The Green Bay Packers have shown six other guys the door today, in addition to backup quarterback Graham Harrell.
Getting their pink slips were receivers Alex Gillett, Omarius Hines, and Justin Wilson and running back Angelo Pease and defensive tackle Gilbert Peña.
Kicker Giorgio Tavecchio also got the boot.
Are any of these moves a surprise? Tavecchio is somewhat surprising. He outperformed Mason Crosby throughout camp, but then the Packers didn’t give him a shot to kick anything in Friday’s preseason game.
What is also a surprise is the Packers have decided to add another kicker with one week left in the preseason. Last week, Big Ted said he was keeping his eye on kickers not on the roster. We presumed that meant he’d be checking out any veterans that were cut by other teams.
Nope.
The Packers have signed Zach Ramirez, an undrafted rookie out of Portland State. Ramirez’s only NFL experience came via a tryout camp with Seattle earlier this year.
As a junior at Portland State, Ramirez hit 24-of-27 field goals (88.9 percent). As a senior, he hit 4-of-7 while being limited to six games by a knee injury.
So now this guy will be given a week to impress the hell out everyone.
He’ll join Crosby in the kicking competition. That’s a competition we thought he Packers had made their decision on. They gave Crosby all the action in the third preseason game. He was good on his lone field goal and extra point attempts.