Green Bay Packers Make a Cut & Add 2 New Players to Practice Squad

On Wednesday, the Green Bay Packers made several roster moves, including a cut, along with two new practice squad additions.

With injuries to account for and an opening on the practice squad, the Green Bay Packers would end up making three roster moves on Wednesday. The first came as a surprise to many as Green Bay would cut the recently signed Daylon Mack from the practice squad.

Mack was an experienced player coming out of Texas A&M in 2019 but has had trouble finding a home in the NFL. Although still raw, you can see the upside in his game. However, that wasn’t enough for him to stick around in Green Bay.

So with Krys Barnes on the 53-man roster and Mack no longer with the team, Green Bay had two open spots on the practice squad to fill, which led to the additions of offensive tackle Ryan Pope and defensive tackle Billy Winn. Two positions the Packers currently lack depth at.

The 6’7″ – 315 pound Pope is a second-year player out of San Diego State who signed with Detroit after the 2019 draft and spent the season on the San Francisco and Jacksonville practice squads. This summer, he remained with Jacksonville but spent most of training camp on their reserve/COVID-19 list before being cut.

Clearly, Pope has excellent size, and he’s also a very good athlete as well, registering a Relative Athletic Score of 8.18 out of 10. For a closer look at Pope’s game, Joe Marino of The Draft Network had to say in his pre-draft scouting report:

"“After spending two seasons in the JUCO ranks, Pope started for two seasons at San Diego State and earned Second-Team All-Conference Honors as a senior. While Pope certainly looks the part of an NFL offensive tackle, he doesn’t yet play like one.His body control, posture, weight distribution, mental processing and technique need major improvements for him to have a chance to stick at the next level. Pope is a developmental prospect in every sense that will likely get opportunity based on his frame.”"

While Pope is still trying to establish himself in the NFL, Winn has been around for several years, but recently he’s been battling the injury bug. A former sixth-round draft pick by the Cleveland Browns back in 2012, Winn missed the 2017 season with a torn ACL, he was out of football in 2018, and 2019 he was on injured reserve once again.

Prior to the 2017 season, the 6’4″ – 300 pound Winn had spent time with Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Denver, appearing in 68 games while making 23 starts. During that span, he would record 68 tackles, including 17 for a loss, along with three sacks and 12 quarterback hits. Winn would also tally five forced fumbles and five pass deflections.

With the NFL’s new rules for the 2020 season, in order to help maintain roster flexibility amidst the coronavirus, teams can have up to six veterans on the practice squad this year, which is why Green Bay can stash Winn there.

However, as we saw last Sunday with the aforementioned Barnes, the Green Bay Packers will not only elevate a practice squad member at the last minute but also have him see playing time as well. While I obviously don’t know whether or not that will be the case with Winn, with Kenny Clark’s status for Sunday uncertain, perhaps Winn is called up to provide the interior defensive line with some added depth.