WR Allen Lazard, LB Christian Kirksey expected back at practice this week for the Packers
Green Bay could be close to getting back a pair of important pieces.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday that wide receiver Allen Lazard and inside linebacker Christian Kirksey will return to practice this week, thus starting the 21-day clock for activation off of injured reserve.
Lazard has been out since Week 3 after undergoing core muscle surgery, while Kirksey has also been out since then with a pectoral injury.
“(Lazard) is going to start practicing this week, and hopefully we get him back sooner than later,” LaFleur said. “Kirko is coming along nicely. Anticipate him back at practice this week, and we’ll see how long before he can go.”
Green Bay’s injury report is still long. They were missing four starters in the win at Houston, including running back Aaron Jones. He was a late-week scratch after coming up with a mild calf strain.
“I think it definitely helped him but he’s got to continue to improve and get better each and every day,” LaFleur said of playing it safe and sitting Jones against the Texans. “I know he’s doing everything in his power. We just want to be very, very careful with him and not put him in a position where he misses a significant amount of time. Obviously he’s a huge part to this whole team and everything that he brings on game day. We’ll be smart with him but hoping to get him back sooner than later as well.”
Left tackle David Bakhtiari, cornerback Kevin King and safety Darnell Savage were the other starters to miss the Houston game.
Wisconsin-Marquette to play Dec. 4 in Milwaukee
We’re still waiting on Wisconsin’s basketball schedule to be finalized but we know the date of at least one game.
Marquette released the first 10 games of its schedule Wednesday morning and it includes hosting the Badgers on Dec. 4 at Fiserv Forum.
https://twitter.com/ZachHeilprin/status/1321433331255435266
Wisconsin leads the all-time series 68-58, including a 77-61 blowout win last season at the Kohl Center.
The Badgers return almost intact from the group that won eight straight games to finish the season on its way to a share of the Big Ten title, its first since 2015. The lineup could feature five seniors, including two of the better big men in the conference with Nate Reuvers and Micah Potter.
Wisconsin’s season could start as soon as Nov. 25 and its full schedule is expected to be released in the next few days.
PODCAST: The Hypocrisy is Real
Rays & Brewers (0:00)
Badgers QB & RB Situations (13:50)
B1G Virus Protocol (25:26)
MLB & Covid (41:46)
Wisconsin's game at Nebraska canceled due to 12 positive COVID cases in last five days
Last Friday the Wisconsin football program and its fans were off-the-charts excited. Not only had the ninth-ranked Badgers crushed Illinois 45-7 in the season opener, it happened with the most-hyped recruit in school history -- quarterback Graham Mertz -- throwing five touchdowns.
Five days later, though, the mood could not have been any different. Not after the school announced 12 players or staff members had tested positive for the coronavirus, including coach Paul Chryst. It led Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez and Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank, in coordination with the Big Ten, to suspend all football activities for seven days and cancel the Badgers game at Nebraska this Saturday.
"We just felt like with those numbers we had to get our arms around this," Alvarez said Wednesday. "We didn't feel comfortable, particularly with as few (positive tests) as we've had prior to (the game), so we just felt it was necessary to control it now."
Wisconsin's situation, as bad as it was, did not meet the Big Ten's threshold that would have mandated them shutting things down. It was in the orange/red category, which meant the team would have to alter its practice and meeting schedule and also consider the viability of continuing with playing games. The Badgers determined it wasn't viable.
"You have to put priorities in order and make sure our No. 1 concern is the health and safety of our athletes," Alvarez said. "That's the priorities that we'll keep."
Chryst, participating in a Zoom call from his home where he must isolate for 10 days, said he was feeling good and not experiencing any symptoms. He said the other five members of his staff were in the same boat. And though he couldn't say how the six players that tested positive were doing, he did offer that, right now, they've "been fortunate in a lot of ways."
When the Big Ten decided to return and play a fall season it was counting on the advancement of rapid daily antigen tests to catch the virus early and, as Alvarez said multiple times, give them the peace of mind that the playing field was a clean one each day.
But the outbreak, which reportedly includes Mertz and Chase Wolf, proves the testing isn't perfect. In fact, Chryst said he took an antigen test Tuesday morning and it came back negative. Later in the day, he took the more reliable but slower-on-results PCR test and was informed Wednesday that he had tested positive.
"I don't profess to be an expert on this but this is one part of this virus," Chryst said. "It gets you in a number of different ways. We don't know. Did we have one superspreader? I don't know that."
The Nebraska game will not be made up, as the Big Ten did not build in any bye weeks in its eight-game schedule because it started so late, and the conference still wanted its teams to have a chance at the College Football Playoff. The game will count as a no contest instead of a forfeit.
In terms of its impact on the Badgers chances of winning the Big Ten West and playing in the conference title game, they are still very much in the race. Teams have to play at least six games to be eligible, assuming the average total number of games each team plays stays at eight. If the average number is seven, then teams would need to play five games, and so on.
If you want to wade into the weeds of teams playing uneven schedules and the potential tiebreakers to determine which squad will make the Big Ten title game, you can find that here.
That's what we know. What we don't know is when the Badgers will actually be able to play next. Right now, they can't be back in the facility until next Wednesday at the earliest. That would give them just three days to prep for a visit from Purdue on Nov. 7.
