Packers Elevate Abernathy, Winfree: What It Means

Adding Juwann Winfree to the gameday roster was an obvious move with Allen Lazard unlikely to play.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers elevated safety Micah Abernathy and receiver Juwann Winfree from the practice squad on Saturday for Sunday’s season-opening game at the Minnesota Vikings. What do those moves mean?

S Micah Abernathy

The Packers will go with their usual safety tandem of Adrian Amos and Darnell Savage. Savage missed most of training camp with a hamstring injury sustained on Family Night but he practiced all week and was not given an injury designation for the game. That means he’s good to go.

But hamstrings are tricky. Green Bay’s depth at safety consists of Dallin Leavitt, primarily a special-teams player who is coming off a shoulder injury, Rudy Ford, who was signed less than two weeks ago primarily for his play on special teams, and rookie Tariq Carpenter.

If the Packers needed to play one of their backups, Abernathy might be the next man up.

WR Juwann Winfree

This was a no-brainer move. Starter Allen Lazard didn’t practice all week after getting stepped on. He was listed as doubtful and presumably will be among the team’s inactives.

Without Lazard, the Packers will lean on veterans Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb. With plenty of time in Matt LaFleur’s offense, Winfree figures to be in the mix alongside rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.

“I thought Juwann had a nice training camp,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said recently. “We know that at times it’s not a meritocracy. Juwann (is) such a great kid. He’s been here in our room for a long time. He’s one of those guys where you have three opportunities to bring a guy up and down on the p-squad now with the new rules and if he was on the p-squad for us, there’s a good chance he’d be activated on the 48 in the first game.”

Packers-Vikings Injury Report

Of note, the Packers did not downgrade left tackle David Bakhtiari to doubtful for Sunday.

Packers

Doubtful: WR Allen Lazard (ankle; DNP).

Limited: LT David Bakhtiari (knee; DNP), RT Elgton Jenkins (pectoral, knee; limited).

Vikings

Questionable: DT Jonathan Bullard (bicep), S Lewis Cine (knee).