Rivers Gets Next Chance With Packers

After some off-the-field issues early in his collegiate career, Chauncey Rivers became a productive player at Mississippi State.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers are thin at outside linebacker. Pro Bowler Za’Darius Smith hasn’t practiced due to a back issue. Key backup and special-teams standout Randy Ramsey is out indefinitely with an ankle injury sustained on Monday. The Packers toyed with moving inside linebacker Kamal Martin but he suffered a knee injury on Tuesday.

So, for badly needed depth, the Packers claimed Chauncey Rivers off waivers from the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday. To make room on the roster, they released long snapper Joe Fortunato.

Rivers went undrafted in 2020, a byproduct of off-the-field issues early in his career and a poor showing at the Scouting Combine.

After playing in four games at Georgia as a freshman in 2015, Rivers was kicked off the team in May 2016 following a third arrest for marijuana possession in a span of seven months. Rivers spent the 2016 season at East Mississippi Community College – the school featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U. A big-time season there got Rivers to Mississippi State. However, he had to sit out the 2017 season for academic reasons.

Once he got his act together, he was a quality player. Playing off the bench in 2018, he tallied 2.5 sacks and seven tackles for losses. As a starter in 2019, he was second-team all-SEC with five sacks and eight tackles for losses.

“It really helped me just rebuild my character and rebuild my image, to show people that I wasn’t the same guy I was at the University of Georgia,” Rivers said at the Scouting Combine. “I don’t want to be portrayed as the same guy that I was back then. It took a lot of me just to dig myself out of the hole I dug myself in. I just want to be the guy that shows up positive in the community and be a guy who is a positive person and a person who can lead a team and a person who can be counted on.”

However, at 6-foot-2 and 262 pounds, his 4.97 in the 40 sank his chances of being drafted. He signed with Baltimore and spent most of his rookie season on the practice squad. He played 15 defensive snaps in a December game vs. Pittsburgh. He was released on Wednesday so the Ravens could add depth at receiver.