Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Cole Madison continues to battle the personal issues that led him away from football last summer and now isn’t certain to ever return to the game.
GM Brian Gutekunst told Michael Cohen of The Athletic that Madison, the Packers’ fifth-round pick last year, is “still dealing with” the issue and isn’t yet ready to return to football.
“He’s still dealing with some of the things that he was dealing with at the beginning of the season last year,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously we wish him the best and we’d love to, at some point, get him out there on the field to help us. But when that time is going to be, we’re not there yet.”
It’s possible the time never comes. Cohen reports the suicide of friend and former teammate Tyler Hilinski last January remains the root cause of Madison’s absence.
Despite participating fully in the offseason workout program in May and June, Madison skipped the start of training camp in late July and was officially placed on the reserve/did not report list, where he remained the entire season.
The Packers took Madison with the 138th pick in the 2018 draft. The three-time All-Pac 12 selection was expected to compete for a starting job at right guard, a position the Packers struggled to fill last season.
Back in August, Colin Roberts, one of Madison’s agents, told Rob Demovsky of ESPN that the “plan is still to play,” although no timeline was provided.
The Packers must now proceed forward as if Madison will never return, even though he would have been a prime candidate to start at right guard as a second-year player in 2019.
