The Tall Tale That Is the Packers’ Receiver Corps
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ receiver corps ranking No. 1 in the NFL isn’t a tall tale.
At former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum’s The 33rd Team, Cyril Penn projected the top six receivers for each team and assembled that group’s average height. Even with the addition of third-round pick Amari Rodgers, who at 5-foot-9 1/2 is by far the shortest receiver selected during the Brian Gutekunst-Ted Thompson era, Green Bay might enter the season with the tallest set of receivers in the NFL.
Using a projection of Davante Adams (6-foot 7/8), Marquez Valdes-Scantling (6-4), Allen Lazard (6-4 5/8), Rodgers (5-9 1/2), Equanimeous St. Brown (6-4 3/4) and Devin Funchess (6-4 1/8), Green Bay’s average receiver is more than a half-inch taller than the next-tallest team’s group.
Funchess and Rodgers are the new faces to a group dominated from a snaps perspective last season by Adams, Valdes-Scantling and Lazard.
Funchess opted out of the 2020 season after missing most of 2019 with a broken collarbone while with the Indianapolis Colts. He made a couple impressive plays at the mandatory minicamp but wasn’t present for the three weeks of voluntary organized team activities.
“I was excited. I was eager, anxious this last week just to get back around big, grown men and the team, the camaraderie, just the atmosphere,” Funchess said. “It was good to be back out there, getting acclimated to the guys, looking at body language and seeing their personalities. It was good. It was fun.”
Rodgers, a do-it-all threat at Clemson who made a timeline-defying comeback from a torn ACL, was the 13th receiver selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. At 212 pounds, he was the heaviest of the bunch even while being tied for the fourth-shortest.
Amari Rodgers Photo Gallery
“When you see him, when you get up on him, he’s not a small man. He’s just not tall,” Gutekunst said. “So, I do think he’s a little different maybe than some of the other slot guys you see across the league because he’s just built a little bit more like a running back.”
