Packers sign Patrick Taylor to practice squad, release Josh Babicz

The Green Bay Packers brought back running back Patrick Taylor almost immediately. After the team waived Taylor off of the active roster to make room for the waiver claim of outside linebacker Justin Hollins on Wednesday, Taylor has since re-signed with the Packers’ practice squad.

This is Taylor’s third stint on the practice squad in 2022. He originally began the season on the practice squad, when Green Bay was only rostering two running backs on their 53-man roster. He was then added to the active roster and then dropped back down when running back Kylin Hill was activated off of the physically unable to perform list. When Hill was dropped from the active roster, Taylor then returned to the 53-man roster until Wednesday’s addition of Hollins.

While the third running back position hasn’t been one that has seen the field much on the offensive side of the ball, Taylor’s impact was felt on special teams. For perspective, Taylor has played in eight games this season and has played 78 special teams snaps. That’s about 29 percent of the Packers’ total special teams snaps in 2022, which is nearly 10 times more than any other back on the roster this year.

There are two options for Taylor to get into game action moving forward. First, he could be elevated from the practice squad, which he’s allowed to do two more times. Practice squad players are allotted three games per season in which they can play without being members of the 53-man roster. The other option is that the team can simply promote him back to the active roster. Green Bay now has an open roster spot that they didn’t have on Wednesday because of guard Sean Rhyan’s six-game PED suspension that was announced on Friday.

The Packers did have to make a corresponding roster move to add Taylor to their practice squad, as their 16-man roster was full prior to the move. The transaction was the release of tight end Josh Babicz, who was signed by the team in Week 8. Green Bay no longer carries a tight end on their practice squad while Taylor joins Tyler Goodson as the practice squad’s running backs.