Packers with open roster spot following release of Jonathan Garvin
By Paul Bretl
On Friday, the Green Bay Packers announced that they released edge rusher Jonathan Garvin. This means that there is now an opening on the 90-man roster that will eventually be filled.
Garvin is coming off a 2022 season in which his role was significantly reduced as he went from playing 396 snaps in 2021 to just 194 last season. Even with depth issues at this position with Rashan Gary missing the second half of the season, Garvin was still a healthy scratch on a few gamedays.
In what has become a very crowded edge rusher room in Green Bay, Garvin’s path to the 53-man roster at that position felt nonexistent. Based on playing time during offseason programs, he very well could have been the eighth option behind Preston Smith, Justin Hollins, JJ Enagbare, Lukas Van Ness, Brenton Cox, La’Darius Hamilton, and eventually Gary once he returned.
During Wednesday’s first training camp practice, Garvin was seen working out with the interior defensive linemen in individual drills, and not the edge rushers, in what ended up being a last effort to see if he could potentially carve out a role somewhere along the defensive front.
Now with 89 players on the Packers’ roster, another addition will have to be made. Although adding a veteran tight end or receiver makes sense, given how inexperienced those position groups are, I’m going to guess that won’t be what happens.
When speaking with the media on Tuesday, GM Brian Gutekunst said that the team would always keep the door open in terms of making additions at those positions, but he also added that the young players on the roster really need the valuable practice reps right now.
Gutekunst also said the same thing about kicker, and while he didn’t specifically mention the interior defensive line, I’ll venture to say that position is included in this group as well for similar reasons. If Green Bay is going to add a known veteran to any of those groups, from the sounds of it, that’s going to take place down the road once they get a better idea of what they have at each position.
As far as what position group Green Bay could look to address, maybe the Packers will add another edge rusher after losing one. In order to sign Alex McGough last week, they released interior offensive lineman DJ Scaife, so perhaps an addition could be made there.
With Grant DuBose on the non-football injury list and Dontayvion Wicks having missed the last two practices with a concussion, bolstering the receiver depth could make sense as well. Or, instead, the Packers could always bring in whoever they feel is a high-upside player, regardless of what their position is.
Unless the Packers already have a player in mind to sign, typically, workouts for NFL teams take place on Tuesdays, and if they are going to make an addition from that group of players, it usually happens that same day.