Packer Central

Hits Keep Coming: Rivers Tears ACL

Chauncey Rivers had been the No. 4 outside linebacker without Za'Darius Smith. Now, that will be La'Darius Hamilton

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers suffered another blow when backup outside linebacker Chauncey Rivers suffered a torn ACL toward the end of Wednesday’s practice.

When the Packers announce the transaction on Thursday or later this week, he will be the fourth player placed on injured reserve since the start of the regular season. Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith is out indefinitely following back surgery, while receiver Dominique Dafney (hip) and receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (hamstring) are out with less significant injuries.

Without Smith the past three weeks, Rivers was the No. 4 outside linebacker behind starters Preston Smith (177 snaps) and Rashan Gary (170) and top backup Jonathan Garvin (86). Rivers played 54 snaps, that number climbing from 11 in Weeks 1 and 2 to 13 in Week 3 to 19 last week against Pittsburgh.

Claimed off waivers from Baltimore with Za’Darius Smith sidelined early in training camp, Rivers had two tackles and one quarterback pressure in his four appearances.

The next man up is La’Darius Hamilton, who was grabbed off Tampa Bay’s practice squad on Sept. 17 following Smith’s placement on injured reserve. He did not play in any of his three games on the roster.

“He’s got a good demeanor about him,” outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said a couple weeks ago as part of the accompanying video. “He’s a tough guy. He’s a little bit undersized, he’s got that built in leverage, so he’s got a lot of strength to him. We establish power in the game. You know, we’re going to break your damn will.”

The 6-foot-3, 260-pounder went undrafted out of North Texas in 2020 and spent his rookie season on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad. In 2018, North Texas unveiled a statue to honor Hall of Famer “Mean Joe” Greene. That week, Hamilton was given Greene’s retired No. 75 jersey to wear against Louisiana Tech.

“When they first told me [Greene] said I could wear the jersey I was like, ‘This has got to be a joke, right?'” Hamilton told North Texas Daily. “We get to the game and I put it on and I’m wearing the jersey just standing there like, ‘This is crazy.’ So, I go out and I see he’s sitting there by the gate and he tells me, ‘Man, just relax, I’ve had a lot of good games in that jersey and I also had some bad ones, just go out there and play.’ So, that kind of eased the nerves and the tension of the game but at the same time, this is Mean Joe’s jersey so it was definitely a great experience and a huge honor to wear that jersey.”

If the Packers promote Tipa Galeai from the practice squad, a corresponding roster move will have to be made.

Next Story

Published
Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

Home/Injuries