Eight months after leaving New England, Martellus Bennett is already on his way back. 

According to ESPN.com, the former Pro Bowl tight end was claimed off waivers by the Patriots on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Packers released him with a failure to disclose an injury designation. Bennett had apparently been suffering from a shoulder injury that the Packers didn't know about.

The tight end's return to New England caps a bizarre two weeks for him. During the Packers' bye in Week 8, Bennett went on Instagram and said that he was probably going to retire at the end of the season. Following the bye, Bennett only practiced one time due to the shoulder injury that he apparently never told the Packers about. The tight end didn't play against the Lions in Week 9 and wasn't going to play in Week 10 against the Bears due to his shoulder. 

Packers coach Mike McCarthy was asked Thursday if he thought Bennett's odd behavior might be related to the fact that he wanted out of Green Bay because the Packers are not really a playoff contender without Aaron Rodgers. 

"Well, I mean, you can't deny the facts of your timeline and how everything went down," McCarthy said, via ESPN.com. "I mean, really, to tie all that together, you're asking me to get inside somebody else's feelings, conversation, more on a personal level. I think this all started obviously coming out of the bye week. Everything leading up to that, I can't really comment on it. And then we went down this injury path, and then here we are today. So, I mean, it'd be all speculation."

Bennett signed with the Packers in March after winning a Super Bowl with the Patriots last season. Unless Bennett is willing to restructure his contract, the Patriots will be on the hook for the rest of his three-year, $21 million deal. 

In seven games with the Packers this season, Bennett caught 24 passes for 233 yards. In his lone season with the Patriots, Bennett was one of Tom Brady's favorite red zone targets. The tight end led the Patriots with seven touchdown catches while catching 55 passes for 701 yards in 2016.