The Green Bay Packers Have An Embarrassment Of Riches At WR

The Green Bay Packers Have An Embarrassment Of Riches At WR

[Music] the Packers have the best group of young receivers in the NFL and I honestly can’t remember the last time a team had this level of success drafting this position over such a short time period especially from a volume perspective obviously a team like Cincinnati that gets T Higgins and Jamar Chase and back-to-back drafts would clear them right now but I think it’s pretty historic the strength and numbers that Green Bay has of young receivers that have produced in the NFL and are still developing with a lot of upside over the last two drafts the Packers have taken six wide receivers and outside of samori tur and Grant deos who were seventh round picks that you can’t really expect to produce I think the other four receivers Green Bay has drafted have all been hits at least on the field and they have as bright of a future as anyone at that position but because there are so many promising young players it’s a real unknown how the hierarchy is going to sort itself out and who if anyone emerges as the quote unquote number one so in this video we’re going to take a deep dive into the Packers receivers look at their relative strengths and weaknesses and talk about how they all fit into Matt lefleur’s offense and I am going to rank them based on how I view them as players on a fairly limited sample size but I want to be clear I think my top three at least will be highquality starters the gap between them at this point is very thin and if the actual order ended up being the exact opposite of how I have them ranked that would not surprise me at all and they all have very complimentary skill sets that mesh well together and should have no problem coexisting now Christian Watson who is going to come in at fourth in My overall Power Rankings is more of a wild card and we’re going to spend less time on him than my top three because I think Watson’s a bit more of a known quantity he’s had a very up and down career so far he’s dealt with recurring hamstring injuries which he’s made an effort to fix this off season he learned that he had a 20% difference in muscle strength between his right and left legs which puts more strain on the left hamstring since it has to overcompensate and according to an ESPN article which I’ll link in the description as of May 24th he’s gotten that difference down to 8 to 10% so hopefully that resolves the issue and he’s able to stay on the field because of the health concerns I view Christian Watson as more of just icing on the cake he has the potential and has had flashes of production but it’s hard to be too confident in him being a consistent contributor evaluating him on the field though he’s a very specialized player through his first two seasons he’s built in a lab from a size speed perspective and he’s proven to be an excellent deep threat he can create instant vertical separation and get over the top of man coverage in just a few steps I don’t think the Packers have a receiver with Watson’s level of downfield explosiveness and ability to generate big plays but he hasn’t developed into a complete receiver that can win reliably in the short to intermediate game and that’s why you see a lot of Peaks and valleys in his production on a week- toe basis he’ll have five catches 100 yards and two touchdowns one week and then have a stretch of games where he goes 2 for 20 you just don’t see the route running Precision to get open against a man coverage and have that consistent reliable production looking at his data from reception perception which is a great resource Matt Harmon charts every route over an eight game sample and comes up with success rate data for a bunch of receivers and Christian Watson was above 50th percentile in success rate on post post corners and goes the three deepest routes you can run but he was below 40th percentile in everything else and his overall success rate against man coverage was in the 16th percentile so he’s not a player you can rely on to be the number one option for your passing game right now but he could still develop as a route Runner and in the meantime he’s a really good complimentary piece that can create explosive plays you just don’t know exactly when those plays are going to come at three I’ve got Jaden Reed second round pick in 2020 three and he was the Packers primary slot receiver last year over 75% of his routes were from the slot his statistical profile is pretty solid he ranked in the top half of the league in most metrics with contested catch rate as the main outlier and that’s the primary thing he needs to improve heading into year 2 but outside of that Reed is an extremely well-rounded receiver I think everyone in this top three is a good route runner in different ways but Reed was a very consistent separator especially on in-breaking routes this graphic shows his route tree from last year the rank column is where they rank in route percentage out of the top 100 qualifying receivers he ran a lot of outs and posts and he had the highest percentage of crossers and deep overs in the NFL at 13.3% he had the 10th highest seam rate in the NFL which is going to be the primary deep route for slot receivers and he was also the Packers main Gadget player with a good amount of screens and Jet sweeps as a route Runner I don’t think he’s the most dynamic or EXP explosive athlete but he’s very efficient with his footwork and overall separated at a high level especially for a rookie you see right here he wins against Brian branch on the quick slant I