Packers Injury Report: How will Green Bay use its open roster spots?

For the most part, my injury analysis this season has basically boiled down to “next man up on the 53-man roster.” The Green Bay Packers’ cluster of injuries has mostly hit two units, the offensive and defensive lines — where the team has been over-signed since they made their initial active roster — leaving them without needing to call players up from the practice squad.

The two exceptions so far have been the promotion of running back Pierre Strong Jr. (for Chris Brooks, who went on IR) and linebacker Kristian Welch (for Edgerrin Cooper, who went on IR). This week, though, the Packers’ active roster might be stress-tested beyond a one-off injury at a position for the first time.

Let’s take a look at Green Bay’s current roster and where it stands going into Week 6, as the team prepares to face off against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football.

Excluding defensive lineman Javon Hargrave, who should go on the injured reserve for a season-ending Achilles injury soon, the team functionally has a 51-man active roster (along with a full 17-man practice squad). Here’s the positional breakdown of the roster (again, excluding Hargrave):

• QB: Jordan Love and Tyrod Taylor

• RB: MarShawn Lloyd, Pierre Strong Jr. and Kaleb Johnson

• WR: Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, Skyy Moore, Bo Melton and J. Michael Sturdivant

• TE: Tucker Kraft, Mark Redman, Jonnu Smith and Josh Whyle

• OL: Jordan Morgan, Laken Tomlinson, Sean Rhyan, Travis Glover, Anthony Belton, Aaron Banks, Kevin Zeitler, Jager Burton, John Williams, Jacob Monk and Donovan Jennings

• DL: Karl Brooks, Devonte Wyatt, Chris McClellan, Jonathan Ford and Anthony Campbell

• ED: Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox Jr. and Dani Dennis-Sutton

• LB: Zaire Franklin, Isaiah McDuffie, Ty’Ron Hopper, Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch

• CB: Keisean Nixon, Brandon Cisse, Carrington Valentine, Benjamin St-Juste and Kamal Hadden

• S: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard and Kitan Oladapo

• K: Trey Smack

• P: Daniel Whelan

• LS: Matt Orzech

RB: MarShawn Lloyd, Pierre Strong Jr. and Kaleb Johnson

WR: Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, Skyy Moore, Bo Melton and J. Michael Sturdivant

TE: Tucker Kraft, Mark Redman, Jonnu Smith and Josh Whyle

OL: Jordan Morgan, Laken Tomlinson, Sean Rhyan, Travis Glover, Anthony Belton, Aaron Banks, Kevin Zeitler, Jager Burton, John Williams, Jacob Monk and Donovan Jennings

DL: Karl Brooks, Devonte Wyatt, Chris McClellan, Jonathan Ford and Anthony Campbell

ED: Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, Brenton Cox Jr. and Dani Dennis-Sutton

LB: Zaire Franklin, Isaiah McDuffie, Ty’Ron Hopper, Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch

CB: Keisean Nixon, Brandon Cisse, Carrington Valentine, Benjamin St-Juste and Kamal Hadden

S: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard and Kitan Oladapo

On paper, if all these players were healthy, no position screams “we need a warm body” for the Packers, but the team isn’t fully healthy. If all of these players could 100 percent suit up against the Cowboys, they could easily piece together a 48-man game-day roster without breaking a sweat (the three inactives would likely all be offensive linemen, as the team currently carries 11 on the 53).

On Wednesday, the Packers’ non-participants in practice (the non-Hargrave players we should worry the most about missing Sunday’s action) were:

• WR Skyy Moore – ankle

• DL Jonathan Ford – calf

• CB Keisean Nixon – groin

• CB Benjamin St-Juste – hamstring

That…puts the team in a bind. Let’s say there’s a worst-case scenario situation for Green Bay and all of those players are unable to suit up for the Packers; it would leave the team with four receivers, four interior defensive linemen and just three cornerbacks (including Kamal Hadden, who has almost exclusively been a slot defender in both the preseason and regular season this year). To my memory, Green Bay has never kept numbers that low at any of those positions for a game-day roster in head coach Matt LaFleur’s time with the Packers.

