Saturday LaFleur: Playing the Slots

Leading off with rookie Jayden Reed’s early play in the slot, here’s what coach Matt LaFleur had to say before Saturday’s Packers training camp practice.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Some teams prefer a pure slot receiver. That was the Green Bay Packers during Randall Cobb’s prime years under former coach Mike McCarthy.

Other teams prefer the potpourri approach of rotating players through the slot to take advantage of matchups.

Which is coach Matt LaFleur’s philosophy?

“That’s a pretty complex question in terms of what’s best. There’s a lot of different layers to it,” LaFleur said before Saturday’s practice.

Last season, Allen Lazard – who nobody would consider a “traditional” slot receiver – led the Packers with 46 slot targets, according to Pro Football Focus. Cobb was next with 36. Christian Watson, another player who wouldn’t be defined as a “traditional” slot receiver, was third with 22. By snaps, Lazard narrowly beat Cobb (292 to 288, according to PFF).

Could that change with the addition of Jayden Reed? Maybe but perhaps not dramatically.

“I think it all comes down to what are you asking them to do,” LaFleur said. “Are you asking them to run choice routes? Are you asking them to big-body whoever’s in the nickel slot? A lot of it is matchup-based, I would say. When you have a bigger slot, like a Lazard, and you’ve got a little nickel, you feel more comfortable putting him in there and he can with his sheer strength and win on some routes, vs. do you have a really quick slot, is the bigger nickel? It’s all matchup-based and it’s all predicated on what are we asking these guys to do.”

A second-round pick out of Michigan State, Reed at 5-foot-10 7/8 and boasting plenty of quickness and athleticism, is practically the personification of the traditional slot receiver.

While that wasn’t his role at Michigan State, he believes it suits him well.

“Playing the slot for the first time in a long time, I actually like it – working with space, being able to attack guys, step on their toes and make a move,” Reed, who’s played almost entirely from the slot through the first few days of training camp, said this week. “It’s really helping me out a lot to be able to work in space. I haven’t been able to do that in a long time and I’m enjoying it right now.”

Reed hasn’t been a slot receiver since he was a Freshman All-American at Western Michigan in 2018. After a big season there, he transferred to Michigan State. After sitting out the 2019 season, Reed needed just three years to rank sixth in school history in receptions. During an All-American in 2021, he caught 59 passes for 1,026 yards (17.4 average) and 10 touchdowns and added two more touchdowns on punt returns.

“That’s where I got most of my production in college,” Reed said of playing on the perimeter, “but I’m a football player. Whether I want to return punts, whether I want to run down on kickoff, be inside, outside, I feel like I’m a complete football player to where, wherever you put me on the field, I can produce.”

Here are a few more highlights from LaFleur before Saturday’s open-to-the-public practice and Sunday’s off-day.

Jayden Reed (Photo by Dan Powers/USA Today Sports Images)

What are Jordan Love’s strengths?

“I think that’s something that we’re learning. Ultimately, there’s a lot of things that give us a lot of confidence in him that we’ve seen throughout the course of these last three years and going into Year 4. Certainly, watching the growth not only as a football player but as a man and seeing his command out there on the field, I think, gives us a lot of confidence in him, it gives his teammates a lot of confidence in him. He’s not afraid of hard work. To watch how far he's grown and just understanding the nuances, especially from a protection standpoint …

“We talked about this the other day, what’s too much? How do you get him enough reps at every concept? It’s a challenge. We’ve got to use our best guess in terms of are we getting him enough reps at whatever the play or the concept is to make sure that he’s comfortable when he goes out there and is asked to execute that play. It’s not only him. It’s the other 10 guys around him, as well. There’s a lot of youth right there and that’s exciting because you never quite know what you’re going to get.”

How will LaFleur handle the safety competition alongside Darnell Savage when the padded practices start on Monday? Rudy Ford, Jonathan Owens and Tarvarius Moore are front and center in that competition.

“I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s going to be pretty fluid in regards to who’s running with the 1s, who’s running with the 2s. We’re going to rotate those guys quite a bit. Obviously, the guy that’s got the most experience is Savage out there. He’s had a pretty strong camp. Throughout the course of OTAs, he had really grown, and we’re hoping to see that continued growth when we get the pads on. I think that’s when things start to clearly define themselves and the separation starts to happen.”

On rookie defensive tackle Colby Wooden:

“Yeah, he’s a great kid, first and foremost. I love his approach to the game. He’s working, he’s studying his butt off. When we’re doing bed checks, he’s always got his iPad open studying the book, watching tape. He’s doing everything he can and we’re going to have to count on him.”

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