Green Bay Packers Need More Variety in the WR Room

The Green Bay Packers love their big-bodied receivers but adding a different skill-set to the mix in this year’s draft wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I believe it is fairly well-known at this point, but when it comes to who the Green Bay Packers select in the NFL Draft, regardless of the position, there are physical and athletic thresholds that they want their prospects to meet.

It has been this way since the days of Ron Wolf, it continued with Ted Thompson, and currently, Brian Gutekunst adheres to them as well. Although Gutey appears to show perhaps a bit more flexibility.

But even so, during a press conference in late January, when discussing how he would approach this offseason, Gutey mentioned: “I got a lot of Ted Thompson in me.”

So as we look ahead to the draft, which is now less than a week away, despite Gutekunst doing things a bit differently than Thompson did, such as being more aggressive in free agency, when it comes to these physical and athletic thresholds, he is likely to follow them fairly closely. And it’s easy to understand why since the Packers have been one of the most successful franchises since Wolf took over back in 1991.

However, when it comes to the receiver position, it might not be a bad idea to slightly stray away from those measurements a bit and add a different skill-set to the wide receiver room.

It’s no secret that the Green Bay Packers love big receivers and currently of the nine on the roster, eight of them are at least 6’0″ and 200 pounds, with the outlier being Darrius Shepherd. And of those nine receivers, five of them are at least 6’4″ tall.

With Davante Adams’ release he can get open against anyone while lining up anywhere on the field. Meanwhile, Allen Lazard is a possession receiver, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is a burner, and Devin Funchess could be a nice red-zone target for Aaron Rodgers with his big 6’4″ – 225 pound frame. So although each receiver brings something different to the table, outside of Adams, there is also a bit of redundancy within this unit.

In this year’s draft, a few names to keep your eyes on because they do fit the typical wide receiver mold for Green Bay include Denzel Mims, Michael Pittman Jr, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and Chase Claypool.

But with that said, I think there is more value in bringing in a different skill-set. While Brandon Aiyuk is under 6’0″ tall, his ability to pick up yards after the catch is an element that this Packers team just didn’t have in 2019. Then there is Jalen Reagor who is even shorter than Aiyuk, but his ability to win downfield, line up in the slot, be used on jet sweeps or wide receiver screens would be a welcomed sight as well.

And although Laviska Shenault meets the height and weight requirements that the Green Bay Packers have, he still brings unique skill-set to this team that they currently don’t have. The same could also be said about Justin Jefferson from the slot, who just meets Green Bay’s height and weight minimums.

While it hasn’t happened often, in the past the Packers have selected receivers below those thresholds with the most notable being Randall Cobb in 2011. At 5’10” and only 191 pounds, he was an outlier, but for a number of years, he was a key player within this offense. And a prime version of Cobb is something that his offense has been missing for a few years now.

Fortunately for the Packers, this is a loaded wide receiver class so they will have plenty of options. But instead of bringing in another big-body, adding a quick-twitch player that can pick up yards after the catch and bring some explosiveness to this offense would make a lot more sense.