Getty The Packers released punter Pat O'Donnel, left, from their roster on August 28.
The Green Bay Packers are unexpectedly shaking up their specialist room with a little more than 24 hours to go until the 53-man roster cutdown deadline.
According to the team’s official transaction wire for August 28, the Packers released veteran punter Pat O’Donnell from their 90-man roster on Monday, leaving former All-XFL youngster Daniel Whelan as the last man standing to play the position in 2023.
The Packers’ decision to release O’Donnell comes as a bit of a surprise considering the team already paid out his $650,000 roster bonus and his $50,000 workout bonus, but ditching O’Donnell’s $1.2 million base salary in favor of the $750,000 base salary that Whelan is scheduled to earn for the 2023 season will save them a small bit of money.
Choosing Whelan over O’Donnell also gets the Packers younger at the punter position. While O’Donnell played well for the majority of his first season as a Packer in 2022, he is the sixth-oldest punter in the league at 32 years old, which is a particular concern for a cold-weather team like Green Bay that does not play in a domed stadium. Now, they can focus on developing a younger talent with a few contract-controlled years ahead.
O’Donnell is the first cut that has been reported or announced for the Packers since they finished up their preseason slate with a 19-15 win over Seattle on Saturday.
Packers Trusting Dan Whelan Comes With Some Risk
The Packers tabbing Whelan as their new starting punter is unexpected, but it is not like he has not earned it over the past month of training camp. He finished with a net average of 37.2 yards per punt on six attempts in the preseason, pinning three inside the 20-yard line, and has put on a show booming punts in practice this summer.
Whelan is also coming off a promising season for the DC Defenders in which he was named to the All-XFL Team for his punting efforts. The former UC Davis All-American finished the year with a third-best punting average of 45.6 yards per attempt in the league as well as the third-most punts landed inside the 20-yard line (11). He also put his leg strength on display with a few punts of 50-plus yards, including a 66-yarder.
The Packers have been generally successful in differing to Rich Bisaccia’s judgment for personal decisions related to his special teams unit, but pivoting to Whelan still comes with its own set of risks worth considering. For starters, they are now moving forward with two specialists who have never played a regular-season NFL snap with sixth-round rookie Anders Carlson replacing the record-setting Mason Crosby as their placekicker.
O’Donnell was also the more accomplished field goal and extra-point holder of the two, which could add more instability to Carlson’s rookie season after he struggled at times throughout the past month of camp and preseason work. That’s not to say that Whelan cannot figure it out and get the job done for his kicker, but having a veteran holder is often viewed as beneficial to the consistent operation of kicks.
Whelan to Be NFL’s 1st Irish-Born Player in 38 Years
One other interesting fact about Whelan’s promotion to starting punter: When he takes the field with the Packers in their season opener against the Chicago Bears, he will be the first Irish-born player to participate in an NFL game since kicker Neil O’Donoghue concluded his career with the Arizona Cardinals in 1985.
According to Pro Football Reference, there have only been 10 Irish-born players in the history of the NFL to play in a game, four of whom played in two or fewer career games. O’Donoghue — who was a fifth-round pick in 1977 — finished as the longest-tenured among them, making 112 of his 189 career field goals over his 110 games in the league.
Whether Whelan — who is originally from Enniskerry, County Wicklow, near Dublin — will have a career that endures as long remains to be seen, but at least he has finally earned his chance to take that first step with a storied franchise.