Getty Sean Pollard #76 of the Clemson Tigers celebrate his teams 44-16 win over the Alabama Crimson Tidein the CFP National Championship presented by AT&T at Levi's Stadium on January 7, 2019 in Santa Clara, California.
The Green Bay Packers are taking a look at some of the available center talent with starter Corey Linsley set to miss at least the next three games.
According to Friday’s NFL transaction wire, the Packers hosted rookie Sean Pollard along with third-year Nico Falah and fifth-year Anthony Fabiano for workouts on Thursday, eyeing potential depth additions at a position with no currently healthy players.
The Packers are expected to move left guard Elgton Jenkins over to start at center for Week 13’s home game against the Eagles with Linsley out of the picture. While he wasn’t officially ruled out until Friday’s injury report was released, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network had reported earlier in the week that Linsley is expected to miss three to six weeks with a sprained MCL he suffered in Week 12’s win over Chicago.
At the very least, Linsley will miss the next three weeks after the Packers placed him on injured reserve on Saturday ahead of Week 13’s home game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Beyond Linsley, the only other center tied to the Packers is sixth-round rookie Jake Hanson, but he is on the team’s injured reserve/practice squad and would be a long shot to contribute anyways after failing to make the team’s active roster during training camp.
The Packers currently have one space available on their 53-man roster after activating rookie linebacker Krys Barnes from the reserve/COVID-19 list earlier this week; though, he is listed as questionable to play against the Eagles with a calf injury.
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Pollard Won 2 Championships at Clemson
Pollard came into the league earlier this spring as an undrafted free agent and was unable to survive 53-man roster cuts with the Baltimore Ravens in the summer, but he won two national championships during his four seasons at Clemson and spent his final two years snapping for Trevor Lawrence — widely considered the top quarterback prospect for 2021 draft class.
Pollard started 38 of 55 games for Clemson during his career and showed some of the multi-positional versatility that has made Jenkins such a hit with the Packers, playing snaps at center, guard and tackle. He took every one of his 726 senior-year snaps at center and helped the Tigers finish among the top five in total and scoring offense.
Fabiano Has Been Practice-Squad Journeyman
Pollard’s youth and championship pedigree make him the most appealing prospect on the list, but there is the upside of NFL experience with the other two auditioning centers.
Falah, who went undrafted out of USC in 2018, spent time on the practice squads of the Tennessee Titans and New York Jets as a rookie before making his way to the Denver Broncos’ active roster. Unfortunately, he tore his Achilles in May while preparing for his second season and was forced to miss all of 2019. He was waived in July and has been looking for a new squad ever since.
Fabiano has been far more of a journeyman. He has spent time in Baltimore, Cleveland, Washington, New York, New England, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, but he only spent a handful of games during his 2016 rookie season on an active roster.
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