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By ZONE COVERAGE
Mitch Widmeier
Don’t Expect the Packers To Anoint A No. 1 Wide Receiver Before September
Rasheed Walker or Jordan Morgan at left tackle?
Sean Rhyan or Anthony Belton at right guard?
Those position battles will be settled by the time Week 1 rolls around, as will several others. But there’s one question you shouldn’t expect an answer to at the beginning of the season.
Who is the Green Bay Packers’ WR1?
There’s been plenty of contention this offseason regarding Green Bay’s wide receiver group. In February, Josh Jacobs praised the Packers’ wide receivers before stating he believed the team needed a true No. 1 at the position. That ruffled feathers with Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks.
Green Bay drafted Texas wide receiver Matthew Golden in the first round of the draft. Reed’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, asked Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst to clarify Reed’s role on the team.
It hasn’t been a star-spangled offseason of headlines for the wideout room.
The luxury the Packers have at the moment is that there’s absolutely no reason to declare anyone their No. 1 wide receiver, neither by league rule nor common sense, given the state of that group right now. And they won’t anytime soon.
This isn’t like the quarterback position, where you have to coronate a guy at some point and build your offense around him. Nor is this like battles at left tackle or right guard, where you can only have one starter and thus eventually must name one.
On that first offensive snap against the Detroit Lions in Week 1, the Packers can send anywhere from one to five wide receivers onto the field to usher in the new season.
Snap-count totals will eventually tell the tale. Still, the Packers don’t need to crown Romeo Doubs, Reed, Wicks, or Golden as the alpha. Just let it play out. Anything else would likely only lead to more drama.
Green Bay had hoped one would emerge last year as Jordan Love‘s go-to guy. It never happened. At least for now, the Packers are taking a similar approach to start this season, although you don’t use a first-round pick on Golden unless you have visions of him becoming WR1 at some point.
According to The Athletic, Love sounded giddy about what Golden could mean to the offense at his charity softball game on Friday.
He’s a great dude. I’m excited to see just his potential on the football field. But just the start we’ve had, doing routes on air and things like that, he looks like a stud, looks like a very polished receiver, so I’m excited to see just how far he can take it.
Golden isn’t only a vertical threat. Still, it certainly won’t hurt to have defenses constantly worrying about the rookie taking the lid off the secondary, especially as Christian Watson recovers from a torn ACL.
Just ask Love:
The speed speaks for itself. Running a 40-yard dash, any time you get a 4.2, that’s some blazing speed right there, so I’m excited to see how fast he is on the field. I’ve seen all the highlights, all the good stuff, so we’ll see once we get practice rolling and everything how good he is.
At least on that front, there has been little drama so far. The Packers staff has raved about Reed and Doubs helping Golden and the other newcomers. Passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable had this to say:
I really want to commend [Reed] because he’s standing behind Matthew Golden right now helping him out with every single play. He’s going over with Mecole Hardman, who just got here, and he’s the one guy right now that I feel – all our guys, the brotherhood is strong right now – but he is like, ‘I’m going out of my way,’ because he is a natural leader, and he always has been.
Winning can keep just about everyone happy. If all the mouths are being fed as well, all the better. Buckle up if that doesn’t turn out to be the case early in the season.
We know Justin Jefferson is Minnesota’s No. 1 wide receiver. In Chicago, it’s D.J. Moore. Amon-Ra St. Brown is for Detroit.
Green Bay doesn’t yet have an alpha at wide receiver yet. Matt LaFleur will keep getting questions about it, but that doesn’t mean he has to answer.
We will know who the starting left tackle is coming out of the preseason. The same can be said for right guard. We won’t have the Packers claim anyone as their top receiver entering the regular season, and that’s just fine.
