Packers sign punter Pat O’Donnell, their 2022 starter

With Daniel Whelan’s illness on the mind, Green Bay returned a familiar face to their team.

According to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Green Bay Packers have re-signed punter Pat O’Donnell — their starter from 2022 — to their roster. This was likely a precautionary procedure, as the team’s starting punter, Daniel Whelan, popped up on the injury report this week with an illness.

However, O’Donnell was signed to the team’s practice squad, not the Packers’ 53-man roster. Along with the transaction, Silverstein also announced that only outside linebacker Keshawn Banks was brought up from the team’s practice squad to the gameday roster for tonight’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. That means that O’Donnell will not be playing for Green Bay in the immediate future.

O’Donnell was one of the more surprising cuts that the team made after the preseason. For the most part, he was receiving the “starting” snaps at the punting position this summer, though, he did split a good amount of those reps with Whelan, a younger player. After O’Donnell’s release from Green Bay, he signed on the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad — where he was eventually called up to the gameday roster. He never punted the ball for the team this year, though, and was released by Atlanta the day after Christmas.

In a corresponding roster move to make room for O’Donnell, the Packers released offensive lineman Michael Jordan, who had both center and guard experience at the college and professional levels. Jordan was signed to Green Bay’s practice squad in Week 2, following his release from the Carolina Panthers. At the moment, the only practice squad offensive lineman that the team holds on their 16-man roster is Kadeem Telfort, a rookie free-agent tackle.

It’s worth mentioning that the team didn’t call up practice squad cornerback David Long Jr., a player they did elevate versus the Dallas Cowboys last week. Long was the emergency player who was supposed to backfill at the outside cornerback position if Jaire Alexander was not ready to suit up in the Wild Card round. Alexander, who didn’t practice at all this week, was listed as questionable for tonight’s game versus the 49ers on the team’s final injury report of the week on Thursday. This could be a sign that Alexander is going to be a full-go against San Francisco.