Receivers Make Final Statement in Heated Roster Battle

Bo Melton, Malik Heath, Grant DuBose and Samori Toure made their closing arguments for earning a spot on the Packers’ 53-man roster against the Ravens. The competition seems impossibly close.

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Malik Heath (18) catches a pass against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday. / Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Receiver was supposed to be the hottest battle in Green Bay Packers training camp.

It did not disappoint.

The Big Four of Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Dontayvion Wicks and Jayden Reed made plays and stayed healthy.

The Next Four of Bo Melton, Grant DuBose, Malik Heath and Samori Toure did the same thing.

They got open. They caught passes. They blocked. They did everything possible to earn a spot on the 53-man roster that general manager Brian Gutekunst must pick by 3 p.m. Tuesday.

For two of them – assuming Gutekunst keeps six – it won’t be enough.

“Man, I put it on the film,” Heath said after leading the team in receptions and receiving yards on Saturday against the Ravens and for the totality of the preseason. “The film tells it all. There’s 31 other teams; you’ve got to play ball for them, too. They watching the same game. So, that’s all I can do.”

Heath caught 4-of-5 targets for 39 yards and one touchdown in 29 snaps against the Ravens and finished the preseason by catching 9-of-15 for 83 yards.

The touchdown was a 7-yarder from Sean Clifford in which Heath got his body between the ball and the defender on a post.

“It really got on me fast because I was trying to snub it off and he was grabbing, so I had to snatch him off and it got on me fast,” Heath said. “It was a good ball placement. You know, I was ready. Just on the JUGS machines. Come in, I been on the JUGS machine a lot.”

Melton’s only reception against the Ravens was an 18-yard touchdown from Michael Pratt. It was a work-of-art back-shoulder connection, with Pratt saying Melton’s catch was better than the throw and Melton saying the throw was better than the catch.

“Pratt gave me a chance,” Melton said. “Had a slot-fade and I knew the ball was coming to me. When Pratt threw the ball, I was excited. It was a great ball and I was able to make that play. Happy that Pratt trusted me in that situation.”

Melton was shaken up on the play and did not go back in the game, his day ending after 23 snaps.

“I guess that was the plan,” Melton said.

Melton finished the preseason by catching 4-of-9 targets for 40 yards and the touchdown. His three-drop game at Cleveland to open the preseason was an extreme outlier.

“I feel I proved being open,” Melton said. “Just being out there, being fast for the quarterback, being clean for the quarterback, cleaning up my technique. There’s a lot of things I was getting into this offseason to clean up my technique. I feel like I did that this camp, for sure.”

DuBose got only one chance in 35 snaps against the Ravens; it was incomplete with Clifford under pressure. For the preseason, he caught 5-of-9 targets for 66 yards. All of the catches came against Cleveland; he had two drops against Denver and no real opportunities against Baltimore.

“I feel like I did some good things,” DuBose said. “I’m real confident in my body of work that I put out on the field. Hopefully, they feel the same.”

Toure caught 5-of-8 passes for 53 yards during the three games, including 2-of-4 for 28 yards in 30 snaps vs. the Ravens. On one, he slipped a tackle to move the chains on third-and-long. A seventh-round pick in 2022 who made the 53 each of his first two seasons, he’s been No. 8 on the depth chart all summer.

For Gutekunst, the decision could come down to splitting hairs.

Melton is one of the fastest players on the roster. A seventh-round pick by Seattle in 2022, his first career catch came against Tampa Bay on Dec. 17, but he finished the season with a bang with six catches for 105 yards and one touchdown at Minnesota in Week 17, five catches for 62 yards against Chicago in Week 18 and a touchdown at San Francisco in the playoffs.

More than just a speedster, Melton has shown he can block; he had a pancake on Ellis Merriweather’s 13-yard run in the first quarter.

DuBose, a seventh-round pick last year who was a nonfactor as a rookie after sitting out the entire offseason and most of camp with a back injury, was one of the most productive players on the field for a big chunk of training camp. He, too, has proven to be a proficient blocker.

Heath beat out Melton and DuBose for a spot on the roster as an undrafted rookie last year due in part to his grit and physicality as a blocker. However, during the joint practice against the Ravens, he ran past first-round pick Nate Wiggins – one of the fastest players in Scouting Combine history – for a deep completion.

What will the decision come down to?

“You’re looking at everything,” coach Matt LaFleur said earlier in the week. “I think any time you’re talking about that spot in particular, whether it’s the fifth receiver or the third runner, some of your backup linebackers, your fourth safety, your fifth corner, those guys have to be able to contribute on special teams.

“The thing that I love most is they know they’re all competing but yet they’re still cheering for one another, which is a pretty cool dynamic. I see it every day. They push each other to get better, the way they strain, the way they go out there and compete in everything they do. So, I think all of them have benefited from it because they’re all getting better throughout the process.”

Melton, DuBose, Heath and Toure understand life on the bubble. Melton was cut by the Seahawks in 2022 and Packers in 2023. DuBose was cut in 2023. Toure survived in 2022 and 2023 and Heath made it in 2023.

All four have shown they belong in the NFL. They all rose to the occasion during a competitive training camp. Whether their careers will continue in Green Bay beyond Tuesday is out of their hands.

“You’ve just got to have faith,” DuBose said. “Like I’ve been saying this whole interview and I’ve been telling myself, control what you can control. It’s above me. Ultimately, it’s in the decision of the people in the front office.

“Hopefully, I did enough to where they think highly of me to bring me back. But, if they don’t, that’s just that. Onto the next. That’s the business that we’re in and that’s how you’ve got to approach it.”

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Filled with coffee and jet fuel, I fired up the #Packers Roster Lock-O-Meter™️ one last time to determine the roster locks, near-locks, bubble players, etc.https://t.co/Lb3JrKoubN

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 25, 2024

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