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Packers-Buccaneers Inactives: Only One of Two Veteran Linemen Will Play

illHere’s who’s up and who’s down for the Green Bay Packers’ game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers guardJacob Monk is inactive for the game at Tampa Bay.
Green Bay Packers guardJacob Monk is inactive for the game at Tampa Bay. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Green Bay Packers

While Kevin Zeitler spoke optimistically that he’d be able to play after three just practices, the veteran starting right guard is inactive for the Green Bay Packers’ game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

The other veteran guard signed this week, Laken Tomlinson, is active. He potentially will start at left guard and Donovan Jennings probably could be the starter at right guard in his Tampa homecoming.

Asked what he’d tell the coaches if they asked if he was ready, Zeitler on Friday said: “I’m just going to keep practicing the rest of this week. We’ve still got tomorrow. We’re just going to keep going and whatever happens, happens.”

Three More Packers Inactives

With Warren Brinson placed on injured reserve on Saturday and nobody elevated from the practice squad, the Packers had to name only four inactives. The others:

Left guard Aaron Banks: The Packers’ $77 million starter is inactive for the third time in four games. He started against the Jets in Week 2 but dropped out at halftime. He was ruled out on Friday with knee and toe injuries.

“He’s just working through it. We’ll see where he’s at,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Friday when asked about Banks moving slowly while rehabbing with a trainer earlier in the week.

Right guard Jacob Monk: Monk was handed the starting job during training camp and got the nod for the first three games. He missed the end of the loss to Atlanta with an injured quad and was ruled out on Friday.

Over the long haul, Zeitler will be the starter at right guard. Just not on Sunday.

Defensive tackle Anthony Campbell: Campbell injured an ankle in his NFL debut against the Jets in Week 2. He will miss his second consecutive game. Coupled with Brinson’s injury, the Packers have only five defensive tackles – a potential factor for a sweltering day.

Buccaneers Inactives

Quarterback Baker Mayfield, of course, is out with a thumb injury sustained late in last week’s loss to the Vikings. Undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels will start and veteran Easton Stick was elevated from the practice squad.

Mayfield is one of the better quarterbacks in the game. Daniels is a complete unknown. When in doubt, he might prefer to run it; he excelled as a dual-threat quarterback at Kansas.

“Sometimes the defense wins,” Daniels told reporters this week. “When the defense is locking everything up, sometimes you have to be able to try to get out of the pocket and try to be able to go make plays. Because, at the end of the day, at the quarterback position your objective is to try to be able to move the chains every single play.

“If the defense is doing their job, my ability to be able to get out of the pocket, try to be able to get out and try to go find a receiver downfield, and if I can't receiver downfield the objective is to try to be able to move the sticks.”

Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, without much tape to look at when studying Daniels, went back to the quarterback’s tape at Kansas. He’s going to want to sow the seeds of confusion.

"Defenses, whenever they see a rookie quarterback, they try to do everything that they can to try to be able to blitz the quarterback, try to be able to make him get confused, try to be able to disguise everything that they can, and I'm aware of that,” Daniels said. “Me being aware of that, I'm trying to do everything that I can to, like I said, lean on Easton, lean on Bake and try to be able to get every single answer I can to everything they've had on film.”

Their other inactives include this year’s first-round pick, outside linebacker Rueben Bain. Rookie fifth-round guard Billy Schrauth, who played at Fond du Lac (Wis.) High School before starring at Notre Dame, is active, as well.

Cornerback Benjamin Morrison, who played most of the Week 1 game at Cincinnati and started in Week 2 against Cleveland, also is inactive due to an injured quad.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.