Packers add five players to practice squad

A year ago, the Green Bay Packers had the pick of the litter when it came to establishing an eight-man practice squad after none of their roster cuts were claimed by other NFL teams.

This year, no such luck.

After handing out 22 pink slips during Saturday’s NFL-mandated roster reduction to 53 players, the Packers watched five of those recently released players land elsewhere through the league’s waiver wire.

Three were veterans — outside linebacker Dezman Moses (Kansas City), running back Alex Green (New York Jets) and tight end D.J. Williams (Jacksonville) — but two others — rookie center Patrick Lewis (Cleveland) and second-year linebacker Terrell Manning (San Diego) — would’ve been practice-squad eligible had they cleared. In each of the past two seasons, the Packers have filled their eight-man scout team with seven players who went to camp in Green Bay, but Press-Gazette Media confirmed only four through Sunday evening.

That list included tight end Jake Stoneburner, cornerback James Nixon, and receivers Myles White and Charles Johnson, a 6-foot-2, 216-pound product of Grand Valley State who was a seventh-round pick in April’s NFL draft.

An NFL source also confirmed the Packers signed former Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien to the practice squad following a workout. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound signal-caller spent the past two seasons with the San Francisco, whom the Packers open the regular season against next Sunday.

“I think for the most part it’s been our history to do what we’ve probably done with the guys who were here,” Packers general manager Ted Thompson said. “We usually have a few guys every year that were somewhere else. Some sort of mix like that.”