Packers Activate Lazard Off Injured Reserve
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers activated receiver Allen Lazard off injured reserve at Tuesday’s deadline.
That means, potentially, the Packers will have their full complement of top weapons – receivers Davante Adams, Lazard and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, tight end Robert Tonyan, and running backs Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams on the field for the first time since the third quarter of the Week 2 game against Detroit.
The timing could hardly be better against the elite Indianapolis Colts defense.
Lazard caught six passes for 146 yards and one touchdown in the Week 3 game against New Orleans but suffered a core-muscle injury that required surgery. He’s missed the last five games but practiced the last three weeks, a remarkably quick comeback. While he did not practice on Friday, that was all part of the plan to make sure he is ready for this game.
The Packers had 21 days to activate Lazard or put him on season-ending injured reserve; that deadline was Tuesday.
“When you look at Allen Lazard, certainly he was a guy that when we first got here, the only guy that really had much exposure to him was (offensive coordinator Nathaniel) Hackett and he’s grown [a lot] in this last year-and-a-half,” coach Matt LaFleur said last week. “He’s a guy that’s the epitome of what we want to be as a football team in terms of the energy and effort and owning his role. The game’s never too big for him. He makes big plays for us all the time, not only in the passing game key blocks in the run game. He’s kind of our enforcer.”
In three games, Lazard caught 13-of-16 passes for 254 yards. Among all 122 receivers to be targeted at least 16 times, Lazard ranks fifth with 2.62 yards per target, according to Pro Football Focus.
Adams ranks second with 3.11 yards per target. He played through an ankle injury and scored the winning touchdown last week against Jacksonville. The severity of the injury is unknown but, listening to quarterback Aaron Rodgers speak in such admiration after the game on Sunday, it seems the injury is something more than just a minor twist.
“The dude’s a special player,” Rodgers said. “He’s one-of-a-kind and he never ceases to grow my respect. And it’s just another chapter for him today dealing with what he was dealing with to come back out there and catch a touchdown. That’s what you want from your leaders.”
Receiver/running back/returner Tyler Ervin missed most of the second half against Jacksonville with injured ribs.
