Packers Will Challenge 49ers With Deep, Unpredictable Passing Game

How will the Green Bay Packers attack the San Francisco 49ers' powerful defense on Saturday? Through its abundance of young, talented playmakers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers will attack the vaunted San Francisco 49ers defense in Saturday’s NFC Divisional playoff game with the biggest bunch of no-names this side of a YMCA flag-football league.

Romeo Doubs had never reached 100 yards receiving yards in 30 career games. In 2023, he had less than 40 yards in 12 of his 17 games. In the playoff victory at the Dallas Cowboys, he caught six passes for 151 yards.

Rookie Jayden Reed hadn’t had a 100-yard receiving game since Michigan State beat Wisconsin on Oct. 15, 2022. Against Chicago in Week 18, he caught four passes for 112 yards.

Bo Melton, a seventh-round pick by Seattle in 2022, didn’t make his NFL debut until Thanksgiving and didn’t catch his first pass until Week 15. Against Minnesota in Week 17, he caught six passes for 105 yards.

Rookie Dontayvion Wicks led the Packers with 97 receiving yards in Week 15 against Tampa Bay. Rookie tight end Tucker Kraft led the Packers with 64 receiving yards in Week 14 against the Giants.

The Packers don’t have a star receiver – at least one that’s perceived to be a star receiver – but they are deeper than Lake Superior. In Green Bay’s 18 games, nine individuals led the team in receiving yards. Doubs, who led the way with five, was the only back-to-back leader, and that was way back in September.

The depth allowed the Packers to crush the Cowboys even though the team’s leader in receptions, receiving yards and total touchdowns, Reed, had zero catches on three targets.

For his first three seasons as coach, Matt LaFleur was tasked with finding new and inventive ways of getting the ball into the hands of Davante Adams. A Hall of Fame talent, everyone and their mother knew Adams was going to get the ball. Most times, it didn’t matter. With Adams putting up staggering numbers, the Packers became the first team in NFL history with three consecutive 13-win seasons.

Following the trade of Adams in 2022, LaFleur had to make it work with a mish-mash of veteran role players and talented rookies. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers favored veteran receivers, so the passing game only worked sporadically.

In 2023, LaFleur had to build a passing attack around a first-year starting quarterback and nothing but first- and second-year receivers. After a hit-and-miss first half of the season that called general manager Brian Gutekunst’s approach into question, Green Bay’s passing game has reached practically unheard of levels even with a bunch of receivers, metaphorically speaking, nobody’s ever heard of.

How?

Essentially, it just happens. LaFleur and his coaches assemble the game plan but Jordan Love’s favorite receiver is the equivalent of the soup du jour. While there were plays tailored for Doubs, it wasn’t as if the game plan was to make Doubs the star of the day.

“There’s a lot of thought in terms of where you’re putting people on certain concepts and trying to play them to their strengths,” LaFleur said. “Some guys run better routes than other guys. That’s just the way it is. And then you’re also anticipating how the defense is going to defend you if putting a guy in a certain spot.

No Stars (Yet) But Packers Shine Without No. 1 Receiver

“Sometimes when you go down in the red zone, a lot of defenses that we play will double-team somebody. So, then you look at, well, who’s been catching the most red-zone touchdowns? Are they going to put the double-team there? So, there’s a little bit of a guessing game in that in terms of where you position people on the field.”

The 49ers finished fourth in opponent passer rating. There are pass rushers all over the defensive front. All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner is elite in coverage. The 49ers led the NFL in interceptions and yards allowed per completion. Cornerback Charvarius Ward had five picks and a league-leading 23 passes defensed.

The 49ers’ defense is absurdly talented and deep. Three players are Pro Bowlers – defensive end Nick Bosa, Warner and safety Talanoa Hufanga – and six others are alternates.

But the Packers’ passing game also appears to be absurdly talented, with more quality receivers than opponents have quality defensive backs.

“Whoever has a good player, you still can’t force the ball to people. If you do, it’s usually not going be that good of an offense,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters this week. “They’ve always done a good job. They rarely have a player who shouldn’t be out there. They draft well. They keep their own pretty well. They’ve done it consistently for a long time.

“And always when you give young guys opportunities, sometimes there’s some bumps in the road, which it sounds like they’ve gone through with this year a little bit. But you get through those. Now, they’ve got a good team that you don’t look at it as a bunch of rookies. You look at guys almost in their second and third year, and they’re playing like it.”

It’s shown up in Love’s staggering production. In his last nine games, he’s thrown 21 touchdown passes vs. one interception and had a passer rating of at least 108 in eight games.

“I think we’ve just got a lot of great receivers in that room,” Love said after posting the highest passer rating by a visiting quarterback in NFL playoff history. “It’s a very unselfish receiver room. They love to see others succeed as much as them. That’s the key to it, how unselfish those guys are.

“I think we’ve got a lot of playmakers in that room. They continue to show what they’re about, and I think it just allows us to get the ball in different people’s hands, puts pressure on the defense, who they want to try and take away. I think we’ve got a lot of mismatches out there.”

Playoff Matchups: Packers vs. Purdy-Led 49ers Passing Attack