Buccaneers Sign Former Packers S Raven Greene

Raven Greene was a key player in former coordinator Mike Pettine's preferred dime packages.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
May 5, 2021 3:29 PM EDT

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed former Green Bay Packers safety Raven Greene, a source said on Wednesday.

Later, his agency made the signing public.

The Packers liked what Greene brought to the table but chose to move on due to his injury history.

An undrafted free agent from James Madison in 2018, Greene built himself into a key player on Mike Pettine’s defenses as the sixth defensive back/dime linebacker. In 2020, he averaged 32 snaps on defense and another 11 on special teams. Even with spending the final six games on injured reserve, Greene tied for ninth with 41 tackles. He added 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits, one interception, one forced fumble and five passes defensed.

With Green Bay playing with six-plus defensive backs on a league-high 52 percent of the defensive snaps in 2019 and 50 percent in 2020, his combination of athleticism, bulk and intelligence allowed him to thrive in a challenging role. However, a player’s greatest ability is availability. No amount of time working in the weight room could solve that issue.

Greene wound up on injured reserve during each of his three seasons, with ankle injuries in 2018 and 2019 and a shoulder injury in 2020.

In three seasons, he’s played 20 career games.

The Packers are the only team in the NFL to not bring in an outside free agent who has played a regular-season snap in his career. The Packers, Buccaneers and Rams were the last three teams without an addition but the Rams signed receiver DeSean Jackson and long snapper Colin Holba, the Buccaneers are on the board got on the board with running back Giovani Bernard and Greene.

Green Bay’s only addition, period, is long snapper Joe Fortunato, who hasn’t participated in a training camp since his college career at Delaware ended in 2015.