Packers Promote Winfree, Have Two Open Spots on Practice Squad

The Green Bay Packers also lost a defensive player from their practice squad on Tuesday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Randall Cobb and Malik Taylor out with injuries, the Green Bay Packers promoted receiver Juwann Winfree from the practice squad on Tuesday, agent Mike McCartney said.

Winfree was elevated from the practice squad three times this season, including the midseason game at Arizona when Davante Adams, Allen Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling were out of action. In 54 snaps that night, Winfree caught four passes for 30 yards.

With the top receivers skipping the offseason workouts, Winfree separated himself from the rest of young wideouts. A shoulder injury during training camp, however, kept him off the roster.

“With him, physically, I feel great about him,” receivers coach Jason Vrable said last month after the Arizona game. “All training camp, he was winning his one-on-ones. I thought he had a good chance to make the initial roster. I think everybody saw it – the coaches, the scouts. Then he had the injury. But the one thing with him, every week we do tests and the tip sheets and stuff like that. I grade them and I grade him the same way I grade a starter. His tests have been as good if not better than any guy on the field. I can tell his mental capacity of pushing himself every week, even though he hasn’t been active, has been at an all-time high.

“[My concern] wasn’t any of that stuff. It was more just the anxiety. Can he handle it in the heat of the moment? You get a last-second check, which Aaron (Rodgers) did to him the one time, and can you handle it? Can you see it? Can you realize the coverage? All those things that you just don’t know how he’s going to respond or react, but he did an unbelievable job. I was really proud of him.”

Winfree was a sixth-round pick out of Colorado by Denver in 2019. He did not return kicks in college and had not in his two-plus years in the NFL. Taylor had been returning kickoffs, with a 19.3 average on four returns this season.

With Winfree added to the 53-man roster and outside linebacker Nate Orchard signed off the practice squad by Washington, the Packers have two openings on their practice squad.

One was filled with the addition of receiver Josh Malone, who recently worked out for the team. A fourth-round pick out of Tennessee by Cincinnati in 2017, he has 11 career receptions. This year, he spent most of training camp with the Jets and had a one-week stay on Denver's practice squad. At the 2017 Scouting Combine, he measured 6-foot-2 5/8 and ran his 40 in 4.40 seconds.

While Green Bay’s main three receivers are healthy, its depth chart has been stretched thin. Cobb suffered a core-muscle injury vs. the Rams that required surgery. On injured reserve, Cobb will miss at least the next two games but probably more. Taylor returned on Sunday after missing two games with an abdominal injury, only to fumble a kickoff out of bounds before aggravating the injury. And Equanimeous St. Brown, a core player on special teams and a favorite of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, exited the Chicago game with a concussion.