Packers release OL

The Green Bay Packers announced on Tuesday that they have released offensive lineman Brant Banks from the 53-man roster, giving them two open roster spots going into the bye week. As a reminder, the Packers are now allowed to call up players from the injured reserve and physically unable to perform list, meaning that any of running back MarShawn Lloyd, receiver Christian Watson, offensive lineman Jacob Monk, offensive lineman John Williams and/or defensive end Collin Oliver could potentially suit up for Green Bay in their next game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

In head coach Matt LaFleur’s press conference on Tuesday, he hinted that the plan is to get Watson, at minimum, back in practice next Monday.

Last week, the Packers not only had to sign Brant Banks from the practice squad to the 53-man roster, but they also had to call up Lecitus Smith, who was signed last Wednesday, from the practice squad just so that the team could roster eight offensive linemen against the Dallas Cowboys. If Green Bay is willing to dispose of Banks, who is now subject to waivers, then there’s a good chance that at least two of Zach Tom, Aaron Banks and Anthony Belton — the three active roster offensive linemen who were too injured to play against Dallas — will be back in practice after the bye.

As it stands right now, the Packers only have six healthy offensive linemen on their 53-man roster, but the team only receives an extra 48th gameday roster spot if they carry eight linemen into games. So, they probably don’t let Banks go in this scenario, especially almost two weeks before their next game, if they weren’t confident that at least two linemen would be coming back healthy.

The decision matrix on calling Banks up and letting him go is kind of interesting. These are the factors:

• Banks originally was on the practice squad. For a team to poach him off the Packers’ practice squad, they would have had to have committed to keeping him on their 53-man roster for three weeks, per NFL rules.
• The Packers could have promoted Banks from the practice squad directly to the gameday roster on Saturday, which would have exhausted his second of three potential callups from the practice squad during the 2025 season.
• Instead, Green Bay chose to bring him up to the 53-man roster, which preserved the team’s option to call him up to the gameday roster from the practice squad two more times for the remainder of the 2025 season.
• Now that he’s waived, though, any team can put in a claim on Banks. He was available to any team while he was on the practice squad, too, but being exposed to waivers means that he’s not promised the three-week guarantee that he would have earned if he had been poached directly off a practice squad.

So why bring Banks up to the 53-man roster? Is the preservation of the call-up option that important to...