"We'll see where we are as far as testing and we'll make that decision as we move closer to the game," Alvarez said. "The most important thing right now is to quarantine our players and get this under control. We'll make that decision, about playing the next game, when that time comes."
Making things more difficult is that, right now, a total of six staff members won't be allowed back into the facility until Friday or Saturday, depending on when they tested positive.
"Really none of that matters," Chryst said. "First, we've got to take advantage of this seven day pause. Everyone of our guys will be tested every day. Hopefully we can show progress there and give ourselves the opportunity to be talking about the next game."
While Chryst and his staff members must wait 10 days to rejoin the team, players that test positive are out 21 days. Ten of those days they won't be able to do any physical activity and will start having cardiac testing 14 days after the positive test.
That delay could leave the Badgers without several key players if they end up playing the Boilermakers, including Mertz and Wolf. If there is a sliver of good news, the fact Mertz reportedly tested positive Saturday would allow him to return in time for the Michigan game Nov. 14. It's the potential of being able to play that game, and the ones after it, that led to what happened Wednesday.
"We just felt it was important, if we wanted to continue playing the (rest) of the year, to make this move right now and control the virus at this point," Alvarez said.
Report: Wisconsin-Nebraska game in danger of not being played
Wisconsin has reportedly lost two of its quarterbacks to positive COVID-19 tests. The Badgers are now facing the possibility of not even playing their game against Nebraska this Saturday.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the program is nearing the 5% positive coronavirus test threshold that would force it to shutdown football activities for seven days and then reassess.
If the game were to be canceled, it won’t be rescheduled. As opposed to other conferences, the Big Ten did not have the ability to start as late as it did and build in bye weeks if it wanted its teams to be in contention for the College Football Playoff. All teams are playing eight games in eight weeks with a ninth game during what’s being called Champions Week.
If the Wisconsin-Nebraska game is not played, it will go down as a no-contest.
With Graham Mertz and Chase Wolf both having tested positive for the virus, the Badgers would likely start fourth-string quarterback Danny Vanden Boom if the game is played. He’s thrown just one pass in his career, a 3-yard touchdown in 2018. But he was 28-0 as a starter for Kimberly (Wis.), leading them to back-to-back state titles
PODCAST: More Positive Tests
Mertz & Wolf Test Positive (0:00)
Paul Chryst Comments & B1G Policies (8:14)
Sports Director Zach Heilprin (37:55)
Callers on B1G Policies (52:03)
Packers add veteran wide receiver
Green Bay is adding to its wide receiver group.
As first reported by ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the Packers are planning to sign Seth Roberts to their practice squad.
Roberts was cut by Carolina on Monday after catching four passes in seven games this season. The 29-year-old signed with the Panthers this offseason after playing for Baltimore last year. He had 21 catches for 271 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Ravens. His best years were in Oakland, where he caught 158 passes for 1,826 yards and 13 touchdowns over five seasons.
Green Bay’s wide receivers have been banged up much of the year, with the only two guys — Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Malik Taylor — playing in all six games. Davante Adams missed two games, Equanimeous St. Brown was on injured reserve for the first four weeks of the season and Allen Lazard is currently on injured reserve and has missed the last three games.
NFL protocols mandate that Roberts must go through six days of COVID testing before being able to practice with the team.
Green Bay will host Minnesota on Sunday.
Wisconsin's options at quarterback are reportedly dwindling
Wisconsin’s options at quarterback are reportedly dwindling.
A day after it was reported that Graham Mertz had tested positive for coronavirus, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that backup Chase Wolf also tested positive.
Both of those positive tests still have yet to be confirmed with a PCR test, which is considered more reliable than the daily antigen rapid tests the players take every day. If the positive tests are confirmed, Big Ten protocols mandate that each will miss 21 days of action, meaning they'd be out for at least three games.
Wisconsin released its Week 2 depth chart Monday night, and it featured Mertz as the starter and Wolf as the backup, though no one should read too much into that.
If Mertz and Wolf are unable to play Saturday at Nebraska, Danny Vanden Boom would be the next option at quarterback. The 6-foot-5, 207-pound junior hasn’t played in a game since 2018. That year he got garbage-time action in three games. He threw just one pass and it was a 3-yard touchdown to wide receiver Taj Mustapha.
The last time Vanden Boom started a game was in 2016. He went 28-0 as a starter for Kimberly (Wis.), winning back-to-back state titles. That year, Vanden Boom threw for 2,366 yards and 31 touchdowns while being named the Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year and earning the Dave Krieg Award as the state’s top senior quarterback.
Vanden Boom is the son of Matt Vanden Boom, a safety for the Badgers in the early 1980s, who earned All-American honors and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1983.
https://youtu.be/eDuvNH00pms
Joe & Ebo Experience: Football Mania
Mertz Mania (0:00)
Packers Back on Track (10:49)
Sports Director Zach Heilprin (27:58)
J.J. Watt Disgusted (41:08)
The Camp: Oct. 26, 2020
On this week's episode of The Camp, Zach Heilprin and Jesse Temple look back at Graham Mertz's impressive starting debut against Illinois, talk about a dominating effort by the defense, debate some of the concerns around the running game and answer your Twitter questions.
