Packers 2025 Season Report Card: Grading Christian Watson and Receivers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers were linked to Davante Adams this past offseason. Adams’ contract with the Rams included a Year 1 cap charge of $12.0 million. That’s just a bit less than the combined cap charge of Green Bay’s top four receivers.

Once again, Green Bay’s young and inexpensive receiver corps outproduced their contracts. Once again, no star emerged.

The receivers are the focus of Part 3 of our annual Packers report cards. Our grades are done on a curve to reflect their performance based on the salary cap, since the financial component is such a big part of the game.

Note: All salary-cap figures are from OverTheCap.com. Advanced stats are from Pro Football Focus, with rankings based on 90 players with at least 40 targets (Matthew Golden’s number), and league data.

Romeo Doubs

2025 cap charge of $3.58 million ranked 54th at the position.

With four seasons of consistent production, Doubs caught 202 passes for 2,424 yards and 21 touchdowns. In 2025, he caught 55 passes (second-most of his career) for 724 yards (career high) and six touchdowns (second-most). He led the team in receptions yard and was tied for the team lead in touchdowns, and he rewarded his quarterbacks with a 112.7 passer rating, 16th-best among NFL receivers.

This is wild: Doubs has played in 59 regular-season games. He doesn’t have a single 100-yard game. In four career playoff games, he had six receptions for 151 yards and one touchdown against Dallas and eight receptions for 124 yards and one touchdown against Chicago. He had one drop in that game against Chicago but otherwise might have been Green Bay’s best player.

“He was the reason we were in that game,” receiver Christian Watson said after the game. “I think he was the Romeo Doubs that I’ve known since the moment I was at the Senior Bowl with him. He’s just a dawg. He’s a competitor.”

A fascinating free agency awaits. Doubs, who won’t turn 26 until just before the draft, obviously is talented and his last game was superb. Of 28 receivers from the 2022 draft class, he quietly ranks sixth in catches, eighth in yards and tied for second in touchdowns.

Not sure what’s next for #Packers soon-to-be free-agent wide receiver Romeo Doubs, but the montage of appreciation he put together on his IG is really good. If he does move on, his stat line from his final game is a heck of a way to go out:

8 receptions
124 yards
TD
11 targets pic.twitter.com/taUvKaklG5
— Jason Wilde (@jasonjwilde) January 15, 2026

Will a team see untapped potential if he’s put in more of a featured role? He had six games of two or fewer catches this season. Or will his lack of juice and the 2024 incident that led to a one-game suspension impact his worth? In 2025, he ranked 67th with 3.0 yards after the catch per catch and has forced only 11 missed tackles in his career.

Either way, his chapter in Green Bay has probably closed. The Packers didn’t draft Matthew Golden and Savion Williams in 2025 so they could re-sign both Christian Watson and Doubs for 2026.

Grade: B-minus.

Christian Watson

2025 cap charge of $3.34 million ranked 56th at the position.

Christian Watson came back from last year’s torn ACL to catch 35 passes for 611 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games. With 61.1 yards per game, this 17-game pace was 1,039 yards. He ranked second among receivers with 17.5 yards per catch and fifth with 2.51 yards per route. Rather incredibly, he received one vote for second-team All-Pro, meaning that voter considered him one of the six best receivers in the NFL.

LOUD NOISES#ProBowlVote + Christian Watson#ProBowlVote + Jordan Love

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/RsE5bxi3HA
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) November 27, 2025

With his size and speed, he’s a nonstop threat. He had 80-plus yards in four games and at least one touchdown in five games, including five catches for 113 yards against Baltimore and four catches for 89 yards and two touchdowns in the home win over Chicago.

Watson caught 9-of-18 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield with four touchdowns. He’s not just an explosive threat but he’s a sure-handed player, as well. The bad drop at Detroit was his only one of the season, meaning he finished tied for 18th with a drop rate of 2.8 percent.

Moreover, when Watson was on the field this year, the running game was 0.11 yards per play better and the passing game was 0.80 yards better.

“There’s a turning point of the year where you get man coverage and guys can’t run with him, (and) you get zone and he either clears out the top of the coverage or gets the ball,” passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable said.

“He’s really intelligent, he’s very professional and I love the way he carries himself and goes about it. I think he’s a great teammate and he represents what it is to be a G. We talk about being a G, a Green Bay Packer, he wears it on and off the field. I always say the ball finds energy, and his energy is contagious right now in our building.”

In the draft class, Watson ranks 10th in receptions and yards but second with 17.0 yards per catch and fourth with 20 touchdowns.

