Practice report: Waters moves to cornerback

GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers returned to practice Wednesday, some 72 hours after their exhausting win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The players were without pads on a sunny and cool day in Green Bay, and coach Mike McCarthy said the workload would be lessened to offset the massive energy drain from the Florida sun.

"It will be adjusted today," McCarthy said. "I don’t know if you guys will notice or not but we’ll probably go 19 minutes less than what we’d go on a normal Wednesday and we cut the team periods back. We’re very cognizant of what Sunday’s did to our players. You collect the data on Monday and again this morning with the strength and conditioning and our nutritionist and our medical staff."

Safety Chris Banjo, outside linebacker Jayrone Elliott and cornerback Josh Hawkins remained sidelined by hamstring injuries. Banjo and Elliott appeared closer to a potential return than Hawkins. They ran sprints at 75% to 80% of their maximum speed while Hawkins, an undrafted free agent, did more gentle movements.

Cornerback Sam Shields, who suffered a concussion against the Jaguars, remains in the concussion protocol and did not practice.

The injuries to Shields, Hawkins and Makinton Dorleant, another rookie cornerback placed on injured reserve, mean the Packers are down to half of the six corners on their initial 53-man roster. Only Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins and LaDarius Gunter remain healthy.

Because of that thinness, the Packers flipped practice squad wide receiver Herb Waters to cornerback. He appeared at practice Wednesday wearing a green defense jersey and spent a good bit of time with cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr., who began to explain the basics of technique.

The Packers did not have any cornerbacks on their 10-man practice squad prior to Waters' change of position.

Running back Jhurell Pressley, who general manager Ted Thompson claimed on waivers from the Minnesota Vikings, was not at practice. Pressley is expected to be released by the Packers in the near future, according to a league source, perhaps as early as Wednesday afternoon.

Without Pressley, the Packers have just two running backs on their active roster in Eddie Lacy and James Starks.

Wide receiver Trevor Davis, who missed Sunday's game with a shoulder injury, looked much more comfortable Wednesday than he did last week. It's likely he will participate in a larger portion of practice this week.

Ryan Wood contributed to this report.