think Christian Watson was also supposed to run a slant here and it makes this a much tighter window throw than it had to be but really good job using these foot fire stutter steps to threaten the outside release he bounces off of that outside plant foot explodes into his break and makes a really nice catch in traffic for the touchdown probably my favorite route from Jaden Reed last year is the deep out against a Caleb Evans they got him in the cheat motion so he can build up speed from his release point off the line of scrimmage he stems this route in a straight line down the field he’s selling an in-breaking route by stemming this right down the numbers you can see a Caleb Evans gradually start to turn his hips to face the inside and then at the break point he throttles down with a bunch of stutter steps which makes this look like a stop route or an in-breaking comeback that deceleration causes a Caleb Evans to break on the route and take a few steps forward and re efficiently breaks outside and creates a ton of Separation playing so much in the slot he didn’t face a ton of press coverage but I actually thought he was pretty effective in a limited sample size for an undersized receiver He’s listed at 187 he had much better play strength as a route Runner and as a ball carrier than you would expect you did see the lack of size show up at the catch point but he was able to overcome that in some other phases this is a great rep against New Orleans basically just bull rushes The Press coverage he walks elante Taylor back gets him off balance and then really good burst out of his break and then he also showed to be a good deep threat from the slot he ran in the 4 fours uh doesn’t have Elite Speed but enough to win vertically on seam routes the Packers have other receivers that you probably want as your primary deep threats but you can’t just squat on the underneath stuff with Jaden Reed he can punish you down the field he was a very productive Gadget player he had 128 rushing yards which was the third most among receivers last season and it was really a bit more than that because he took a lot of jet sweeps that got charted as a recep ion but are a lot closer to a run the Jet Sweep and Jet motion that comes along with it is a huge aspect of Matt lefler’s offense and he usually had pretty good blocking but still has the speed and vision to execute on those plays and he also has pretty good power after the catch for a receiver in the 180s I said his best route was in that second Vikings matchup I also think he had his best overall play in that game he gets open on a quick slant from a bunch formation breaks the tackle from the corner and Harrison Smith and then he Powers through Josh mellis and a Caleb Evans and gets into the end zone winning at the catchpoint is the main area you want to see some development from Jaden Reed in college he was actually much better in contested catch situations than you would expect his final three seasons at Michigan State he had a 56% contested catch rate but in his rookie year he was three for2 on contested targets which ranked near the bottom of the NFL and there were a lot of really good routes last year that he just couldn’t convert and finish at the catch point I love this route against Chicago it’s third and two he’s got soft press coverage from the slot he closes the cushion and then accelerates into his stem not even 5 yds down field he’s stacked Kyler Gordon he’s got him in trail position and because he’s got about a yard of vertical separation that causes Kyler Gordon to panic and start to really try to recover down the field and he stacked him enough that he doesn’t have a point of contact to feel out the route break so at about 10 yards he sinks his hips cuts off his route Gordon’s leaning down field trying to recover he doesn’t have hand placement established so he drifts away from the break and the ball placement is a little bit behind him he ends up having to work back to the football but he doesn’t do a good enough job attacking the ball in the air and that gives Kyler Gordon the opportunity to get back into the picture there were a couple plays where he was trying to track the ball over his shoulder and just let it bounce off his hands right here he does a good job of separating on this Circus route against Brian Branch I like the head fakes at the top of his route to get Branch leaning inside before he breaks but then he just can’t track the ball and then this play against Delante Taylor again head fake inside before he breaks out to the sideline he’s able to separate but can’t fully extend for this and it falls off his fingertips this play the Vikings are showing a zero Blitz as always but they’ve got Josh matelis dropping into the deep middle as the pull Runner Jaden Reed’s running a seam he’s got a couple steps of Separation down the field the pass ends up behind him so he’s got to adjust to the football but matelis wins at the catch point and gets the interception and then right here against the Chargers it’s third and seven he’s running this Stop Route against off coverage he can’t really box out the defender because he’s playing with too much cushion and he does a good job extending for this and attacking the ball in the air but the corner is able to reach into his catch space and he can’t secure the catch through contact this is my scouting report for Jaden Reed uh 50 is League average so anything above 50 I think is a strength for the most part I think he’s a technically sound route Runner but he’s more of an above average athlete so you’d like him to continue to improve there to