One of these moves comes straight out of left field. That would be the Green Bay Packers releasing safety Jermaine Whitehead.
Whitehead was ejected from Sunday’s game against the Patriots for slapping New England center David Andrews. It was in retaliation for Andrews shoving him. However, only the second guy to react ever gets caught in the NFL. Whitehead was penalized and tossed. The second outcome was more than what was warranted.
Whitehead had 20 tackles and a sack on the season. He was arguably the Packers top-performing safety this season.
Over the past week, the Packers have almost completely remade the position. They traded Ha Ha Clinton-Dix to Washington. They’ve now released Whitehead. On Monday, they claimed Ibraheim Campbell off waivers from the Jets.
The holdovers are Kentrell Brice, who left the Patriots game with an injury, and Josh Jones. The Packers also have undrafted rookie Raven Greene, but he hasn’t played a defensive snap this season. Cornerback Tramon Williams was used at safety this past week.
Whitehead’s release would seem to be related to the incident on Sunday, which is stupid. How many guys have gotten personal foul penalties on the Packers this year?
Plenty.
#Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said he wasn’t sending a message by trading Montgomery and Clinton-Dix. A few days later he cuts Whitehead following a silly ejection. There are guys on the 53-man roster who contribute far less than those three. Sure seems like a message to me.
— Michael Cohen (@Michael_Cohen13) November 6, 2018
As for Allison, moving him to injured reserve was expected. It was reported that Allison would have surgery on a core muscle injury on Monday. His recovery time is expected to be six-to-eight weeks.
The Packers filled one of these roster spots by promoting cornerback Will Redmond from the practice squad. Redmond joined the Packers practice squad in September. He was originally a third-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 out of Mississippi State. Redmond spent his rookie season on injured reserve with a knee injury. Then he spent the first eight games of 2017 on IR with an ankle injury. He was released by the 49ers in October of 2017. Redmond was signed to the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad that November. He stuck there until being released by the Chiefs this September.
The Packers still have one roster spot to fill.