Report: Packers lose CB Casey Hayward for at least a month with hamstring setback

The Packers will have to wait a while before Casey Hayward is ready to do this again. (Tom Dahlin/Getty Images) The Green Bay Packers' defense, which has been

Doug Farrar | Sep 7, 2013

Report: Packers lose CB Casey Hayward for at least a month with hamstring setback /

The Packers will have to wait a while before Casey Hayward is ready to do this again. (Tom Dahlin/Getty Images)

The Green Bay Packers' defense, which has been a work in progress over the last few seasons, took a major hit on Friday when it was announced by Bob McGinn and Tyler Dunne of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that cornerback Casey Hayward will miss at least a month with a recurring hamstring injury that affected him through the preseason. Head coach Mike McCarthy had said that Hayward would not play in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, but a source close to Hayward told McGinnn and Dunne that Hayward does not expect to play through at least the first four games of the season. Hayward first hurt his hamstring when he was working out in Atlanta in July.

The Packers have a Week 4 bye after games against the 49ers, the Washington Redskins,and the Cincinnati Bengals. They face the Detroit Lions on Oct. 6, which might be a reasonable timeframe for Hayward's return, based on the Journal-Sentinel report.

Hayward, selected in the second round out of Vanderbilt in the 2012 draft, excelled in his rookie season, intercepting six passes in 683 plays and 65 targets. He also led the team with 19 passes defensed, and ranked fifth in the NFL in Football Outsiders' Adjusted Passing Yards Allowed metric. Pro Football Focus has Hayward with a 31.1 opponent passer rating on plays where he was the primary target, by far the best in the NFL last year (Seattle's Richard Sherman was second at 40.5).

Heyward picked off a pass in the Packers' Week 3 preseason loss to Seattle, but has been observing practices since then. Rookie Micah Hyde, a fifth-round pick from Iowa, will see many more snaps in the slot while Hayward recovers. In the preseason, Hyde allowed four catches on seven targets for 37 yards and a 71.7 quarterback rating.

"He played a lot this preseason, and I thought he played pretty well," Greg Cosell of NFL Films said of Hyde in this week's Audibles Audio matchup podcast. "Because he's not a great mover, but he has good size, I think he might have an NFL future at safety."

Published Sep 7, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.