Packers Might Have New Punter for Sunday at Colts
GREEN BAY, Wis. – It wouldn’t be a Saturday without some Green Bay Packers injury news and roster moves.
Before the team took off for Sunday’s game at the Indianapolis Colts, it added punter JK Scott and cornerback Kevin King to the injury report as questionable. Later, as Packer Central first reported, it signed punter Drew Kaser. It also elevated running back Mike Weber to the gameday roster.
Due to a personal matter, Scott didn’t travel with the team, meaning there’s a good chance the Packers will have a different punter facing a top-shelf Colts special teams.
Because of the challenging COVID-19 protocols, the Packers have had kickers and punters rolling through Green Bay all season in case of emergency. This week, it was Kaser. Kaser, a sixth-round pick by the Chargers in 2016, is an accomplished player. He boasts a 47.4-yard average in 36 games with the Chargers from 2016 through 2018.
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About a month into the 2018 season, the Chargers released Kaser after the kicking unit missed three extra points in a span of two games.
“Drew (is) an outstanding punter,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said at the time. “It was a hard cut, but you look at the big picture, his job is also to hold. Just wanted to change the whole dynamics right there with the holder and the kicker and see if we make an extra point.”
He has not punted in a game since his release.
About a month after his release, he had a cup of coffee with the Packers as an emergency punter in case Scott needed to leave the team because of the birth of his first child. Kaser was signed on a Saturday, Scott punted at New England on that Sunday night and Kaser was released the next day.
Having spent the week in Green Bay and having gone through the COVID protocols, he’s ready to go and traveled with the team, a source said before the team announced the transaction.
Scott has had an up-and-down season that has mirrored his career. Perhaps more than punting, the holding on kicks will be key. Scott has done a tremendous job of handling the occasionally wayward snap by Hunter Bradley and has played a key role in kicker Mason Crosby in making 43 of 44 kicks including all 12 field goals. Will that duty fall upon Kaser or No. 2 quarterback Tim Boyle?
For King, who has missed the last five games with an injured quad and has played in only 35.7 percent of the defensive snaps, the reason for his addition to the injury report is an Achilles. A year after intercepting five passes and breaking up 15, he has no interceptions or passes defensed this season but provided consistently strong coverage in his three-and-a-half games. The injuries, however, have been a major blow to his marketability as a free agent at the end of the season.
The Packers added Weber to the practice squad on Nov. 11. He was a seventh-round pick by Dallas in 2019 after rushing for 2,676 yards (5.9 average) and 24 touchdowns in three seasons at Ohio State. With AJ Dillon still on the COVID-19 list and Tyler Ervin ruled out, Weber will join Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams in the backfield.
Meanwhile, the Colts elevated defensive lineman Rob Windsor to the active roster for Sunday. He's a native of Fond Du Lac and a sixth-round pick this year.
