Packer Central

Saturday’s Roster Moves: What They Mean for Packers-Eagles Playoff Game

The Packers signed quarterback Sean Clifford from the practice squad on Saturday. The roster move that wasn’t made was just as interesting.
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers quarterback Sean Clifford has been signed to the 53-man roster.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Sean Clifford has been signed to the 53-man roster. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers made one roster move on Saturday before lifting off for Philadelphia for Sunday’s playoff game against the Eagles.

Promoted: QB Sean Clifford

The only addition to the roster was signing quarterback Sean Clifford from the practice squad to the active roster.

Jordan Love (elbow) and Malik Willis (thumb) were injured during Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears. Both players were limited participation on Wednesday but were full participation on Thursday and Friday and removed from the injury report.

With no injury status, they presumably are good to go for Sunday with no issues.

“Today was a good day,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Love after Friday’s practice.

However, with a vacant roster spot, the Packers could afford to promote Clifford. He will be the emergency third quarterback on Sunday but won’t count against the 48-man gameday roster limit.

Clifford served as Love’s backup last season, but a training camp and preseason filled with too many mistakes necessitated an end-of-camp trade for Willis.

Famously, in the 2022 NFC Championship Game at Philadelphia, 49ers starter Brock Purdy sustained an elbow injury and was replaced by Josh Johnson, who suffered a concussion. The 49ers had nowhere to turn, so they reinserted Purdy, who couldn’t throw the ball too far past the line of scrimmage.

The NFL adapted, allowing teams to dress an emergency third quarterback so long as he’s on the 53-man roster.

Not Placed on Injured Reserve: WR Christian Watson

The Packers had only 52 players on the roster. Essentially, Clifford took the place of Jaire Alexander.

The Packers could have placed receiver Christian Watson on injured reserve following his torn ACL, which would have created an additional roster spot, but elected not to do so.

Not Promoted or Elevated: S Omar Brown

If the Packers would have placed Watson on IR, they could have promoted safety Omar Brown from the practice squad to the active roster.

That the Packers didn’t go that route would seem to signal that rookie safety Evan Williams will be back in the lineup after missing the last three games with an injured quad.

“After taking some weeks off, just being on the sideline trying to get all those mental reps and then finally being able to get back on the field with the guys, there’s really not a better feeling in my opinion, for sure,” Williams said.

As for Brown, he was elevated to the gameday roster each of the past three weeks. That’s the maximum number of elevations before that player must be signed to the active roster during the regular season. The elevation limits are waived during the postseason.

Eagles Elevate Two

The Eagles announced two roster moves at the deadline.

Every Eagles player who started in Week 1 against the Packers will be on the field on Sunday. That includes receiver A.J. Brown, who didn’t practice on Thursday but will be ready to face Green Bay.

The addition of Campbell, a sixth-year pro who caught 63 passes for the Colts in 2022, will provide some insurance in case Brown has some issues.

“End of season, everybody's banged up. Some banged up more than others, but most importantly, I'm going on Sunday,” Brown told reporters on Friday. “I'm going to give it my all and make plays, so it doesn't matter.

“It's really exciting. Not in the sense of nerves or nothing like that. Just really excited for the opportunity. Like I said, we're playing at home first round, great opponent. You live for those matchups and these types of games. Good thing about all this is we been there before, and we got something to fall back on and to push through. So, I think this locker room is excited.”

In five games this season, Campbell caught six passes for 30 yards.

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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.