Our Man Flinn » Brats & Beer

December 23, 2005
posted under: Bubba Franks, injury report, Packers, Ryan Flinn

Two items of note today from the Green Bay news hot line. Punter BJ Sander has been placed on IR for the rest of the season after suffering a knee injury when he got blindsided by Ed Reed in Monday’s loss to the Ravens. The Packers have signed Ryan Flinn as his replacement. This will be Flinn’s first starting assignment in the NFL after trying out for both the Cowboys and Falcons the past two years. He played at Central Florida and told the Press-Gazette that he has a vague memory of a game against Northern Illinois in DeKalb, so he should have fun the next two weeks punting in Green Bay. Not that he could do a lot worse than Sander. Mr. Critic posted a pretty good hatchet job on BJ today for anyone needing the inside scoop on our punting woes. The biggest concern is that he’ll also be holding for Longwell, and seeing as he’s the main source of scoring for the Packers these days, that’s really something to worry about.

The other item of note is that Bubba Franks was also placed on IR yesterday. Franks has been out for big chunks of time this year due to various injuries, the latest being a neck injury suffered at Chicago three weeks ago, so the significance of this news isn’t that Franks won’t be playing but that he was cut to make room for rookie safety Atari Bigby. The 5-foot-11 Bigby was an undrafted free agent out of Central Florida originally signed by Miami. He spent most of training camp with the Jets, though, before being waived in the final roster cuts. I hope he makes the team because he’s from Jamaica and has a fun name.