Packers sign CB Quinton Dunbar to practice squad

With Kevin King’s shoulder injury looming, Green Bay addresses cornerback.

On Tuesday the Green Bay Packers both worked out and signed cornerback Quinton Dunbar to the practice squad, per Doug Kyed of Pro Football Focus. Dunbar, who has already spent time with the Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals in 2021, has made 31 starts and has played in 64 games since entering the league as an undrafted free agent with Washington in 2015.

This very well could be a move that provides coverage in case starting cornerback Kevin King is out in the immediate future, as King sustained a shoulder injury against the Cincinnati Bengals last week after a Bengal attempted, and failed, to hurdle him near the sideline. For the most part, Green Bay has divorced outside cornerbacks and slotbacks as different positions, with Jaire Alexander (now on injured reserve for a shoulder injury as well), King, rookie Eric Stokes, and Isaac Yiadom primarily lining up as the team’s outside cornerbacks.

If King were to miss a game, it would leave only two “outside cornerbacks” on the roster with 2021 playing time under their belt between Stokes and Yiadom, though Rasul Douglas, who was picked up off of Arizona’s practice squad last week, is on the roster but was not activated in Week 5 against Cincinnati. Yesterday, head coach Matt LaFleur stated that King “was playing a lot of that game with basically one arm” and that the team is still evaluating the health of his shoulder.

Dunbar most recently played in the regular season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2020, after 25 starts with Washington, and was placed on injured reserve after a November knee injury that required surgery in late December. Initially, there was an attempt by the Seahawks to designate him as a player who could return from injured reserve.

The 6’2” former college wide receiver was once arrested for an armed robbery that was alleged to happen at a south Florida party, an incident that also involved 2019 first-round pick Deandre Baker, then of the New York Giants. Dunbar, then a member of the Seahawks, pleaded not guilty to the charges, charges were eventually dropped, but four victims gave sworn statements that they were given $55,000 total to recant their original statements against Dunbar. Later, it was reported that the lawyer representing the victims attempted to extort $800,000 from Baker, whose attorney Bradford Cohen stated Baker paid “Zero dollars, with a capital Z,” for new statements.