“We need a guy that’s proven to be [a No.] 1” receiver, Packers running back Josh Jacobs said at the Super Bowl on Wednesday.
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson, shown dropping a pass against the 49ers, will miss the start of next season with a torn ACL. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Coming off a red-hot finish to last season, the Green Bay Packers overvalued their talented young group of receivers.
Who needs a proven No. 1 receiver when there’s an abundance of rising receivers with varied skill-sets?
“I want to vomit every time I hear ‘No. 1 receiver,’ to be honest with you,” coach Matt LaFleur said during training camp.
The strength was in the numbers. The unpredictability. The ability to throw the ball to the open receiver rather than the expensive receiver.
It all sounded so good when the Packers’ potentially prolific passing game was a big reason why the team was openly talking about winning the Super Bowl.
“I feel like we’ve got a bunch of them,” LaFleur continued on that August morning. “I think the beauty of them is they’re all capable of doing many things, which gives us a lot of versatility from an offensive perspective in terms of how we use these guys and deploy their talents.”
It sounded great. It just didn’t work out.
On Radio Row at the Super Bowl, running back Josh Jacobs delivered some tough talk. Repeating what he told Milwaukee radio station 97.3 The Game, Jacobs told Pro Football Talk Live that the Packers “need” a receiver.
“I love the guys that we have in the receiving room,” Jacobs said. “They all have the potential to be [a No.] 1. But we need a guy that’s proven to be [a No.] 1.”
Who can argue?
Well, Dontayvion Wicks did.
In a conversation about trades this week, one NFL executive said professional athletes are “highly competitive and highly sensitive.”
“It’s a dangerous combo sometimes,” he said with a laugh.
So, putting aside the sensitivity, the numbers are no laughing matter.
Of 84 receivers who were targeted at least 50 times in 2024, Wicks had the second-highest drop percentage and the fourth-lowest catch rate, according to Pro Football Focus.
Jayden Reed, who led the team in receptions and yards, had one game of 50-plus yards over the final nine games. He had the third-highest drop percentage.
Christian Watson had 15 yards or less in seven of his 15 games. He’s gone from seven touchdowns in 2022 to five in 2023 to two in 2024.
Romeo Doubs had as many suspensions as games of 75-plus yards. In 43 career regular-season games, he has zero of 100 yards. His three-year total of 1,700 yards is 8 yards less than the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase had this year.
The receiver room collapsed like a house of cards without Doubs following his concussions and Watson following his torn ACL. Without Doubs, who was the one player who could get open consistently on third down? Without Watson, who could stretch the field? When Reed was banged up, who could turn something into something more?
Would Cooper Kupp be the salvation? Probably not, based on three consecutive injury-plagued seasons, but he’d bring experience and savvy to the group.
Don’t shoot the messenger because it was fired defensive coordinator Joe Barry, but here’s what he said about Kupp before the Packers’ game against the Rams in 2021.
“He is one of my all-time favorites,” said Barry, who was the Rams’ linebackers coach from 2017 through 2020 so got to appreciate Kupp’s greatness for four seasons. “I’m getting goosebumps talking about him.”
Before that game, Kupp in 10 games had 85 receptions for almost 1,200 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“That’d be a hell of a season for most wideouts and he’s (10) games in,” Barry said.
But it wasn’t just about the numbers, as dominant as they were en route to leading the NFL in receptions, yards and touchdowns.
“You really don’t appreciate Cooper Kupp until you’re around him. He was part of our first draft class when we got there. It’s not cliché with this kid. He literally is the first person in the building and the last person to leave. I can still remember nights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays where it’s 8 o’clock at night and I might walk down to the cafeteria and I see someone in the meeting room and I open the door and Cooper’s in there watching tape.
“He gets every ounce out of what God gave him and more, just because of the way he prepares. Hell of a kid.”
That savvy could be helpful to a group that’s grown together without a veteran mentor.
If not Kupp, who will turn 32 in June, because of age, injuries and salary, then who?
Tee Higgins, 26, missed five games each of the last two seasons but is a weapon with a career-high 10 touchdowns in 12 games in 2024. In five seasons, he’s topped 900 yards four times.
Chris Godwin, who will turn 29 this month, had a streak of three consecutive seasons with 1,000 receiving yards end due to a dislocated left ankle.
Amari Cooper, who will turn 31 before training camp, had just 44 receptions for 547 yards in 14 games with the Browns and Bills.
Stefon Diggs, who turned 31 in November, is coming off a torn ACL.
DeAndre Hopkins, who will turn 33 in June, had 437 yards in 10 games with the Chiefs.
Marquise Brown, a first-round pick in 2019, has only one season of 770-plus yards – 1,008 with Baltimore in 2021.
Those are the best available receivers in free agency. Davante Adams, who turned 32 in December, would be available in a trade if Aaron Rodgers doesn’t return to the Jets. He is coming off his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season.
That’s a short list of impact players, but Jacobs is right. Green Bay’s young receivers are talented, and maybe Reed, Wicks or Doubs will elevate. But the Packers can’t count on it if they intend to take the next step that they failed to take in 2024.