The Green Bay Packers they don’t want to lose the linebacker For Darius Smith due to a more serious injury than the one that has bothered his back since the start of training camp, so They have decided to put him on injured reserve so that he can recover in a good way.
El head coach Matt LaFleur regards movement as relevant to the player’s long-term health. With the new health protocols, teams can remove players from injured reserve after three weeks on it. This means that Smith will be out for at least the next three games.
“Unfortunately, we will sit him down for a while. We have two options, either we keep it in a limited role or we rest it long enough so that he can dispute the amount of plays that we expect from him and that he has the level that he has had in past years, “said LaFleur.
According to the data of Pro Football Reference, Smith participated in 18 defensive plays in the game against the New Orleans Saints and he only recorded one tackle.
Smith substitutes
On the Packers roster are pass rushers Preston Smith, Rashan Gary, Jonathan Garvin and Chauncey Rivers to temporarily replace Smith. Among them, LaFleur expects more from Gary, a former first-round draft pick in 2019 who recorded five sacks and 35 tackles in 2020.
“Rashan is someone who works hard every day. Every rep goes 100 miles per hour. I think that will affect not only our practices, but the games. We simply need it to follow its upward trajectory”, Explained the head coach.
