Packers place TE Tyler Davis on the injured reserve

The Green Bay Packers made it official on Monday when they announced that tight end Tyler Davis was placed on the injured reserve. Davis, a noted special teamer for the team, tore his ACL in the preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals over week ago. Until now, the team had kept him on the 91-man roster.

The corresponding move that the Packers made with the announcement of shutting down Davis for the season was signing inside linebacker Marvin Pierre. This move had been previously reported, as well as the signing of cornerback Elijah Hamilton. Hamilton’s addition isn’t official, yet, but is expected to be by Tuesday — which is the next time that the Packers will step on the practice field. Back at 91 players, a corresponding roster move will have to be made to make room for Hamilton’s addition.

According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, the Packers brought in the following players for the workout that saw Pierre and Hamilton get signed:

• Pierre
• Hamilton
• LB Tae Crowder
• DB Reggie Robinson
• WR Sage Surratt
• LB Ian Swenson

With Davis on the IR before final cuts, he cannot be brought back during the 2023 season, though, that was always going to be the case with a torn ACL diagnosis. Over the last two seasons, Davis played 31 games for Green Bay. 578 of Davis’ 873 snaps with the team have come on special teams, a little over 66 percent.

With Davis out of the picture, it seems like third-round rookie Tucker Kraft is going to take on the third tight end job behind fellow rookie Luke Musgrave and “fullback” Josiah Deguara. The roster math becomes interesting without Davis, as the team now must decide whether or not to roster a fourth tight end or second fullback to fill Davis’ special teams contributions. Based on special teams starts from the Packers’ second preseason game, it looks like fullback Henry Pearson has an edge over tight end Austin Allen in a close race.

Davis was the Packers’ first free-agent signing of the offseason, inking with the team just a few minutes after the new league year began. He was on a one-year contract, meaning that he’ll enter the 2024 offseason as an unrestricted free agent.