Packer Central

Packers Activate Kylin Hill From PUP

Second-year running back Kylin Hill, who suffered a torn ACL a year ago, has been added to the 53-man roster.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers activated running back Kylin Hill from the physically unable to perform list on Wednesday and he will play on Sunday at the Detroit Lions.

Hill suffered a torn ACL while returning a kickoff at Arizona on Oct. 28, 2021. He had been practicing for the last three weeks. Wednesday was the deadline to either add him to the 53 or shut him down for the rest of the season.

“This was my first significant injury in my career,” Hill said recently. “Whenever they tell me it’s time for me to go, I’m going to be ready to go. I feel great. I feel like the same old me.”

Hill spent months rehabbing alongside left tackle David Bakhtiari, who suffered a torn ACL on New Year’s Eve 2020, tight end Robert Tonyan, who suffered a torn ACL in the same game as Hill, and offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins, who went down with his ACL injury three weeks later.

“We were pushing each other all time,” Hill said. “Dave, he had been through the ACL recovery long than we have, so he was a big help for all of us.”

A seventh-round pick in 2021, Hill carried 10 times for 24 yards (2.4 average; long of 8) and caught one pass for 5 yards in eight games as a rookie. While he averaged only 19.9 yards per kickoff return, he did have the season’s longest – a 41-yarder in Week 2 vs. Detroit that was the team’s best since 2015.

Hill will assume the mantle of No. 3 back that had been held by Patrick Taylor. The Packers released Taylor on Tuesday, a transaction that foreshadowed Wednesday’s move with Hill. While the Packers have an excellent one-two punch with Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, they’ll likely find a way to get Hill involved at some point. If so, he’ll be ready.

“Just learning the game, getting my overall perspective of the playbook,” Hill said during the offseason of what he gained from missing the second half of last season. “I know the playbook and I know the playbook like the back of my hand now. Just watching guys and hearing other guys who went through ACLs, telling me to keep my head like always.”

In other injury- and roster-related news, linebacker Krys Barnes has been designated for return following an ankle injury sustained in the opener at Minnesota. As was the case with Hill, that opens the three-week window to add him to the 53-man roster or place him on season-ending injured reserve.

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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.

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