Simply put: If any of these players can’t dress for the Dallas game, a body needs to come up to replace them, be it an addition to the 53-man roster or a game-day elevation from the practice squad (which are different, and we’ll get into why the Packers may use one instead of the other).

Here’s some good news: receiver Savion Williams (ankle) had his practice window with the team open up last week and was a limited participant on Wednesday, along with defensive lineman Jordon Riley — who began to practice with the team much sooner than expected from his 2025 season-ending Achilles injury. It’s probably hard to count on Riley jumping up to the active roster with just one week of practice under his belt, but at least he’s trending in a positive direction. It seems much more likely that Williams would be activated this week to help replace Skyy Moore’s reps on offense and in the return game.

For what it’s worth, Moore was seen in a boot after his ankle injury on Sunday and on a scooter on Wednesday. It wouldn’t be out of left field for him to land on the injured reserve, based on the little we know about his injury — if the team needs the numbers.

So the Packers can sort of handle the Moore injury (if Williams can go) without tapping into the practice squad, but the defensive line and cornerback rooms would probably rely on practice squad movement if guys can’t play. Right now, Green Bay’s interior defensive lineman on the practice squad is David Blay Jr., who was signed in Week 4, and their cornerbacks are Domani Jackson, a rookie draft pick, and Elijah Culp, who was signed this week.

Notably, the Packers went out of their way to sign a second practice squad cornerback on Monday, the first time all year that the team has had two at the position. Green Bay has been pretty thin at defensive back this year, from a numbers perspective, a result of the team being “oversigned” at the offensive line, defensive line and tight end positions for 2026 on the full 70-man roster (potentially at running back and edge defender, too, depending on your definition).

The pinch at the cornerback position is pretty explainable. Two injuries at one position usually demand a move. On the defensive line, it’s been a stretch of bad luck for the team.

Warren Brinson is already on the IR, and Hargrave will meet him there soon. On top of that, Nazir Stackhouse was claimed on waivers at the cutdown deadline (after the Packers carried seven interior defensive linemen on their initial roster) and Jaden Crumedy, the team’s initial practice squad option, was poached by the Houston Texans’ 53-man roster. This led the team to eventually fill the practice role with Blay, and the Ford injury means that there’s a chance Blay actually is a game-day active in Week 6.

Pay attention to the injury report this week. The Packers aren’t exactly a skeleton crew, but their last remaining healthy scratch options on the roster as it stands today are just three offensive linemen. For every non-offensive lineman who doesn’t play on Sunday, Green Bay will probably need to make an activation from either the IR/PUP list (Williams/Riley) or the practice squad.

Worth mentioning here: If the Packers do call a player up from the practice squad to the 53-man roster (rather than a game-day elevation), they might not have a chance to get them back to the practice squad. With how the league’s rules work, teams are much more interested in claiming a player who is waived (when the original team is trying to get them back down to the practice squad) than poaching a player from another team’s practice squad.

When players are claimed on waivers, they are not guaranteed any weeks of service by their new team. On the other hand, if a new team poaches a player from a different team’s practice squad, that player is guaranteed three weeks of game checks and his spot on the 53-man roster must be exhausted by that poaching team for that entire period. In short, teams have to make a bigger commitment to a poached practice squadder than to claim a waived former 53-man member.

That may sound counterintuitive, but it’s true. For example, the Packers had offensive lineman Brant Banks on their practice squad last year, and he was never poached from their practice squad, but when Banks was elevated to the 53-man roster and then waived (as the team attempted to get him back down to their practice squad), he was claimed by the Tennessee Titans (for less than three weeks, at which point he re-signed with the Packers’ practice squad).

You don’t always get second chances on players like Green Bay got on Banks, though. If the team moves up cornerback Domani Jackson, a rookie draft pick, to the 53-man roster, is there any promise that they can ever get him back down to the practice squad when the team’s preferred cornerbacks are healthy? No. That’s going to be a factor in all of this.

But the team is dealing with four “squeaky wheel” injuries, and Green Bay only has two practice squad game-day elevations (a way to go around promoting players to the 53-man roster) to use per week. The Packers might not have the benefit of playing things safely in Week 6.