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Warm-and-Fuzzy Position Now Could Be Hot-Button Issue for Packers By August

The Green Bay Packers will go into the season with a slimmed-down receiver corps. Will it be too slim?
Bill Huber|
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Will Sheppard catches a pass during training camp last year.
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Will Sheppard catches a pass during training camp last year. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

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Green Bay Packers

Without Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks, the Green Bay Packers are going with a less-is-more approach at receiver.

The payoff could be huge. More snaps with Christian Watson, Matthew Golden and Jayden Reed alongside Jordan Love should lead to better chemistry and better production, especially in key situations.

“Yeah, no doubt, man,” Reed said. “With them being gone, it’s a lot more targets open up, so that’s definitely going to be another workload on everybody and more opportunities for everybody, and that’s something I think everybody is looking forward to on offense.

“From top to bottom, man, from tight end room, running back room, receiver room, it’s just going to be a lot more opportunities out there that I think a lot of people won’t be able to take advantage of.”

All that flowery language smells pretty in July. Will it smell like a skunk in September?

Less Is More, Or Is Less Actually Less?

As legendary football play-caller (and fighter) Mike Tyson once said, everyone’s got a plan until they’ve been punched in the face. What will happen when an injury punches the Packers’ slimmed-down receiver corps in the hamstring or ankle?

It’s not as if Watson, Reed and Golden have been ironmen. Watson missed 20 games in his first four seasons and topped a 50 percent snap count only once. Reed missed 10 games last year following a broken collarbone. Golden missed three games last season and was limited in a couple others.

There is reason to be encouraged from that perspective. After returning from a torn ACL last year, Watson played in 10 consecutive games before he was rested alongside most of the starters in Week 18. Reed missed only one game his first two seasons. Golden played all 16 games at Texas in 2024.

Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson (9) catches a touchdown pass against Detroit Lions cornerback Amik Robertson.
Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson (9) catches a touchdown pass against Detroit Lions cornerback Amik Robertson. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

However, injuries are a real concern to a passing attack with absolutely no proven depth. Financially, letting Doubs go in free agency was a no-brainer. Trading Wicks for a couple late-round picks, on the other hand, was a choice that could come with repercussions, especially after not signing a proven replacement or drafting one at all.

“You never want to see guys go, especially guys that were such impactful players like those two, but we’ve still got a very deep receiver room,” Love said during OTAs. “We’ve got Christian, we’ve got J. Reed, we’ve got M.G. – guys who are all going to continue to keep building, keep taking those steps, guys who have played a lot of ball with Christian and J. Reed.

“So, we’ve still got a great room and it’s just about getting back to work right now, building the foundation and setting ourselves up for when we get back to training camp.”

A “great room” is a great exaggeration. A room with great uncertainty is more like it. Beyond the new top three, everybody else has caught 86 passes with four touchdowns. in the NFL.

The past three seasons, Watson and Reed combined to play 2,852 snaps. Three individuals played more than 2,900 during that span. Now, players with injury histories will be asked to do more to carry the passing game. They will be asked to play more snaps, run more routes, catch more passes and do more of the dirty work. Maybe it’ll all work out and the warm-and-fuzzy talk about fewer receivers in the rotation meaning more production will come to reality.

On the other hand, rather than less meaning more, less really could mean less.

Packers Need Breakout Receiver

Green Bay Packers cornerback Bo Melton (16) celebrates scoring a touchdown in the second quarter against the Chicago Bears.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Bo Melton (16) celebrates scoring a touchdown in the second quarter against the Chicago Bears. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The pressure will be on the Packers to find competent depth once training camp starts later this month.

Individually, there are reasons to believe it could happen. Savion Williams was a third-round pick last year. He’s got the size, speed and strength to be an impact player in a Deebo Samuel-style role. Nine of his 10 catches as a rookie came just beyond or just behind the line of scrimmage, so he will have to prove he can be a factor running real receiver routes.

Bo Melton was a seventh-round pick by Seattle in 2022 who joined the Packers toward the end of his rookie season. In Week 17 of the 2023 season, he had the team’s first 100-yard receiving game of the year when he caught six passes for 105 yards and one touchdown at Minnesota. He ran his 40 in 4.34 seconds before the draft, so he could at least be a field-stretching role player.

Skyy Moore was a second-round pick by the Chiefs in 2022. The Packers signed him to return kicks and help on offense. He topped 20 catches in 2022 and 2023 and showed good run-after-catch ability to start this career, but caught 0-of-3 targets with two drops in six games in 2024 and caught only five passes in 17 games for the 49ers last year.

The young receivers have plenty of physical tools and will be given plenty of opportunities to show they can contribute.

Will Sheppard went undrafted out of Colorado in 2025. At 6-foot-2, he barely broke 4.60 in the 40 but showed explosiveness in the jumps for a Relative Athletic Score of 8.72. He scored a couple touchdowns during the offseason practices.

Isaiah Neyor went undrafted out of Nebraska in 2025. At 6-foot-4 1/4, he ran his 40 in 4.40 seconds and had a RAS of 9.90 – meaning he’s in the 99th percentile among receivers from a size-speed perspective.

J. Michael Sturdivant went undrafted out of Florida this year. At 6-foot-2 1/2, he ran his 40 in 4.40 seconds and finished with a RAS of 9.96 – making him an even better prospect than Neyor from a measurables perspective.

However, it’s all a lot of wishing and hoping entering training camp.

Melton went from 16 catches in 2023 to eight in 2024 to four in 2025, when he spent most of his practice time at cornerback. He had a long touchdown against the Bears but also dropped two passes.

Neyor and Sheppard, of course, haven’t caught a pass in a game that matters. At Vanderbilt and Colorado, Sheppard was a consistent producer with four consecutive seasons of at least 43 receptions. Neyor spent a total of six seasons at Wyoming, Texas and Nebraska and had 10-plus catches only twice. Sturdivant caught 65 passes at Cal in 2022 but 85 passes his final three seasons at UCLA and Florida.

At some point, one or two of the unproven receivers are going to be on the field for critical snaps. Maybe it’s because of an injury. Maybe it’s the fatigue that comes from being in comeback mode late in the game. But there will be a time when Love is going to look their way in a big moment.

Unless the Packers party like it’s 2014, when Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb and Davante Adams lined up for snap after snap after snap, the 2026 season might depend on their ability to get open, catch a pass and move the sticks.

Love seemed to acknowledge that possibility.

“I love having as many options as possible,” he said. “I loved having all those guys in the room. Obviously, for them, everybody wants the ball and it is hard to feed everybody. But, at receiver, you don’t play every play. Guys get tired, they’re rotating in and out, so you always want to have the best out there.

“So, now, it’s about finding those next guys to take that step. We’ve got guys. We’ve got Savion, we’ve got Bo – guys that are going to build up and, hopefully, be able to be there to take the load off when Christian, J-Reed and M.G. when they need a break. So, it’s about building that foundation and getting those next guys who are going to be the next playmakers for us.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.