With waiving of Jason Spriggs, door opens for Alex Light

The Green Bay Packers have given up on Jason Spriggs, releasing the fourth-year offensive tackle with an injury designation.

To take his place on the roster, general manager Brian Gutekunst bolstered his depleted backfield by claiming Keith Ford off waivers from Indianapolis. The team’s top backs, Aaron Jones and Jamaal Williams, have been out with hamstring injuries. On Tuesday, Tra Carson, who is in contention to be the No. 3 back, was sidelined, as well.

Spriggs had missed the last several practices with a trapezius injury. In his absence, Alex Light had been the team’s No. 3 tackle. With Bryan Bulaga kept on the sideline for Family Night, Light was the team’s starting right tackle. An undrafted free agent last year from Richmond, Light played 26 snaps in three games. Of those, 25 came at right guard – including 23 in the finale, a week after serving a one-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. Light hasn't been great but he's been better than Adam Pankey and Gerhard de Beer.

“Alex has gotten a lot of valuable reps over the last couple of days, which I think he needs,” Gutekunst said on Monday. “I think it’s developing but I’m excited. I think there’s some guys that are going to get thrown into these games and play a lot of snaps, which will be really telling for us. It’s a big opportunity for them, not only these next two days, but Thursday night.”

Assuming he’s not claimed, Spriggs will wind up on Green Bay’s injured reserve. Presumably, he’ll be waived at some point with an injury settlement. When that happens, the book will close on one of bigger busts of former general manager Ted Thompson’s tenure.

In 2016, Thompson traded up in the second round to get Spriggs. With David Bakhtiari’s unsettled contract situation and Spriggs’ strong career at Indiana and prodigious Scouting Combine, drafting a potential starter at a critical position seemed like a no-brainer.

Instead, Spriggs never turned potential into performance. Last season, Spriggs started twice and played at least 40 snaps in three other games, with 281 of his 291 snaps coming in those five games. Even in that limited playing time, Spriggs allowed 2.5 sacks, according to STATS; according to Pro Football Focus, Spriggs yielded three sacks and 12 total pressures. Of 84 offensive tackles who played at least 150 pass-protecting snaps, he ranked 47th in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency. Alarmingly, he was penalized seven times. That’s more than starters Bakhtiari (four), Lane Taylor (two), Corey Linsley (zero) and Byron Bell (zero) combined.

Making matters worse, within the next 10 selections, the Falcons drafted Pro Bowl linebacker Deion Jones and the Bears selected Pro Bowl lineman Cody Whitehair.

Ford (5-10, 219) was an undrafted free agent out of Texas A&M in 2018. He spent most of his rookie season on the Bills’ practice squad before a late-season promotion in which he carried 21 times for 79 yards and added three receptions for 21 yards in two games. With a deep backfield, the Bills released Ford on May 13 and he signed with the Colts on July 28.