Lazard, Packers’ Top Returning Receiver, Signs Before Deadline
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Allen Lazard, the closest thing the Green Bay Packers have to a go-to receiver, finally signed his restricted free agent tender on Monday.
This is the final week of the voluntary organized team activities. Speaking before Tuesday's practice, coach Matt LaFleur said he did not anticipate Lazard participating.
With the offseason trade of Davante Adams, Lazard is Green Bay’s leading returning receiver. In 2021, he caught 40-of-59 passes (67.8 percent) for 513 yards (12.8 average) and eight touchdowns.
By comparison, Randall Cobb caught 28 passes for 375 yards and five touchdowns in his return to Green Bay. In his only season with Baltimore, Sammy Watkins caught 27 passes for 394 yards and one touchdown. Juwann Winfree caught eight passes, Amari Rodgers grabbed four and Malik Taylor added two. Everybody else was in college.
While there are high hopes that Watkins can rekindle his career, the fact is he topped Lazard’s 40 receptions just once over the past six years.
Lazard finished last season on a strong note. In his first 10 games, he caught 19 passes for 223 yards and scored three touchdowns. He had zero games of more than 60 yards. In his last five games, Lazard caught 21 passes for 290 yards and five touchdowns. He topped 70 yards in three of those games. League-wide, only Adams had more receiving touchdowns than Lazard over that period.
“Now he’s getting an opportunity to be a No. 1 receiver, so I’m not worried about him at all stepping into that role,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said last week. “I’ve talked to him a lot. I know how he takes care of his body and I know he’ll be ready when he’s here.”
Lazard went undrafted in 2018 after a stellar career at Iowa State. The Packers poached him from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squad late in the season. He failed to make the roster coming out of training camp in 2019 but came off the bench at Rodgers’ urging to help rescue the Packers from an embarrassing early-season loss against Detroit.
That moment kick-started his career. The faith Rodgers showed that night has only strengthened in time.
“I think just our repertoire and our history, it’s obviously a major amount of comfortability between us two — just understanding the game and understanding what he wants,” Lazard told The Des Moines Register last month. “I think that’s probably the biggest challenge for anybody playing with him, especially young guys, is just understanding what he’s thinking in the moment.”
Lazard’s work habits start at home.
“I just try to be the same person every single day,” Lazard said in 2019. “I try to wake up at the same time. One thing I try to focus on is making my bed every single morning. That way, I start off with the same routine and I finish the day the same way. It’s just little things like that – cleaning up my room, doing the dishes. I try to stay clean around my house. If I can keep my house clean, I can keep here and my mind a lot more clean, as well.”
Lazard put off signing as long as he could. On Wednesday, the Packers could have replaced the second-round tender – worth $3.986 million – with the “June 15” tender. The Packers would have maintained exclusive negotiating rights with Lazard but his one-year contract would have been worth $935,000 – or 110 percent of last year’s salary.
A strong season atop Green Bay’s depth chart – not only catching passes but doing the dirty work as LaFleur’s “goon” – could put him in strong position as an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
“It’s a different journey than I expected to take but I'm still extremely grateful and blessed with the opportunity the Packers have given me the past few years,” Lazard told The Des Moines Register.
“But, obviously, with free agency approaching and everything, I'm just going to stay focused on this year. I know the success that I will have this year on the field, especially the team success, will help line up everything next year going into free agency.”
