Packers CB Kiondre Thomas called up from practice squad vs Patriots

Oct 1, 2022 - 10:54 PM

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The Green Bay Packers announced on Saturday that they will be calling up cornerback Kiondre Thomas from the practice squad to play the New England Patriots in Week 4. Thomas originally signed with the Packers on a futures contract in January after spending most of the 2021 season on the Los Angeles Chargers’ practice squad. Thomas was called up four times for game action by the Chargers last year.

Despite the Chargers call-ups, Thomas hasn’t played a snap of regular season defensive football in his professional career and has only registered 28 snaps of special teams play. This past preseason, Thomas played the third-most snaps at outside cornerback in the first halves of games with the Packers, behind only Shemar Jean-Charles and Rico Gafford. He actually out-snapped Keisean Nixon, the team’s second-team slot corner, there in the preseason but Thomas never played a single snap at slotback. Assume that he’s going to be playing a reserve outside cornerback role, even if the team doesn’t need more secondary bodies on special teams.

At this point, it’s worth noting that the team also signed cornerback Corey Ballentine to the practice squad earlier this week. Between the insurance policy at practice squad cornerback and the promotion of Thomas, you can read between the lines here and assume that the Packers are going to be conservative with cornerback Jaire Alexander’s groin injury. Alexander left Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers his injury, never returned in-game, was a non-participant on Thursday’s practice and was officially listed on Friday as “questionable” to play against the Patriots.

If Alexander can’t go, the team will likely run back the lineup that helped them hold the Buccaneers to just 12 points last week. When Alexander left the game, slotback Rasul Douglas moved to outside corner and Nixon came off the bench to replace Douglas in the slot. Should one of them go down, the next man up at the position would be Jean-Charles, who has played two defensive snaps this season and 37 defensive snaps for the Packers in his regular-season career. Jean-Charles, a 2021 fifth-round pick, has taken about seven special teams snaps for every defensive snap he’s had in Green Bay over his first two years in the league.

The Packers also announced that tackle Caleb Jones, who was promoted in Week 2 from the practice squad, has been placed on the league’s non-football illness list. Jones missed every practice this week with an undisclosed illness. Jones has yet to be activated for a game this season.