Packer Central

Getting No. 1 Receiver Will Force Packers to Get Out of Comfort Zone

Never mind the great No. 1 receiver debate: If the Green Bay Packers are serious about upgrading at receiver, it will take an unusually aggressive approach.

Bill Huber

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf could be available in a trade.
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf could be available in a trade. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – During training camp last year, No. 1 receiver talk made coach Matt LaFleur want to “vomit.”

General manager Brian Gutekunst might want to puke, too, after running back Josh Jacobs lobbied Gutekunst to find one this offseason.

“Obviously, we’ve got a really young group of receivers,” Jacobs told Milwaukee radio station 97.3 The Game at Radio Row before the Super Bowl. “All can be really, really, really special, but I think personally we need the guy that’s proven to be a No. 1 already. So, somebody we know is going to be a little bit more consistent.”

Getting a No. 1 receiver will be easier said than done. Perhaps infinitely easier said than done.

On Friday, one NFL front-office source used the word “terrible” to describe the free-agent group of receivers. Moreover, after some powerhouse draft classes, there’s not a lot of star power available in this year’s Green Bay-based draft. In Daniel Jeremiah’s list of the top 50 prospects in this year’s draft, only four are receivers (five if you include Colorado’s two-way star, Travis Hunter). Last year, there were 12.

Even if Gutekunst doesn’t totally agree with Jacobs’ assessment, reality might force him out of his comfort zone.

Christian Watson is going to miss the first half of the season with a torn ACL. Romeo Doubs’ one-game suspension is the least of the concerns after he suffered two concussions during the second half of the season. After promising rookie seasons, Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed finished second and third, respectively, in drop percentage.

The Packers can’t run it back with the same group and expect to compete for a Super Bowl. Maybe Watson will come back strong in December and January. Maybe Doubs will finally have a breakout season in Year 4. Maybe Reed and Wicks will put it all together.

Wishing and hoping isn’t a winning plan, though.

Setting aside the great No. 1 receiver debate, getting better at receiver might require a bold move by Gutekunst, some outside-his-own-box thinking.

Due in part to salary-cap issues, Gutekunst hasn’t taken the plunge into free agency very often. When he has, his track record is impeccable.

However, the free-agent outlook at receiver isn’t bright, and it got even bleaker on Tuesday when news broke of the Cincinnati Bengals’ intention of using the franchise tag on Tee Higgins with the goal of signing him to a long-term contract.

Higgins was deemed the No. 1 receiver available in free agency and perhaps the No. 1 player overall. And yet, it’s not as if he is without warts.

Higgins missed five games in 2023 and again in 2024. In five seasons, he’s hit 1,000 yards only twice. Because of Ja’Marr Chase, he’s never had to be a No. 1 receiver. Over the last two seasons, he has as many 100-yard games as Reed.

PFF lists five receivers among its top 20 free agents, with Higgins joined by Chris Godwin, Amari Cooper, Stefon Diggs and DeAndre Hopkins.

Godwin will turn 29 next week and is coming off a season-ending ankle injury. He had topped 1,000 yards in four of the previous five seasons with the luxury of lining up alongside Mike Evans. He lined up mostly in the slot in 2022 and 2024 and mostly outside in 2023.

Cooper, who will turn 31 in June, wasn’t the answer for Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills with 20 receptions for 297 yards in eight games following a midseason trade, then had just 41 yards in three playoff games.

Diggs, who is 31, had his streak of six consecutive 1,000-yard seasons snapped by a midseason ACL tear.

Hopkins, who will turn 33 in June, caught 41 passes for 437 yards in 10 games with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. In three playoff games, he caught three passes for 29 yards.

With a mediocre group of veterans, Gutekunst might have to do something unorthodox at receiver: draft one in the first round or make a trade.

While Gutekunst has traded away star players, he’s never acquired one. The Jets would love to get something for former Packers star Davante Adams, and DK Metcalf could be available from the Seahawks.

Even though he turned 32 on Christmas Eve, Adams “100 percent” is still a No. 1 receiver, the NFL source said. Adams is coming off his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season. He’d show a young receiver corps what it means to be a pro.

While Adams might prefer to play closer to home for a West Coast team, he certainly wouldn’t be upset about returning to Green Bay, given how highly he’s spoken of Jordan Love. Acquiring him in a trade – a source thought a fourth- or fifth-round pick might get it done – would mean the Packers could skip what would be a free-agent free-for-all for a player who immediately would be the No. 1 receiver available.

With the Seahawks well over the salary cap and building a run-first offense, trade speculation continues to swirl around Metcalf, who is five years younger than Adams.

Metcalf has at least 900 receiving yards and five touchdowns in all six seasons, including 1,114 yards and eight touchdowns 2023 and 992 yards and five touchdowns in 2024. He is a big, physical, fast mismatch who would fit right in with the Packers because of his zest for doing the dirty work in the run game.

One source thought third- and sixth-round picks might be enough; another thought a second-rounder would be required. With Metcalf under contract through 2025, a contract extension almost certainly would be done in conjunction with a trade.

The Packers, of course, haven’t drafted a receiver in the first round since Javon Walker in 2002. Just because they haven’t doesn’t mean they wouldn’t; in 2020, the Packers drafted Jordan Love because Justin Jefferson and Brandon Aiyuk were off the board.

Obviously, there’s no guarantee that a receiver drafted in Round 1 will become a No. 1 receiver. Nonetheless, Texas’ Matthew Golden and Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka are options who project as instant contributors.

Neither has the size or burning speed of Watson, but Golden made a bunch of big plays and Egbuka put up superb numbers throughout his career even while sharing the spotlight with the likes of Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave and Marvin Harrison.

To say desperate times require desperate measures might exaggerate reality. Nonetheless, for the Packers to make a real upgrade at receiver, Gutekunst might have to make the type of bold move he’s avoided throughout his tenure.

If not, Plan B this year will be the same as Plan A last year.

“I think historically if you look at a lot of the teams, very rarely do teams that have one receiver that’s super-heavy with targets, that doesn’t usually play out well for playoffs and success there,” Gutekunst said at the end of the season.

“We’re looking for these guys that we have currently to take a step into that role where they are more consistent on the down-to-down basis. Certainly, if there’s somebody outside of our building – whether it’s the draft, free agency – that makes some sense for us, we’ll certainly look to do that, but we’re also looking for these guys to continue to grow and, hopefully, grow into that space.”

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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.