Packers Don’t Have No. 1 Receiver; Does It Matter?

The Green Bay Packers will enter the 2024 season without an established No. 1 receiver. What they do have is an abundance of proven playmakers for quarterback Jordan Love.

Jayden Reed and Jordan Love celebrate a touchdown against Tampa Bay. / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

There may not be a more scrutinized position group over the last four years than the wide receivers of the Green Bay Packers.

Despite an entire receiving corps gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated in 2011, the prevailing narrative was that the Packers failed to surround future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers with enough weapons throughout his career.

That noise got louder when the Packers, who were coming off an appearance in the NFC Championship Game in 2019, eschewed drafting a receiver in favor of taking Rodgers’ successor with their first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.

The Packers have since built a young corps that they hope will rival the group that tore through the NFL in the early 2010s.

Last season alone, Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks and Bo Melton took turns being the team’s top receiving target. Moreover, tight ends Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft and running back Josh Jacobs are proven pass-catching threats, as well.

The Packers have given quarterback Jordan Love a plethora of options, but none of them appear to be in line to have the true alpha role that was occupied by Davante Adams, when he set franchise records in 2020 and 2021.

Green Bay’s offense spent the early portion of last season finding its way. The learning curve should be much shorter, if it exists at all, for the upcoming season.

If the buzz phrase surrounding the defense is “run and hit,” then the phrase used most often on offense has been “night and day” as it enters 2024 with a much more experienced passing game.

“I’m really pleased with where we’re at right now in terms of not only the cohesion on the field but also off the field. I think every time we step in the meeting rooms, there’s been great energy, great interaction with the guys,” coach Matt LaFleur said at Packers OTAs.

“I think that’s part of the process, is just how we can come together, and I think that’s a great part of the offseason. As you guys know, there’s not a ton to do in Green Bay, which, as a coach, I think is a benefit. It allows these guys to really spend a lot of time with each other, not only in the building but outside of the building, as well.”

That cohesion should help the receivers in what will be a hotly contested battle throughout the year for time on the field.

By the end of the regular season, Wicks and Reed appeared to be the team’s best receivers. In the playoffs, it was Romeo Doubs’ turn.

“I don’t think it’s just those two guys,” LaFleur said of Wicks and Reed, who spent the offseason together.

“I think Romeo’s had an outstanding camp. Dontayvion Wicks, Mailk Heath, [as well]. Bo Melton had a big play out there today, and he’s been outstanding. I think it’s more about the collective unit of all those guys and just the rapport that they’re building with Jordan throughout the course of the offseason. I’m excited to get to training camp with them.”

Reed led the team in receptions, smashing Sterling Sharpe’s franchise rookie record in the process.

“He’s a phenomenal player and, obviously, I think he’s going to have a bigger role this year,” Love said this week.

Melton had a strong finish to the 2023 season, winding up as one of the most productive receivers in the entire NFL, and caught a 75-yard touchdown pass from Love on Tuesday.

Christian Watson struggled with injuries but was impactful when he was healthy and on the field. He’s hoping his injury issues are behind him to become the impact player that was drawing comparisons to Randy Moss in terms of production from a rookie.

Pull it all together, and the Packers have a group of guys, but no one that matches the textbook definition of a No. 1 receiver. Does that matter?

“I personally don’t think it matters,” LaFleur said. “I think if you just look at throughout the course of a season ago – and every season’s going to be a little bit different – but all those guys had their moments where they were the leading receiver in a game.

“I feel really good about the collective unit. The hardest part is we feel so good about them, it’s hard to get everybody the amount of touches that you’d like to get, but that’s a good problem to have.”

That was a good problem for Green Bay’s offense when it was at its peak under Rodgers and Mike McCarthy.

That group that was on the cover of Sports Illustrated may not have had the traditional top-end receiver, but each of them were productive in their own way.

The Packers would ride that deep, talented receiving corps to Super Bowl XLV in 2010 and the best offense in football in 2011.

Those are lofty expectations to place on a group that finished strong but was largely inconsistent throughout the 2023 regular season, but the lack of a go-to target could keep defenses guessing.

“I think you don’t have to have a No. 1 receiver,” Love said. “I think it works out well when you can spread the ball out and you got different guys making different plays and you can put them in different areas. I think it puts a lot more stress on the defense.”

The offense with Rodgers finding Adams over and over again in 2020 and 2021 put a lot of stress on defenses. The issue became the postseason, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2020 NFC Championship Game and the San Francisco 49ers in the 2021 divisional round took away the Packers’ fastball and it was unable to find a changeup.

The Adams-centric passing game could only take the Packers so far.

This group? It remains to be seen where the offense can go but, as LaFleur said, it’s a good problem for them to have at this point of the offseason program. 

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