Packer Central

Packers Release Veteran Punter O’Donnell

The Packers will have a new kicking operation in 2023 with Daniel Whelan presumably poised to replace punter Pat O'Donnell.
Bill Huber|
Packers Release Veteran Punter O’Donnell
Packers Release Veteran Punter O’Donnell

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers released veteran Pat O’Donnell on Monday, a source confirmed, opening the door for Irish-born Daniel Whelan to be the team’s Week 1 punter.

The news was first reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Whelan outkicked O’Donnell for most of training camp and had a superb preseason finale vs. Seattle. Based solely on kicking the ball with hangtime and distance, Whelan was the obvious option.

“He’s done a heck of a job since we’ve gotten him,” coach Matt LaFleur said of Whelan. “He definitely has a big time leg. And it’s great. You want competition at every position, because it’s going to push us to be better.”

However, O’Donnell’s one of the best directional punters in the NFL. Last season, he placed 24 punts inside the 20 vs. one touchback – one of the best ratios in the NFL. He’s also been the holder on kicks throughout his nine years in the NFL. That experience and the $650,000 roster bonus paid at the start of the league-year seemed to be in his favor as the Packers transition from Mason Crosby to rookie kicker Anders Carlson.

It did not, though. The going-young Packers are opting for the big leg and his field-flipping upside, even if it means a rookie punter holding for a rookie kicker.

The Packers will have a fully new battery. Matt Orzech (presumably) will win the snapping job, Whelan (presumably) will win the punting job and Carlson (presumably) has won the kicking job.

“We think it’s been a really good competition between the both of them,” special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia said recently of O'Donnell and Whelan. “They both have their strengths. For Whelan, it’s new.

“Obviously, his football awareness is increasing all the time, but he’s had some good days and he’s had some days where he didn’t get the hang that he quite expects. It’s been a good competition, I think he’s learning a lot from being around Pat and I think his holding has gotten better as well by getting the repetitions that he’s getting in practice.”

Crosby was Green Bay's kicker for 16 seasons and O'Donnell has logged nine years in the NFL. Carlson and Whelan will take zero games of regular-season experience into Week 1 at Chicago, where O'Donnell called home for his first eight seasons.

Whelan is set to be the first native of Ireland to play in the NFL in almost four decades.

Most of the Packers’ transactions on their way to a 53-man roster will be made on Tuesday. In the case of O’Donnell, that’s general manager Brian Gutekunst getting a veteran player on the market before the market is flooded with other specialists.

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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.

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