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Packers sign another safety, Mike Brown, to the practice squad

Between the 53-man roster and the practice squad, Brown is now the team’s seventh safety.

By Justis Mosqueda
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Northern Illinois v Miami Ohio Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The Green Bay Packers had a vacancy available on their practice squad for about a day the team placed inside linebacker Krys Barnes (ankle) on the injured reserve and activated former practice squad tackle Caleb Jones to the 53-man roster on Tuesday. They addressed that opening on Wednesday by announcing that they signed safety Mike Brown to the practice squad.

Brown is an undrafted free agent rookie from Miami (Ohio) and originally signed with the Minnesota Vikings before being released by the team on August 30th. Unsurprising due to his large (6’1”, 218 pounds) frame, Brown played more snaps in the box (503) and in the slot (1,147) than at true safety (355) at the college level (h/t Paul Bretl of Dairyland Express.)

As we all saw last week in the Packers’ season-opener against the Vikings, Minnesota is running a very similar defense to Green Bay’s under new defensive coordinator Ed Donatell — who had recently been coaching under Vic Fangio. Experience in the quarters-heavy defense should help him ease into the scheme as an in-season signing.

Maybe the most interesting part of this move is the fact that the Packers thought that they needed to add another safety. Following Barnes’ placement on the injured reserve, Green Bay now only has four inside linebackers on either their 53-man roster (De’Vondre Campbell, Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie) or practice squad (Ray Wilborn.) On the other hand, the team now has seven safeties on their active roster (Adrian Amos, Darnell Savage, Dallin Leavitt, Rudy Ford and Tariq Carpenter) or practice squad (Micah Abernathy and now Brown.)

According to Pro Football Network’s Aaron Wilson, the Packers didn’t work out a single player on Tuesday, typically the day the team brings in players for tryouts. Last week, the team worked out two other defensive backs, Darrell Baker and Olaijah Griffin. The week before that, Green Bay brought in safety Sheldrick Redwin on a workout.

Per The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, Brown was practicing with the team on Wednesday.

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