GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Rookie wide receiver Terrence Murphy, who hurt his neck and was taken off the field on a stretcher Monday night, was placed on injured reserve Thursday, ending his season.
Murphy, a second-round draft choice out of Texas A&M, suffered a bruised spinal cord on Thomas Davis' helmet-to-helmet hit in the second quarter of Green Bay's 32-29 loss at Carolina on Monday night.
Coach Mike Sherman said the minimum recovery time was eight to 10 weeks.
"Then, to get him back on the field, it would have been a little bit of a rush and probably not in his best interests. So, we felt like this, as an organization, was the best way to go," Sherman said. "I know his parents were pleased with that decision. He just wants to get well and I think this time allows him the opportunity to do that."
Asked if the injury was career-threatening, Sherman said: "We're not even considering that option at this time. We're hoping he'll make a full recovery and be back on the field in minicamp, and fully expect that."
Murphy will stay in Green Bay for a few weeks so the team can monitor his progress.
"It's just rest. There's not a lot you can do about it. It's just time," Sherman said. "And we've dealt with these before with (Robert) Ferguson and also with (Donald) Driver and it takes a while to get back from something like this, and that also affected our decision."
Ferguson, who returned this season after a clothesline hit last December left him temporarily paralyzed, also is from Texas A&M and had taken Murphy under his tutelage.
Now, they have something else in common, dealing with a scary neck injury.
"I've been talking to him, I think the main thing is just mentally. I think the physical part will take care of itself," Ferguson said. "We're used to rehabbing and things like that. It's just the mental part of getting back out there and knowing if you get hit, it's not going to bother you. I know once I got my first hit out of the way, I was fine."
Ferguson called Murphy several times while he was hospitalized for two nights in Charlotte, N.C.
"Naturally, he was just scared. I was the same way. He doesn't know what the future holds right now," Ferguson said. "He's got to be optimistic and let things heal themselves right now. There's no amount of rehab he can do. He's just got to let things heal themselves."
Sherman said Murphy "has 99 percent of all the feeling back. He has a little tingling in one of his shoulders. But he's got most of everything, his faculties back where they need to be. It's just when you watch him walk, he's very stiff and not very mobile and understandably so."
Murphy, who missed most of training camp and the opener with a knee injury, had five catches for 56 yards and returned five kickoffs for an 18.2-yard average in three games. He was starting to show flashes of being the type of playmaker the injury-riddled Packers desperately need when he got hurt.
The team signed 235-pound running back ReShard Lee, who played at Middle Tennessee State and was in training camp with Buffalo and Minnesota this summer. He originally signed with Dallas in 2003 as a non-drafted free agent.
Lee, who will take Murphy's place as one of Green Bay's two deep men on kickoffs, had a 69-yard kickoff return against the Packers in the preseason.
"I remember (kicker) Ryan Longwell tackled him, so I had a little doubt there," Sherman cracked. "But I checked the tape and Longwell had a great angle on him."
Lee also got work at running back in practice with Ahman Green (thigh, knee) sidelined and questionable for Sunday's game against New Orleans.
The Packers will be without center Mike Flanagan (abdominal surgery) and maybe left tackle Chad Clifton (ankle) Sunday.
Right tackle Mark Tauscher returned from a sprained arch Thursday and lined up at left tackle, with Kevin Barry taking his spot on the right side.
"Tauscher can do anything," Sherman said. "Tauscher can play tight end, he can play left tackle, he can play right tackle, he probably could play quarterback if we asked him. He's very adaptable."
