Atari Bigby Unlikely For Opener

Green Bay Packers strong safety Atari Bigby is unlikely to be ready for the regular season opener, according to Rob Demovsky.

Bigby underwent ankle surgery on Aug. 6 and hasn’t participated in training camp after staying away from the Packers offseason activities while he waited for a long-term deal that never materialized.

The original timetable for Bigby’s return was supposed to be four weeks. It now appears Bigby might be out for up to eight weeks.

“I’ve been hearing from four weeks to eight weeks, but I think I’m doing pretty good right now,” Bigby said today. “I’m walking around fine. Ive got to get it a little bit stronger, but we’ll see what happens.”

If Bigby is able to return in four weeks, the target date would be Sept. 3. The Packers open at Philadelphia on Sept. 12. At eight weeks, Bigby would be back Oct. 1, which would be week four, when the Packers host the Detroit Lions.

If the longer timetable looks more realistic for the Packers, they may decide to put Bigby on the physically unable to perform list, meaning he wouldn’t be eligible to play for the first six weeks of the season. Bigby is currently on the PUP list, but since it’s preseason, he can be activated at any time.

Rookie Morgan Burnett will start for the foreseeable future and possibly beyond.

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