Packers waive WR Jared Abbrederis
GREEN BAY - The Green Bay Packers have parted ways with wide receiver Jared Abbrederis.
Placed on injured reserve Monday, Abbrederis was waived with an injury settlement Thursday, according to a source familiar with the situation. He will be subject to waivers for the next 24 hours and if not claimed will be a free agent.
Abbrederis, a Wautoma native and University of Wisconsin standout, suffered a thigh injury against the Dallas Cowboys and sat out the Chicago Bears game Thursday.
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According to the source, Abbrederis was going to be out about two weeks and so the Packers put a "minor" designation on his injured reserve status, which means his injury would take less than six weeks to heal. Abbrederis was free to rehab at the Packers facility, but once he was healthy the team would have had to waive him.
Instead of doing his rehab here, Abbrederis negotiated an injury settlement that would allow him to be waived immediately. He will be subject to waivers, but considering he's injured, he probably won't be claimed. Once he's healthy, he can begin working out for teams.
The Packers appear to be doing the same thing with S Chris Banjo, who was put on injured reserve Monday also. Banjo suffered a pretty bad hamstring injury, so it's possible he might not need the "minor" designation and could be kept around. But if he received the "minor" tag, then he will be gone, also.
The Packers' option with Abbrederis would have been to keep him on the roster until his thigh healed, but given the way they had ignored him this year, it wasn't totally surprising they decided to move on. Abbrederis had played just 24 snaps in five games, his highest 14 in the season opener against Jacksonville.
The coaches were using third-year receiver Jeff Janis and rookie Trevor Davis ahead of Abbrederis, who arguably had one of the best training camps of any of the receivers and appeared to be in line for significant playing time after the Jaguars game. At the time, Janis was not able to play receiver because of a broken hand and the coaches started playing Davis because they wanted more speed.
Most recently, the Packers decided to give practice squad receiver Geronimo Allison a chance on the 53-man roster. With Ty Montgomery playing more running back than receiver, Allison moves into a competition with Janis and Davis for playing time as the No. 4 receiver.
Allison had an impressive training camp, and according to offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett, has continued to develop quickly in his seven weeks on the practice squad. He said Allison has been groomed in such a way his transition to playing in the regular-season shouldn't be too difficult.
Abbrederis was a fifth-round pick of the Packers in 2014. He missed his entire '14 season with a torn ACL and almost all of training camp the following year because of a concussion.