By Adam Roberts – 9/29/2020
Inside linebacker has been a trouble position for the Packers for quite a while, and their planned fix to that problem this season has now been sidelined.
Per ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, first-year Packer Christian Kirksey is out for this Monday night’s match up against the Atlanta Falcons after injuring his shoulder in the team’s win last weekend over the New Orleans Saints. Demovsky reported that the injury isn’t considered to be season-ending, but that it could include a stint on injured reserve.
This is the second hit to the ILB position for defensive coordinator Mike Pettine after rookie Kamal Martin suffered a knee injury during training camp. It’s one of a number of adjustments Pettine has had to make to his roster, but this was expected with an unusual training camp and lack of preseason. Ty Summers took over for Kirksey against the Saints and led the team in tackles. He should be expected to get the start this week.
Whether or not he will have a speaker in his helmet this week remains to be seen. He used it for receiving the play calls from Pettine Sunday. “I thought the communication was pretty good” head coach Matt LaFleur said yesterday. ” He did a great job of relaying the calls to the other ten guys on the field and helping guys get adjusted…like every player there’s always a couple plays here an there that gotta get cleaned up, and those are things that we’ll address when we see him [today].”
This isn’t the first notable injury to Kirksey in his career; while with Cleveland he missed all but the first two games of the year with a broken collarbone and only played seven games for the Browns in 2018.