GREEN BAY — The Packers don’t have a No. 1 wide receiver.
On the surface, that may seem like a hindrance to an offense with Super Bowl aspirations. The two guys calling the shots disagree.
“I personally don’t think it matters,” head coach Matt LaFleur said.
“I think you don’t have to have a No. 1 receiver,” quarterback Jordan Love added.
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In 2019, Davante Adams played only 12 games and still had 48 more catches, 520 more receiving yards and two more touchdown catches than any other wideout on the team. In 2020, Adams was named a first-team All-Pro with 115 catches, 1,374 receiving yards and 18 touchdowns. The next-highest totals at receiver in those categories on the team were 33 catches, 690 receiving yards and six touchdown catches. In 2021, his second consecutive first-team All-Pro season, Adams led Packers wide receivers in catches by 83, in receiving yards by 1,040 and in touchdown catches by three.
Let’s make one thing clear. Nobody is saying they don’t want Adams or a receiver like him, a bonafide No. 1. That’s a good thing. But the Packers see value in having five No. 2s and 3s, each of whom can play like a true No. 1 on any given day.
Jordan Love and Michael Pratt to Christian Watson and Jayden Reed pic.twitter.com/uLXI2vsc2a
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) June 4, 2024
Last season alone, Jayden Reed led the team with only 64 catches as a rookie and Romeo Doubs had just five fewer. Reed led the team with only 793 receiving yards and Doubs was second with 674. Love ranked seventh in the NFL with 4,159 passing yards, so it’s not like those receiving yards were due to a quarterback who didn’t sling it. Reed and Doubs each caught a team-high eight touchdowns.
Then there’s Christian Watson, perhaps the closest thing to a true No. 1 when healthy, who missed eight games and still flashed No. 1 potential against the Chiefs and Lions during the Packers’ resurgent second half. Dontayvion Wicks showed that potential less so as a rookie fifth-round pick, but he’ll still be an integral piece of Green Bay’s offense capable of taking over a game. And don’t forget about Bo Melton, technically the Packers’ No. 5 wideout who authored the team’s first 100-yard receiving game last season in Week 17 against the Vikings and also caught a touchdown in the Divisional Round against the 49ers.
GO DEEPERPackers' Christian Watson believes he's found answers for recurring hamstring woes“I think if you just look at throughout the course of a season ago — and every season’s going to be a little bit different — but all those guys had their moments where they were the leading receiver in a game,” LaFleur said. “I feel really good about the collective unit. The hardest part is we feel so good about them, it’s hard to get everybody the amount of touches that you’d like to get, but that’s a good problem to have.”
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Tuesday’s practice served as a microcosm for the Packers’ receiving depth since it was the speedster Melton hauling in a 75-yard touchdown pass from Love during 11-on-11 work on a perfectly thrown bomb down the middle while Melton ran a post route past the entire defense.
“It’s a lot of guys making plays,” Melton said of Green Bay’s wide receiver group. “We have a great staff who can draw the best plays up. When you have a lot of guys who do different things — speed, route-runners, physical guys — it could be dangerous for sure.”
LaFleur on Bo Melton: “He’s got that dog mentality, whether it’s run game, pass game, whatever it may be. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get out there on the field and I think he’s embraced that. He’s embraced his role and he’s excelled in it.” pic.twitter.com/FSHiqMjiv4
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) June 4, 2024
“We’ve got so many guys in our room, man, you never know what could happen,” Reed added. “Somebody could go for a hundred every week, in my opinion.”
Only three teams last season had a leading receiver with fewer receiving yards than Reed’s team-high 793: the Broncos, Patriots and Giants, who ranked 24th, 28th and 31st in passing yards per game, respectively. The Packers, conversely, ranked 12th. Their lack of a dominant receiver isn’t for lack of a passing game, as was the case with those other three teams, but rather a testament to their depth at the position and not having a guy like Adams whom you should probably throw it to whenever you can.
Some would accuse Aaron Rodgers of locking in on Adams too much, like when he aired it out to a tightly covered Adams (and incomplete) on fourth down late in the fourth quarter of a 2021 Divisional Round loss to the 49ers when Allen Lazard appeared wide open underneath for a first down. Again, it’s not a bad thing to have a player like that, one that your natural instincts take you to more often than not, but there might be something to be said for simply running the play that’s called and being able to equally trust whoever’s on the other end.
“I think that’s one thing that I’ve always tried to do is just play the play,” Love said. “Play the play, go through my reads and find who’s open. Don’t try and force it because I feel like once you try and lock in on a guy and force it, not great things happen and then you might miss somebody who might be open on the play … play dependent, if there’s a certain guy I might want to look at matchup-wise and things like that, I’ll go to him, but I just like to play it out.”
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At times, three defenders would be dedicated to Adams on a given play. He once counted them out with finger points after a play against the Bears. There’s nothing to that extent facing this Packers offense, though passing game coordinator Jason Vrable said teams doubled Doubs in the red zone early last season because of how many touchdowns he caught and doubled Watson in 2022 after his consecutive multiple-touchdown games. It’s a win-win for the Packers because if teams single up every guy, there are five receivers capable of taking over. If defenses double someone, the Packers can throw it to others who can look like a No. 1 for a game or run the ball into a light box with a guy in Josh Jacobs who would welcome that.
“The receiving corps is crazy, man,” Jacobs said. “I’m so excited just watching them. Any one of them can go at any moment.”
GO DEEPERWith big shoes to fill, can Josh Jacobs help Packers win a Super Bowl?Will someone emerge as a true No. 1 wide receiver this season? It’s certainly possible. Watson might if he stays healthy and Reed could if his rookie season was any indication of the boom to come in Year 2. The Packers would welcome that, too, but they’re just fine with their receiving corps operating in relative anonymity while keeping opposing defenses guessing who they’ll need to worry about most in any given week.
“I think it works out well when you can spread the ball out and you got different guys making different plays and you can put ’em in different areas,” Love said. “I think it puts a lot more stress on the defense and the calls that they can get in, so I think in the long run it helps us not having a No. 1 guy, a true No. 1 guy, but I think all those guys can step up and be the one any given day.”
(Photo of Jordan Love, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Matt Schneidman is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Green Bay Packers. He is a proud alum of The Daily Orange student newspaper at Syracuse University. Follow Matt on Twitter @mattschneidman
