Packers coach Mike McCarthy said that wide receiver Jordy Nelson was close to playing in Week Eight against the Jaguars, but the team decided to let him rest his injured hamstring.
Either the team is operating out of an abundance of caution or Nelson’s hamstring has taken a step backward in the last few days because the Packers practiced without him on Wednesday. They won’t have him on Thursday, either.
Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press-Gazette reports that coach Mike McCarthy said that Nelson will test his hamstring on Friday in hopes of getting into the lineup against the Cardinals in Week Nine. It’s a similar strategy as the one the Packers employed after Nelson hurt his hamstring in practice last week, which suggests that Nelson’s chances of playing won’t be considerably different.
If Nelson can’t go, the Packers will rely on James Jones, Randall Cobb and Donald Driver at wide receiver again this week. It would be helpful to their passing game if tight end Jermichael Finley’s long lost chemistry with Aaron Rodgers also reappeared, but the team showed last week that they can still win games with a depleted receiving corps.