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GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – It looks like Devin Funchess’ two seasons with the Packers will end without him ever playing in a regular season game. The team placed him on the injured list on Wednesday due to a lingering hamstring injury.
Funchess last played in an NFL game in Week 1 of the 2019 season, when he broke his collarbone in his only game with the Indianapolis Colts.
Funchess made more headlines off the pitch than on it after signing a one-year, $ 2.5 million contract that included a $ 1 million signing bonus with the Packers in March 2020. He took the COVID-19 option and didn’t play last season, then was criticized for his anti-Asian slurs and gestures at a press conference earlier this month.
If he was healthy, he would have been on the bubble for a spot on the list. The Packers drafted wide receiver Amari Rodgers in the third round this year, then traded to Randall Cobb at the behest of Aaron Rodgers when the star quarterback returned to the team in July.
Funchess could only replay this season if he accepts an injury settlement and is waived. He could be claimed on waivers or signed by a team after his injury rule expires, but the Packers have no plans to bring him back.
The sixth-year receiver has 164 career catches for 2,265 yards and 21 touchdowns. All but three of those catches and 32 of those yards came from the Carolina Panthers, who drafted him in the second round (No. 41 overall) in 2015.
The Packers also released wide receiver Chris Blair, who had been injured intermittently throughout the offseason. They replaced Funchess and Blair on the roster with a pair of defensive players: defensive lineman Abdullah Anderson (a former undrafted free agent who signed with the Chicago Bears in 2018) and cornerback Stephen Denmark (a seventh round of the Bears in 2019). Anderson appeared in seven NFL games (six with the Bears in 2019 and one with the Minnesota Vikings last year). Denmark spent time with the Bears, Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers but never appeared in a game.
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