Packer Central

Packers Sign Proven Punt Returner

Hours after releasing Amari Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers might have signed his explosive replacement.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers might have found their replacement for Amari Rodgers.

A source confirmed a report by ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter that the team has signed veteran receiver Dede Westbrook to its practice squad. The source called it a "perfect fit" for team and player.

A fourth-round pick in 2017 by the Jacksonville Jaguars, Westbrook has 170 career receptions. That includes back-to-back seasons of 66 receptions for the Jaguars in 2018 and 2019. After missing most of the 2020 season with a torn ACL, he caught 10 passes last year for Minnesota.

For Green Bay, the attraction could be Westbrook’s history as a returner, especially in light of Tuesday’s release of 2021 third-round pick Amari Rodgers. In five seasons, he’s averaged 9.3 yards per punt return. He had a 74-yard touchdown for the Jaguars in 2018. Last year with the Vikings, he averaged 8.3 yards on 22 runbacks.

Critically, in light of the release of Rodgers, he’s got eight career fumbles; Rodgers had seven in less than two seasons.

The Packers also signed outside linebacker Tim Ward to their practice squad. Ward played his college ball at Old Dominion, where he had 14 sacks in four seasons, and entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Chiefs in 2019. He’s played in 12 games and collected his only sack while making his only career start against the Chargers to end the 2021 season.

Ward played in 11 games for the Jets last season, finishing with 12 tackles and two passes defensed. The Jets cut him midway through camp this summer.

Back to Westbrook, this could be an impact signing. Punt return is dangerous duty, with the returner focused on the football while 10 players run downfield to tackle him. How does he keep his focus?

“Pssh, being a bad kid, I guess,” he said last year while with the Vikings. “I used to have rock wars when I was a little kid, 8 years old, throwing rocks at each other. That helped me a lot.”

A native of Cameron, Texas, he and his friends engaged in “Chinaberry fights” in which the berries become ammo.

“I’m from the country,” he said. “I'm from a population of 5,000 people, so we've got to make fun, you know what I mean?”

At Oklahoma, Westbrook was a Heisman Trophy finalist as a senior in 2016, when he caught 80 passes for 1,524 yards and 17 touchdowns and added another touchdown on a punt return.

Before the 2017 draft, Westbrook measured 5-foot-11 5/8 and 178 pounds and ran his 40 in 4.39 seconds.

He is driven by the struggles of his mother.

“I was in my bedroom and I heard my mother crying in her room and I went to check on her around three-something in the morning and she had a bill in her hand," Westbrook recalled to First Coast News.

"She was crying and saying pretty much that she wasn't going to be able to pay the light bill and the lights were about to get cut off. Then she made me make a promise to her that night in the room, pretty much stating that ‘Dede, whatever you do, I want you to go crazy with everything that you do, no matter where life takes you.’”

“Go Crazy” became Westbrook’s motto and brand.

“I know that there are young kids out there with stories similar to mine or worse stories than me and I want to mentor the youth, motivate them and show them there is an outlet,” Westbrook said. “For example, there could be a one-word phrase or many more things that can help you get out and go and do something that best fits you or helps you in life.”

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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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