Allen Lazard won’t be at Packers practice; more snaps for Juwann Winfree?

The hits just keep on coming for the Green Bay Packers at the wide receiver position. Matt LaFleur said that Allen Lazard will not practice on Wednesday after leaving Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury. His status for this week’s game in Buffalo is unknown.

In addition to potentially being without Lazard, the Packers are already short-handed at the receiver position. Randall Cobb is currently on IR, and we do not know when Christian Watson will return. He will be limited at Wednesday’s practice.

The Green Bay passing game has been in shambles this season, but Lazard has been the one constant that Aaron Rodgers has been able to lean on. This season, he has caught 26 of 40 passes (65%) at 13.1 yards per catch with four touchdowns, according to PFF ($$), not to mention what he brings to the run game as a blocker.

Following Sunday’s loss, Rodgers mentioned Lazard, along with Aaron Jones, as the only two pass catchers not routinely making mental errors.

The rest of the Green Bay receivers have either dealt with injuries, dropped passes, simply running the routes, or a combination of the three. While these are far from being the sole reasons behind the Packers’ issues on offense, they are big reasons why the passing game has had so many challenges to overcome.

As the Packers attempt to navigate the injuries that they are facing at the receiver position, there also could be changes to playing time as well.

"“Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn’t be playing,” said Rodgers on the Pat McAfee Show via Packers Wire. “Gotta start cutting some reps. Maybe some guys who aren’t playing, maybe give them a chance.”"

In regards to who might deserve more playing time at the receiver position, Juwann Winfree comes to mind first. He is someone that Rodgers praised on several occasions over the summer. He has been activated from the practice squad on three occasions this season and has hauled in one pass on four targets for 17 yards with 35 total snaps.

Because Winfree has already been elevated from the practice squad the maximum amount of three times this season, if the Packers want him available on game day moving forward, he will have to be added to the 53-man roster. At the moment, there is an opening.

Samori Toure, who was active for the first time against Washington and had one catch for four yards, is another candidate for more playing time—although as a seventh-round rookie, that may not be what Rodgers is looking for either.

Unfortunately, there is no one answer that is going to help this Green Bay Packers offense turn things around. From play design to execution and everything in between, it all needs to improve drastically–and making any positive strides becomes a lot more difficult without Lazard in the mix.