Bulaga’s return to practice puts team in good shape
GREEN BAY - Four days before the opener, Green Bay Packers right tackle Bryan Bulaga practiced in unit and individual drills Wednesday.
Bulaga, nursing a sprained right ankle, had not practiced since Aug. 23 when he was injured in a half-line drill during camp.
Two weeks later, he looked to be moving around well inside the Don Hutson Center. Bulaga needed no ankle support beyond standard taping.
Before practice Wednesday, coach Mike McCarthy said Bulaga would test out his ankle and be closely monitored.
“He’ll go through the early parts of practice,’’ McCarthy said, “and then we’ll take a look at it.’
The Packers have remarkable health midway through Week 1 of the NFL season.
Entering Wednesday’s practice, Bulaga was the closest the Packers came to having a major injury. With no setbacks Wednesday, Bulaga would be on trajectory to play Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.
Against a defensive front Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Wednesday could be the best he’s ever had in Seattle, the Packers want each of their five offensive line starters active.
Rookie defensive lineman Montravius Adams was in shells for the second time this week. Though he is still limited in practice, Adams’ availability Wednesday showed there were no setbacks from Monday’s practice.
The only player on the Packers’ 53-man roster who did not practice was defensive lineman Quinton Dial, a new freeagent acquisition. McCarthy said Dial, who signed with the team Tuesday, will have his first practice Thursday.
McCarthy said he’s impressed with what the 6-5, 318-pound Dial can bring his defense.
“I think his measurables,” McCarthy said, “are obviously the first thing that jumps out at you when you meet him and have the opportunity to compete against him. He definitely helps us in that area. We’ll move him around, whether it’s the 1, the nose, the 3 and maybe even look at some our our 4-I technique stuff.”
Ringo to Bengals: Christian Ringo was claimed on waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals. He was released Tuesday to make room on the Packers roster for Dial.
Ringo won a position battle out of camp against fellow defensive lineman Brian Price, who was claimed Sunday by the Dallas Cowboys.
The Packers wanted both on their practice squad if they cleared waivers. Ringo, a former sixth-round pick, played eight games in 2016 after being on the Packers’ practice squad through his entire rookie 2015 season.
Plugged in: Between the two pro athletes, there was more than enough money to hire a plumber.
But when Los Angeles Clippers forward Sam Dekker’s garbage disposal stopped working while he hosted Aaron Rodgers, the two men took matters into their own hands. Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers’ twotime MVP quarterback, said he first checked out a YouTube tutorial. Then, wearing blue shorts with a white T-shirt, he crawled under Dekker’s kitchen sink and got to work.
“He was having some sink issues,” Rodgers said, “asked for my help. He’s 23 years old. I know he’s engaged and taking the next step to being an adult, but he’s not quite there yet. So I went under the sink.”
Over the weekend, Dekker tweeted a picture of Rodgers holding a black plug while lying on the kitchen floor. Rodgers then provided a playby-play Wednesday of how he fixed Dekker’s garbage disposal.
“What the tutorial told me,” Rodgers said, “was to test the switch first. What kind of rumble you hear, or lack of rumble, tells you what’s going on with the garbage disposal. So, I flipped the switch and nothing happened. So it means two things: one, it’s completely broken and it needs to be changed out, or, two, it’s not plugged in.” And the verdict? “It wasn’t plugged in,” Rodgers said. “So, that’s the picture of me holding the plug as I call him from the other room. It said, ‘Hey, idiot, it wasn’t plugged in.’
“He’s learning.’’