The Packers were incredibly wise to give Watson a one-year extension, meaning he’ll be back for 2026. It will be fascinating to see if he gets another extension to make him part of the offense for the long haul.

Grade: B.

Matthew Golden

2025 cap charge of $3.20 million ranked 60th at the position.

What an incredibly bizarre rookie season for Matthew Golden. The rarest of the rare – a first-round receiver! – Golden was given a hero’s welcome at this year’s draft. Day after day during training camp, he showed why he should be a key part of the offense.

It didn’t happen.

Green Bay Packers receiver Matthew Golden (0) runs after the catch to score a touchdown against the Chicago Bears. | Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The Packers prefer to bring their rookies along slowly, so they did with Golden. Then he dealt with shoulder and wrist injuries. There were practices at midseason when he ran routes but only simulated catching the ball and turning upfield. The returns of Jayden Reed and Christian Watson further ate into his role.

That led to offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich saying this before Week 18: “You got Christian, you got Romeo, you got J-Reed back. These guys have got really good experience and they’re really good players, and those are the guys you’re leaning on right now.

“I think Golden’s got a really bright future. He’s very talented, and his time will come. But I think right now, just with the room the way it is, he’s not going to be in that premier role when the playoffs come around. So, but again, if you told me he was the No. 1 receiver on a play, I’d be very excited about it, too.”

Starting with Game 8 against Pittsburgh, when Golden caught three passes for 4 yards, through the end of the season, Golden caught 11 passes for 112 yards, with zero missed tackles and 25 yards after the catch. Then came the playoffs, a do-or-die game at Chicago, when Golden caught 4-of-5 targets for 84 yards, with a long of 36, his first career touchdown, three broken tackles and 42 YAC.

Golden had only one drop, ranking 21st with a drop rate of 2.9 percent. With real speed and underrated route-running, the future is incredibly bright, even if it’s not reflected in the grade.

Grade: C-minus.

Jayden Reed

2025 cap charge of $1.96 million ranked 81st at the position.

After leading the team in receptions and yards during his first two seasons, a broken collarbone sustained in Week 2 ruined Reed’s ability to stack another big-time season. In seven games with three starts, he caught 19 passes for 207 yards.

In his four regular-season games after returning to the lineup, he caught 16-of-17 targets. His final catch rate was 86.4 percent, which would have led the league’s receivers had he been targeted enough.

After catching a total of 14 touchdowns his first two seasons, he caught only one, though he added a second in the playoff loss. In 2024, Reed dropped 10 passes and had the third-worst drop rate in the league at 15.4 percent. In 2025, he dropped only one pass in the regular season (5.0 percent) but had a killer one in the final moments of the playoff game.

In three seasons, he’s rewarded his quarterbacks with a 129.5 passer rating.

While the overall numbers weren’t as good this season, the impact was strong. According to league data, the run game was 1.49 yards per carry better when he was on the field and the passing game was 0.63 yards better.

Grade: C.

Savion Williams

2025 cap charge of $1.14 million ranked 122nd at the position.

Did the Packers need to use a third-round pick on Savion Williams given their depth at receiver and their needs at other positions? Obviously not, but the all-around skill-set was deemed too good to pass up.

Ultimately, almost none of that showed up. The coaches tried with a variety of manufactured touches, with at least one practically every week. In 12 games, he finished with 11 rushes for 37 yards (3.4 average), 10 receptions for 78 yards (7.8 average) and one touchdown, and a 25.6-yard average on kickoff returns with a long of 36.

Finally, after playing through a foot injury for several weeks, the Packers placed him on injured reserve late in the season.

Grade: D.

Dontayvion Wicks

2025 cap charge of $1.11 million ranked 127th at the position.

A fifth-round pick in 2023, Dontayvion Wicks had 39 catches in each of his first two seasons but slumped to 30 catches for 332 yards and two touchdowns in 2025. Those were career lows, as were his three missed tackles (7.5 average his first two seasons) and 2.3 YAC (4.7 average).

Wicks had the second-highest drop rate in the NFL at 17.0 percent in 2024, when he dropped eight passes. In 2025, he cut that to three. Still, his drop rate of 9.1 percent ranked 66th. Combined with 83rd in YAC per catch, it was a dismal third season.

However, he caught six passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns in the Thanksgiving win at Detroit, when he played through an ankle injury in a tremendous performance. Unfortunately for Wicks, he caught four passes for 25 yards during his final four appearances.

Grade: C.

Grading the 2025 Packers

Offseason | Draft | Quarterbacks | Running Backs

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