Packers-Bears Thursday Injury Report: Doubs Returns

The Green Bay Packers’ outlook at receiver brightened on a dreary Thursday with the return to practice of starting receiver Romeo Doubs.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Sep 7, 2023 10:38 PM EDT

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ receiver corps, facing the specter of having only one player available who’s played in a regular-season game, got some good news on Thursday when starting receiver Romeo Doubs returned to practice.

Doubs had been out with a hamstring injury, his last appearance on the field being exactly two weeks ago at the practice before the Aug. 26 preseason finale against the Seahawks. During the media-viewing window, Doubs (and the other receivers) ran a couple half-speed deep routes along with a closer-to-full-speed red-zone route. (See the accompanying video.)

Doubs talked to reporters for about 5 minutes. On several occasions, he said it was a “pretty good day.” He deflected to coach Matt LaFleur on whether he’d be ready for Sunday, though he did let his guard down once.

Asked when he thought he’d turned a corner, he said: “Just throughout this entire week, I thought just some of the things I’ve been doing just within this building, I thought I’ve been doing a tremendous job. We’re days away from Sunday, but I can’t wait to play.”

Officially, he was limited participation.

“He looked good,” LaFleur said after practice. “He took a couple reps in each team period and all the routes on air. He looked good. We’re not going to put him in a position to miss a longer period of time. If he’s feeling good, he’ll be out there.”

Doubs’ tag-team partner, fellow receiver Christian Watson, did not practice for a second consecutive day.

Doubs’ availability for Sunday’s season-opening game at the Chicago Bears could provide a huge lift for Green Bay’s young passing attack. Its entire receiver corps will step onto Soldier Field with 88 career receptions. As rookies, Doubs caught 42 passes, Watson caught 41 and Samori Toure caught five.

They are joined on the 53-man roster by rookies Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks and Malik Heath. The team’s primary tight end, Luke Musgrave, also is a rookie.

“They’ve both done a really good job, growing every day and coming in with a fresh mindset,” quarterback Jordan Love said of Reed and Musgrave, a pair of second-round picks who earned starting jobs.

“They’re getting better. They’ve taken some strides. Football is always next man up. Injuries happen, things happen. If you’re a backup, you’ve always got to be ready. But we all have confidence in these guys. They’ve done a really good job so far. I’m excited for them to get their opportunity.”

That Doubs practiced on Thursday isn’t a guarantee that he’ll play on Sunday, let alone play well. For any injured player, one of the big tests is how the injury feels the next day. So, Doubs’ presence at Friday’s practice would be the larger indicator of his availability against the Bears.

Along with Watson, left tackle David Bakhtiari did not practice during the media window. He started practice riding a stationary bike inside the Hutson Center.

On Bakhtiari, LaFleur said there’s no holdups physically and he’ll be in the lineup on Sunday. It’s possible he’ll practice on Friday.

“I’ll be real,” Bakhtiari said. “Every year I play, it takes less and less practice to knock the rust off and then be like, ‘All right.’ I know a bunch of the older guys who used to play would just hit a point where it’s like, ‘Just give me a couple of walk-throughs, make sure I’m fresh and I can go out there and feel good.’ As long as I can feel my angles out and all that and kind of a quick refresher. That’s kind of how I feel about at this point.”