Lyerla might miss rest of camp

Colt Lyerla isn't particularly optimistic his injured right knee will heal enough to get him on the field before the end of training camp.

The rookie tight end , who hurt his knee last Saturday on Family Night, was in the Green Bay Packers' locker room Thursday walking on crutches with his leg in an immobilizer.

There are no indications his knee will require surgery, which would rule out an ACL. But if he injured his medial-collateral ligament, he could be out could for anywhere from two to eight weeks, depending on the severity of the tear.

Lyerla is scheduled to see a doctor Friday but sounded pessimistic about returning to the field in the next couple of weeks. There are only three weeks remaining of training camp.

"If I had to guess I'd say no," Lyerla said of returning before the end of camp. "But I really don't have a timeline at all until I see the doctor tomorrow."

If Lyerla isn't healthy enough to return during camp, his chances of making the 53-man roster would be almost nil because the Packers wouldn't have seen enough to justify keeping the undrafted rookie.

They could place him on injured reserve, but then he couldn't practice for the rest of the year.

They also could place him on temporary injured reserve, but there's reason to question whether they'd use that one-time resource when they could save it in case a key player is injured early in the season. Players on temporary IR have to miss at least eight weeks.

They also could reach an injury settlement with him, then try to re-sign him to their practice squad. However, NFL rules prohibit a team from re-signing a player it's reached a settlement with until six weeks after the settlement expires.