Green Bay Packers rule out OL Elgton Jenkins with knee injury

The Green Bay Packers have ruled out offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins for the rest of Sunday’s Week 2 contest versus the Atlanta Falcons with a knee injury, the team reported during the third quarter.

Jenkins suffered a knee injury earlier in the game, and the Packers reported him as questionable to return before downgrading him later on.

He is a two-time Pro Bowler, including last season when he played in and started 15 games for Green Bay. The 27-year-old was also named a captain for the game along with linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and linebacker Eric Wilson.

#Packers injury update: G Elgton Jenkins (knee) has been ruled out. #GBvsATL

— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 17, 2023

The Packers already without tackles David Bakhtiari and Caleb Jones for the game.

Bakhtiari made headlines earlier in the week after tweeting his anger at the NFL for continuing to allow games to be played on turf instead of grass after former teammate Aaron Rodgers‘ injury on Monday Night Football.

“Congrats @nfl,” Bakhtiari shared Monday night on X, formerly known as Twitter. How many more players have to get hurt on ARTIFICIAL TURF??! You care more about soccer players than us. You plan to remove all artificial turf for the World Cup coming up. So clearly it’s feasible. I’m sick of this..Do better!”

He further explained his thoughts on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday.

“I think it’s an ongoing conversation, it’s one that the owners don’t want to have,” Bakhtiari said. “Why would you even want to wait (for new collective bargaining agreement)? This is for the betterment of everything for the game. You’re making the game worse. You’re jeopardizing all players, but even of that, the upper echelon of what people want to see, I put Aaron in there.”

The Packers were up 24-12 at the end of the third quarter as rookie Jayden Reed has paced the Packers with two touchdowns. The rookie wideout scored his first career NFL touchdown on a shovel pass in the first half and then caught a play-action pass late in the third quarter for his second score.

Jenkins had actually praised Reed during the offseason as someone who made an early impression on him.

“Man, I was looking at Luke Musgrave and Jayden Reed a lot. Our weapons, man, they got some serious speed, Jayden and Luke,” Jenkins said. “Just being able to see them out there running and getting vertical up the field, running routes and stuff like that, it really put a smile on my face.”