Packer Central

Packers Sign Two Receivers, Including Cousin of NFL Legend

The Green Bay Packers made three moves at receiver on Friday, including the release of Alex McGough and the additions of Jalen Wayne and R.J. Starkey.

Bill Huber

The Packers released Alex McGough (17)
The Packers released Alex McGough (17) / Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the Green Bay Packers just a few days from their first practice of training camp, general manager Brian Gutekunst on Friday released quarterback-turned-receiver Alex McGough and signed R.J. Starkey and Jalen Wayne.

Wayne spent six seasons at South Alabama. After three years with limited production, he caught 33 passes for 418 yards in 2020, 53 passes for 630 yards in 2021 and 58 passes for 817 yards in 2022. Not only did he set career highs in catches and yards during his final season, but he scored nine of his 14 career touchdowns and averaged 14.1 yards per catch.

Wayne went undrafted last year and spent training camp with the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns. In three preseason games with the Browns, he failed to catch a pass in three targets.

With the Bills, he was given jersey No. 87. That was the number worn by his second-cousin, Indianapolis Colts legend Reggie Wayne, who ranks 10th in NFL history in receptions and was a six-time Pro Bowler.

“We connected over social media and Instagram,” Jalen Wayne told The Buffalo News. “I let him know we were related. After that, he gave me his number. From my sophomore year until now, he’s been in my ear helping me out.”

Reggie Wayne is in his third season as the Colts’ receivers coach.

“From the first time he started talking to me, he gave me a bunch of drills to do,” Jalen Wayne said. “I mastered all that stuff, mastered my craft. After that is when the mental aspect came in. He told me stuff to think about on game day, stuff not to think about. ‘Think about what the quarterback is doing, think about your job and being open.’ If it’s a Cover-3 team, he’ll tell me how to run routes that day. It was a lot. It was day-to-day actually. My senior year, he’d scout me.”

At the 2023 Scouting Combine, Wayne measured 6-foot-1 3/4 and 210 pounds. He ran his 40 in 4.51 seconds and posted a Relative Athletic Score of 6.59.

“I love to block for running backs,” he said at the Combine. “I’m a friendly guy with a running back. And then I'm the guy that goes between the hashes and makes all those tough catches that not many guys want to do anymore.

“I was letting them know in the interviews I’m a low-maintenance, high-performance guy. Not somebody you’ve got to worry about but, when he gets on the field, he's going to do his job every single time and be the same guy every single day.”

Wayne spent training camp with the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes but was released in June. 

Starkey went undrafted out of Samford and participated in the Packers’ rookie camp on a tryout basis.

In 2023, he caught 27 passes for 204 yards (7.6 average) and zero touchdowns. Before that, he played three seasons at Penn, where he caught 119 passes for 1,549 yards (13.0 average) and 14 touchdowns. He caught 56 passes for 515 yards and four touchdowns in 2022 to earn second-team all-Ivy League honors.

At pro day, he measured 6-foot and 214 pounds, ran his 40 in 4.45 and compiled a RAS of 8.18.

The Packers, needing a quarterback to put them through their paces, had Jake Fromm at the workout.

McGough was moved to receiver before the Packers used a seventh-round pick on Michael Pratt. He suffered a hamstring injury during OTAs. Officially, he was waived/injured.

“Obviously, I’ve got to change up some things,” McGough said at the time. “I eat clean, eat right, do all these things, but I just think the volume of running at a high speed is so much different than what I’m used to. So, I’ve got to figure out how to get my legs to figure out [his new position]. I’m the oldest guy in the room by like two years, so I’m kind of a little behind the 8-ball there, but I’ll figure it out. I still feel young, so we’ll see.”

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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.