Green Bay Packers Should Make a Run at WR Kenny Stills

On Friday, the Houston Texans released Kenny Stills. Now on waivers, the Green Bay Packers should absolutely make a claim and try to bring him to Titletown.

If we rewind back to November 3rd, as the clock struck 3:00 pm central standard time, the Green Bay Packers and the Houston Texans could not agree to terms on a trade for wide receiver Will Fuller. Per reports, the Packers were actively pursuing Fuller leading up to the trade deadline, but when it came to negotiations, the two teams weren’t particularly close.

However, Green Bay has another opportunity to land a Texans’ receiver, or I guess a former one now, as Houston released Kenny Stills on Friday.

Admittedly, it’s been a very quiet year for Stills with only 19 targets, 144 receiving yards on 11 receptions, and a touchdown through 11 games. However, compared to the rest of his career, this season has been the outlier. Since entering the NFL in 2013, Stills has just one season without at least 550 receiving yards.

From a skill-set standpoint, he is very similar to Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the fact that the deep ball is his bread and butter, averaging nearly 16 yards per catch over his career and possessing 4.38 speed coming out of Oklahoma. More recently, in 2019, Stills was incredibly efficient on passes of 20 yards or more, hauling in 66 percent of his 15 targets for an impressive 346 yards and five touchdowns.

But Stills is much more than just a deep threat; on intermediate routes between 10 and 19 yards, he caught 12 of his 13 targets last season for 170 yards. And by Football Outsiders ($) DVOA metric, Stills was the fifth-ranked receiver in 2019, showcasing his efficiency as a pass-catcher compared to the rest of the league.

Since we are past the trade deadline, Stills will have to go through waivers, meaning any team can put in a claim, and the team with the worst record to do so is where he will end up. So for the 7-3 Green Bay Packers, landing Stills seems like a long-shot given their record.

But — in my best Lee Corso voice — not so fast! Andy Herman of Packer Report brought up a good point on Friday when he noted that Stills is still due nearly $2.5 million this season, so there probably aren’t any bad teams that want to pay that much at this point in the season for a four or five-game rental. This certainly doesn’t mean that Stills will fall to the Packers, but it does increase the likelihood. And if Stills were to go unclaimed, he can then negotiate a new contract with any team.

If, and it’s a big if, Stills does end up in Green Bay, he will be an instant upgrade over Darrius Shepherd, Malik Taylor, as well as Equanimeous St. Brown. And although the Packers already have a player in Valdes-Scantling who can attack the field vertically, there are no rules saying that NFL teams can’t have two deep threats on the field at the same time. In fact, I’d say that’s a good thing.

For now, we will all play the waiting game to see where Stills ends up, but the Green Bay Packers should absolutely put in a waiver claim on him. As a Super Bowl contender, if there is the opportunity to add more talent to the roster without having to give up a premium draft pick or take on a huge contract, then you should make a run at that player 10 out of 10 times.