Green Bay Packers Place Will Redmond on IR & Cut Josh Avery

The Green Bay Packers came into Tuesday with 82 players on the roster, and they needed to be at 80 by 3:00 CST as part of the league-wide roster cuts.

Before today’s practice took place, we learned that interior defensive lineman Josh Avery had been cut, and later in the day, it was announced that safety Will Redmond was placed on IR, thus ending his season with the Packers.

The 6’4” – 313 pound Avery was signed after training camp had already begun. He was a 2020 UDFA out of Southeast Missouri State with no NFL experience.

In Green Bay’s two preseason games, Avery was on the field for only 14 defensive snaps and none as a special teams player—not a good sign for any fringe roster player trying to carve out a role.

Following Avery’s release, the Packers now have eight interior defensive linemen left on the roster.

The other move, and the more significant of the two, was that Redmond was placed on season-ending IR. Redmond began training camp on the NFI list, returned for three practices, then left Saturday’s game against he New York Jets after only nine plays because of an injury.

While Redmond took his lumps last season defensively as a young player, struggling both in coverage and as a tackler, he did bring versatility, being able to line up at free safety, in the box, as well as in the slot.

He was also a core special teams contributor these last two seasons in Green Bay. Redmond led this Packers’ special teams unit in tackles in 2019, according to PFF ($$), and he took the third most special teams snaps in 2020 while finishing fourth in special teams tackles that season.

In fact, during Matt LaFleur’s pre-practice press conference with reporters, which took place just hours before Redmond was placed on IR, Coach said that Redmond was “consistently our best special teamer.”

With Redmond now on IR, he joins Randy Ramsey as the second key special teams contributor from a season ago that the Green Bay Packers will be without in 2021.

The good news, however, is that the young safety depth made up of Vernon Scott, Henry Black, Christian Uphoff, and Innis Gaines has looked very good this summer, both on defense as well as on special teams.