behind the line) in the running game. He has not been penalized, either.

So, not only was Linsley blocking opposing defenders but he was blocking out the potential distractions of contract uncertainty.

“I know it sounds just weird or like a cheesy answer but it is what it is,” Linsley said. “I feel like this season itself is just so crazy. And it’s week to week. I really don’t have time to just sit back and wonder and twiddle my thumbs and all that stuff. I’m just playing week in and week out for my teammates and for myself and for my family. It is what it is and the chips are going to fall however they fall. There’s nothing I can do about that besides playing at a high level and, if I don’t, regroup and get that back the following week.”

Linsley played every snap in the 2017 and 2018 seasons and started every game in 2019, as well. His 68-game regular-season starts streak will end on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Green Bay made two additional transactions on Saturday.

Elevated

G Ben Braden: With Linsley down and starting right guard Lucas Patrick battling an injured toe, the Packers needed some depth. That depth is Braden, who initially was added to the practice squad on Oct. 21. Officially, he’s a COVID-19 elevation and will take the place of running back AJ Dillon on the roster.

Braden (6-6, 329) was signed to the active roster for the Week 7 game at Houston and elevated to the gameday roster for the Week 9 game at San Francisco. An undrafted free agent in 2017, he played four offensive snaps in that game against the 49ers. Those were the first scrimmage snaps of his career.

Braden was a three-year starter at Michigan, including earning second-team all-Big Ten as a senior. He played right tackle as a sophomore, guard as a junior and split time between left guard and left tackle as a senior. He spent the first half of the 2019 season on Green Bay’s practice squad.

“He’s a blue-collar dude that was here last year for a little bit so he learned the system a little bit last year,” offensive line coach Adam Stenavich said this week as part of the accompanying video.

TE Dominique Dafney: Dafney (6-2, 243) started his career at Iowa Western Community College in 2016 and played special teams at Iowa in 2017 and 2018 before finishing his career at Indiana State in 2019.

Dafney went undrafted this year and spent part of training camp with the Colts. The Packers added him to the practice squad on Oct. 12.

A receiver at Indiana State, Dafney ranked No. 2 on the team with 439 rushing yards after carrying the ball during the final four games of the season out of the wildcat package. For the season, he scored seven touchdowns (six rushing and one receiving) and had 635 all-purpose yards (439 rushing yards plus 196 receiving on 15 catches). Dafney was named second-team all-Missouri Valley Football Conference at fullback as well as to the MVFC all-newcomer team and the MVFC academic honor roll.

Dafney closed his collegiate career in style by rushing for 244 yards and scoring five touchdowns at Missouri State to end the season. It was the fourth-most rushing yards in program history.

“It means everything to me to go out there and show what I could do,” he said after the game. “Whether it’s receiver, running back, quarterback, whatever? A dude from Iowa can go down on the football field and I can do what I can do. The fact that they believed in me means everything.”