The Green Bay Packers placed defensive lineman Warren Brinson on the injured reserve on Saturday, just one day after they ruled him out of Week 4’s action against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with calf and groin injuries. On Friday, head coach Matt LaFleur said that Brinson, who had been battling a calf injury since warmups of Week 2 of the preseason, was injured in a non-contact fashion — leading to his groin injury — when he returned to practice this week. He said that Brinson’s injury is expected
to take a “significant amount of time” to recover from.
So far, Brinson hasn’t been designated to return from the injured reserve. The Packers are allowed to designate eight players to return from the IR in an individual season (the number goes up to 10 if the team makes the postseason). Both receiver Savion Williams and edge defender Collin Oliver have been designated to return in 2026, while offensive tackle Zach Bako-Bewele and receiver Jayden Reed are in the Brinson camp — yet to be designated to return. PUP list players like Micah Parsons, Luke Musgrave and Jordon Riley do not count toward the IR-DFR count.
Brinson has yet to play in a regular-season game due to his calf injury, and the Packers entered the 2026 season “oversigned” at the position, as they carried seven interior defensive linemen on their initial 53-man roster — despite the team regularly rostering just five players at the position on their 48-man game-day roster.
Green Bay also announced that linebacker Edgerrin Cooper has fully cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol and was removed from the team’s injury report. That leaves the following players with statuses:
- LG Aaron Banks – OUT
- RG Jacob Monk – OUT
- DL Anthony Campbell – OUT
- OL Jager Burton – Questionable
The Packers only have to make four scratches against the Buccaneers, since they only have a 52-man roster at the moment. Three of them are obvious, as three players have already been ruled out, and the final scratch will likely be an offensive lineman (it’s rare for NFL teams to carry more than eight active linemen on the game-day roster) — be it Jager Burton, who is dealing with a quadricep issue, or another option on the roster.
