Packers Elevate Outside Linebacker for Sunday vs. Commanders

The Green Bay Packers are elevating outside linebacker La’Darius Hamilton to the 53-man roster for Sunday’s game at the Washington Commanders.

The Packers are thin at outside linebacker. One of the three backups, core special-teams player Tipa Galeai, was placed on injured reserve (hamstring) last week.

Hamilton joined the Packers early last season. When the Packers placed Za’Darius Smith on injured reserve, they grabbed Hamilton off the Buccaneers’ practice squad. In six games, he played 64 snaps on defense and contributed three tackles, two quarterback hits and three pressures in 36 rushes.

Hamilton went undrafted out of North Texas in 2020 and spent his rookie season on the Cowboys’ practice squad.

As a senior at North Texas in 2019, Hamilton recorded 8.5 sacks, 10.5 tackles for losses and one forced fumble. He finished his career tied for sixth in program history with 17 sacks and added 28.5 TFLs.

During his junior season, North Texas unveiled a statue to honor the legendary “Mean Joe” Greene. That week, Hamilton was given Greene’s retired No. 75 jersey to wear against Louisiana Tech.

“It was a big thing,” Hamilton said during training camp. “They unveiled his statue before the game and they ended up unretiring the jersey for me to wear that game in honor of him. The whole focus was on Mean Joe. I was just a tool to shine a bigger light on him.”

Hamilton had an excellent training camp but couldn’t quite earn a place alongside Jonathan Garvin, Galeai and rookie fifth-round pick Kingsley Enagbare on the 53-man roster.

“I just come in every day, put my head down, and go to work,” he said. “I’ve never been the front-runner, never been the top dog. I’ve always been the underdog, so it’s nothing new to me. I just come in and go to work like always.”

The Packers have not received much impact from their backups. Enagbare hadn't done a thing until recording his first career sack last week against the Jets. He has five tackles in 77 snaps in the six games. A third-year player, Garvin has merely two assisted tackles in 62 snaps in six games.

“I realized the tight end really wasn’t coming off like super-aggressive, so it was a keeper pass and I did a little move, and was able to get around the corner and bring him down,” Enagbare explained this week of his sack.