No. 1 Receiver? Well, Packers Are No. 1 In Something

In 2021, then-Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams was first-team All-Pro for the second consecutive season. A year after leading the NFL with 18 touchdown catches, Adams caught 123 passes for 1,553 yards and 11 touchdowns.

On March 17, 2022, the Packers traded him to the Raiders.

The Packers have tried to replace Adams. Oh, how they’ve tried.

From 2022 through 2025, no team has invested more at the receiver position than the Packers.

total capital used to draft WRs since 2022 pic.twitter.com/0P1dt7QUJc
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 17, 2026

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football put together the chart. Draft capital is based on resources used at the position, with Sharp putting point values on each draft slot based on historical performances and average dollars earned on second contracts from that spot.

The Packers are the runaway winners for the most draft capital used on receivers.

Really, it’s not surprising.

In 2022, general manager Brian Gutekunst used the Adams trade to move up for Christian Watson early in the second round and added Romeo Doubs in the fourth round. In 2023, Gutekunst doubled up again with Jayden Reed in the second round and Dontayvion Wicks in the fifth round.

In 2025, Gutekunst doubled down on doubling down, so to speak. Not only did he do the unthinkable by selecting Matthew Golden in the first round, but he added Savion Williams in the third round.

That’s six receivers in four drafts, and yet the Packers still haven’t come close to replacing Adams.

Packers Receivers: Solid But No Stars

Over the past four seasons, the Packers haven’t had a 1,000-yard receiver. They haven’t even had a 900-yard receiver. Reed’s 857 yards in 2024 is the most by a Packers receiver since Adams was traded.

The Packers and Chiefs are the only teams without a 1,000-yard receiver during that span. The Chiefs, of course, had tight end Travis Kelce, who had 1,338 yards in 2022 and 984 yards in 2023 despite getting Week 18 off.

In 2021, Adams’ final season in Green Bay, he had eight 100-yard games. All of Green Bay’s receivers combined have eight 100-yard games the past four seasons, with three apiece by Watson and Reed, one by Bo Melton and one by Allen Lazard.

Adams in 2021 had five games of more than 120 yards. Reed, who had games of 139 and 138 yards during the first four games of the 2024 season, has the team’s only 120-yard outings.

Green Bay Packers receiver Jayden Reed (11) scores a touchdown against Chicago Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In Green Bay’s play-no-favorites passing game, its receivers finished 17th in catches in 2025, 21st in 2024, seventh in 2023 and 16th in 2022.

It’s not that Gutekunst has drafted bad receivers. To the contrary, Watson is probably going to get a monster contract, whether it’s an extension from Green Bay or in free agency next offseason, and Doubs just signed a four-year, $68 million contract with the Patriots.

Reed led the Packers in receptions and receiving yards during each of his first two seasons but missed most of 2025 with a broken collarbone. Wicks was the 19th of 32 receivers drafted but is 12th in receptions and tied for 10th in touchdowns.

Whether it’s Green Bay or elsewhere, they’re all going to get paid.

Quiet Debuts for Matthew Golden, Savion Williams

Due in part to injuries, Golden and Williams had quiet rookie seasons.

Golden had some impressive early-season production but slumped before falling by the wayside because of wrist and shoulder injuries and the returns of Watson and Reed. But he finished the season with a bang with a big-time performance in the playoff loss to Chicago. His speed, route-running ability and hands were evident from his first practice.

“I thought Matthew did a great job,” Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “With all the opportunities we gave him, I thought he did an excellent job. I would have loved to have seen him get more opportunities through the year. It didn’t work out that way. But when he did, he performed, and he performed at a high level.

“I’m really excited to see where he goes in Year 2. Obviously, he was a third-year player coming out of college – one year at Texas, two years at Houston – so I think his ceiling is very, very high. We’re very, very excited about what he’s going to do for our football team moving forward.”

Williams never really had a prayer because of the receivers ahead of him on the depth chart, then struggled through a foot injury that finally shut him down.

The Packers will need the 2025 rookies to take the cliched second-year jump because Doubs – even without a 60-catch or 675-yard season – is a big loss, especially on third down and in the red zone.

Looking further down the road, Watson, Reed and Wicks are scheduled to be free agents next offseason. The Colts just re-signed Alec Pierce to a four-year, $114 million contract. That hints to what it might take to keep Watson, though his injury history certainly will be taken into account by the Packers and the rest of the league.

Reed has been excellent when healthy. In 2024, he was first in the NFL with a 137.5 passer rating when targeted, ninth with 7.2 YAC per catch and first with an 80.0 percent catch rate on passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. Wicks’ dominance at Detroit on Thanksgiving, when he played through a sprained ankle, shows what he can do with opportunities.

With those three headed to free agency, Green Bay might be looking to add another draft pick to the depth chart in April.

The number of draft picks thrown at the receiver position caught Sharp’s attention.

“It definitely was notable that for the later part of Aaron Rodgers tenure as QB1, the Packers were reluctant to draft WRs, ranking No. 28 in use of draft capital on WRs from 2010 to 2020,” he said. “But with Jordan Love, they have leaned into it more strongly, using the most draft capital on WRs the four years from 2022 to 2025.”

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