The Green Bay Packers moved Warren Brinson to injured reserve on Saturday, a day after ruling the defensive lineman out for Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with calf and groin injuries.
Brinson’s situation traces back to a calf problem he had been dealing with since warmups for Week 2 of the preseason. On Friday, head coach Matt LaFleur said Brinson was hurt in a non-contact play when he got back on the practice field this week, and that the groin injury came along with it. LaFleur added that Brinson’s recovery is expected to take a “ significant amount of time ”.
For now, Brinson has not been designated to return from injured reserve. Green Bay can designate eight players to return from IR during the regular season, and that total rises to 10 if the team reaches the postseason.
Savion Williams and Collin Oliver have already been designated to return in 2026, while Zach Bako-Bewele and Jayden Reed are still in the same category as Brinson, waiting for designation. Players on the PUP list such as Micah Parsons, Luke Musgrave and Jordon Riley do not count toward that IR-DFR total.
Brinson still has not appeared in a regular-season game, and the Packers were already carrying extra bodies at his spot to start 2026. Green Bay opened the year “oversigned” along the interior defensive line, keeping seven players there on the initial 53-man roster even though the team usually carries only five at that position on the 48-man game-day roster.
The Packers also got a positive update on Edgerrin Cooper, who has fully cleared the NFL’s concussion protocol and is off the injury report.
That leaves Green Bay with four scratches to make against Tampa Bay, since the team is currently at 52 players. Three of those decisions are already settled because three players have been ruled out, and the last spot will likely go to an offensive lineman - either Jager Burton, who is dealing with a quadricep issue, or another lineman on the roster.
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