Green Bay Packers take Dynamic WR in Draft Wire Mock Draft

The state of the Green Bay Packers wide receiver room can change quite a bit between now and when the NFL Draft actually takes place, depending on what happens with Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in free agency. But at this moment, receiver is a massive need.

I recently took a position by position look at the current status of the Green Bay Packers 2022 roster, and at receiver at the moment is Randall Cobb, who could be cut, Amari Rodgers, Juwann Winfree, Chris Blair, and Rico Gafford.

As Packers fans, we are very familiar with a wide receiver being mocked to the team in the first round, and of course, Green Bay hasn’t actually made that selection since 2002. But depending on what happens during free agency, if there’s a year where that could take place, 2022 may be it.

In a recent mock draft from Luke Easterling of Draft Wire, he has the Green Bay Packers selecting wide receiver Garrett Wilson from Ohio State.

"“If Davante Adams heads elsewhere in free agency, the Packers will need a new No. 1 target, regardless of who is throwing the passes,” said Easterling in his mock draft. Wilson is a polished, well-rounded playmaker who can stretch the field and make big plays after the catch.”"

The 6’0″ – 192 pound Wilson has three years of playing experience with the Buckeyes, and he has experience lining up both in the slot and out wide — something that we know Matt LaFleur covets in his receivers — but a majority of his college snaps came on the boundary.

During his first two seasons in Columbus, Wilson was targeted 77 total times and caught 75.3 percent of those passes at over 16 yards per catch with 10 touchdowns. The 2021 season, however, was by far his most productive. Wilson had a whopping 102 targets, catching almost 69 percent of them for 1,058 yards, or 15.1 yards per catch, and he found the end zone 12 times, according to PFF ($$).

For what it’s worth, Wilson was PFF’s 21st highest-graded receiver in football this past season, and he ranked 16th in the same category in 2020–by these metrics, he has been among the best in college football for two seasons.

Wilson was also very dynamic with the ball in his hands, recording 417 yards after the catch in 2021 and 6.0 YAC per catch. His 3.0 yards per route run average would rank 14th in the nation as well.

For more on Wilson’s game, here is what Kyle Crabbs of The Draft Network had to say about him in his pre-draft report:

"“(Wilson) projects best to the NFL game as a slot receiver, where his short-area agility will afford him more room to work and create space and he can be more naturally crafted quick touches for an offense that commands spacing issues with a prominent vertical passing attack.“I appreciate Wilson’s versatility as an offensive weapon and would hope to see him placed into a role that features him in the RPO game as a bubble/glance threat, as a jet motion option to get him leverage to the perimeter quickly, and as an underneath receiver that utilizes his burst to carry across the middle of the field in mesh/drive concepts as the underneath target.”"

Many of the qualities just described by Crabbs would make Wilson a very good fit for the LaFleur offense–his ability from the slot and to turn quick passes into big gains. Not to mention the RPOs, jet motions, and screens all help play into that illusion of complexity that LaFleur has mentioned in the past, which in short, helps keep the defense guessing and requires versatility on the Packers’ part.

There’s a long ways to go between now and the draft, but as the pre-draft process unfolds, keep your eyes on Garrett Wilson. He would fill a position of need, and his skill-set is a very good fit for the LaFleur system.