Did Toure Pass Winfree for Seventh Receiver Spot?
GREEN BAY, Wis. – For all the focus on Romeo Doubs all summer, let the record show that it was rookie Samori Toure who led the Green Bay Packers in receiving during the preseason and on Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Toure, the 258th of 262 selections in the 2022 NFL Draft, was destined for anonymity. He’s not Christian Watson, the freakish athlete who general manager Brian Gutekunst selected in the second round via a trade with the Minnesota Vikings. He’s not Doubs, the fourth-round pick who took training camp by storm.
Toure, though, was consistently good. On Thursday night, he was better than good. Under the pressure cooker of playing for a spot on the roster, Toure caught 6-of-8 targets for 83 yards. One of those incompletions came on a failed fourth down in the final moments, when it looked to all the world that the defender hit Toure well before the ball arrived.
With that, Toure ended the preseason with nine receptions for 125 yards.
“It’s just about playing fast and playing detailed, being detailed with your routes,” he said afterward. “It just comes from reps in practice. I feel like the game’s been slowing down a little bit. I’m just trying to take advantage of the opportunities.”
Under the assumption that Allen Lazard, Sammy Watkins, Randall Cobb, Amari Rodgers, Watson and Doubs have six spots locked up, it would be Toure vs. Winfree if general manager Brian Gutekunst wants to keep a seventh receiver to round out a receiver corps left reeling by the offseason trade of Davante Adams.
While Toure was one of the stars of the night, Winfree caught just 1-of-6 targets for 7 yards against the Chiefs, though it’s not as if the five incomplete targets were because he was dropping the ball left and right.
Three things have given Winfree, a sixth-round pick in 2019, the edge all summer.
One, he’s got a rather important supporter in Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers was irked when the Packers let go of Jake Kumerow in 2019. With Rodgers and Gutekunst having a much stronger relationship, it’s a reasonable assumption that the quarterback’s opinion will matter.
Two, he’s a better blocker. That dirty-work role, manned in past seasons by Allen Lazard and Equanimeous St. Brown, is an important one for coach Matt LaFleur. Winfree, in fact, has blocked well all summer. He had the important block on a 13-yard swing pass to running back Tyler Goodson. That play was wholly dependent on Winfree blocking his man, and he was dominant.
Three, it’s special teams. Obviously, the seventh receiver won’t be on the roster to catch a bunch of passes. Winfree has been a No. 1 on kickoff and kickoff return all summer. This was not his best work, though. On Corey Coleman’s 45-yard return, Winfree missed a tackle. As a blocker, he might not have actually blocked anyone all night.
So, if the Packers keep seven – and that seems like a reasonable number considering the injury histories of Watkins and Cobb – who will make it? Will it be the ready-made role player who Rodgers has talked up? Or the productive draft pick with youth on his side?
“At the end of the day, there’s only one Davante. We’re going to miss him, but we’re going to find our way with the guys we’ve got,” Aaron Rodgers said during an in-game interview with the Packers TV Network. “I love our young group of guys. They’re coming together.
“I think Amari had a really good night tonight. Toure just had another catch; he’s made some nice plays for us. I’m a big fan of J.W. And getting 9 [Watson] back at practice, seeing him run around, he’s a different type of receiver. He’s big, fast and athletic. If we can get some consistency from him, I feel really good about that receiving corps.”
