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Despite finishing the game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 3, rookie second-round offensive lineman Anthony Belton popped up on the Wednesday injury report for the Green Bay Packers with an ankle injury. Officially, he was listed as limited by the team.
When Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was asked about the status of Belton in his pre-practice press conference on Thursday, LaFleur wouldn’t clearly answer if Belton was going to be able to go or not against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. This is important, as Belton is one of the team’s options to replace Zach Tom, Green Bay’s starting right tackle, who is reportedly going to miss the game.
According to those who were able to watch warmups and individual drills in the Packers’ only padded practice of the week leading up to the Cowboys game, Belton, along with Tom and left guard Aaron Banks, were non-participants due to injury. If all three of them are out, the starting offensive line versus Dallas will probably look something like: Rasheed Walker, Jordan Morgan, Elgton Jenkins, Sean Rhyan and Darian Kinnard (left to right).
Green Bay’s early week moves of adding offensive lineman Brant Banks to the 53-man roster and offensive lineman Lecitus Smith to the practice squad make more sense, now that we know Belton’s status for Sunday Night Football is legitimately in question. Remember, Jacob Monk and Travis Glover are already on the injured reserve and John Williams is on the physically unable to perform list, so the offensive line is dealing with six significant injuries up front right now.
NFL rules state that teams receive 47-man gameday rosters, but get a 48th player if he’s an eighth offensive lineman. Suppose all of Belton, Tom and Banks are out against the Cowboys. In that case, the team will only have seven healthy offensive linemen on the 53-man roster: Walker, Morgan, Jenkins, Rhyan, Kinnard, Donovan Jennings and Banks. So even after the promotion of Banks, the Packers would likely call up one of Dalton Cooper or Smith to the gameday roster, in that scenario.