separate against better NFL corners but a very balanced skill set over all the main thing that’s lacking based on his rookie tape is contested catches probably never going to be elite in that phase but he did show much better efficiency in college so hopefully he can at least partially return to form I went back and forth on my 1 and two but I ended up going with Davian Wicks as the second best receiver the Packers took him in the fifth round last year and he was the third most productive receiver on the team with 65 yards and five touchdowns but his per snap numbers were outstanding top half of the leag league and everything and top 10 in first down percentage EPA per Target success rate and passer rating and he’s gotten a lot of hype this off season especially from fantasy football people it’s hard for me to be too confident in any of these receivers from a fantasy perspective because there’s so many mouths to feed but as far as being a good player I’m absolutely on board with the Davian Wicks hype train his route tree is pretty standard honestly he had the second highest out route percentage in the NFL any outside receiver in a Matt lefur offense is going to run a lot of digs and that was his most frequently Run route last year at 17.5% he has good size Big Catch radius he can play all three receiver positions he can win against press coverage very effective route Runner that knows how to manipulate corners and is just a natural separator he fell in the draft mainly because he just couldn’t catch anything in his final year at Virginia but he had a 4.7% drop rate as a rookie anything below 5% is is really good for a receiver and what surprised me the most based on his college tape was how good he was after the catch I don’t remember him as an overly Dynamic player with the ball in his hands but he was really tough to bring down and he has a good combination of power and elusiveness as a runner his one limitation is speed he ran a 462 and he isn’t someone that’s going to outrun Corners in a straight line but outside of that he has such a complete skill set and could easily end up being the best receiver from this group if he gets more opportunities so he played a good amount of snaps at X and was great against press coverage as a rookie especially on Slants there are times he’s just Untouchable releasing off the line of scrimmage according to his reception perception data he had a 90th percentile success rate on slant routes this play against Chicago you see how fluid and graceful he is with his release footwork the corner in outside leverage and Wix attacks that leverage with a quick jab step to the outside gets the corner leaning back on his heels Wix breaks inside and as he’s accelerating through his break he’s able to retract his body and protect his frame from the recovery punch the corner can’t make contact and Wix leaves him in the dust another great job here against New Orleans of threatening the outside release to get the corner leaning and then timing up his break with the inside hand punch to avoid contact and separate over the middle and then this play he doesn’t have as much space to work with but in a phone booth he still minimizes the contact and prevents the corner from Landing a firm punch he keeps his hands active to protect his frame takes the inside release that the Corner’s giving him and then he Powers through the holding to win separation inside and I just love watching Davian Wicks run routes down the field going back to his reception perception data he had a 92nd and 96th percentile success rate on outs and Corners based on my tape study I probably thought he was a little bit better on Diggs but other than that this table is very descriptive of what the film looks like something the Packers coaches clearly drill into their receiver is what’s called The Rocker step it’s a technique for separating at the top of usually digs outs posts and Corners you’re going to take a step towards your break take a step away from your break and then break so at the top of your route it should look like your body’s rocking back and forth good example here against La he’s running an out route at the top of the route he steps with the outside foot the inside foot and then breaks outside most route breaks are going to be a single move break so you fake one way and then break in the opposite direction when he steps with the outside foot and then starts to break inside that looks like he’s setting up a dig route and then just the act of Staggering your footwork and a bunch of different directions has the effect of freezing the corner at the top of the route and you can see he just leaves this corner in quick sand creates easy separation but he can implement the same strategy when it comes to winning over the middle of the field this touchdown from the wild card game against Dallas I think I’ve seen like three film breakdowns on YouTube breaking down this specific play but Jordan love identifies the zero Blitz he calls Tucker craft into pass block he audibles to a double post concept with a switch release you can see the Cowboys corners on the right side of the field initially they’re playing with really heavy inside leverage but the switch release causes them to pass off these routes now the outside corner Stefon Gilmore has outside leverage on an in-breaking route and no safety help over the middle Wix is going to spray release meaning he’s evening out his leverage squares up with him as much as possible at the top of the route he uses the rocker step where he jab steps in inside steps outside and then breaks inside and then it’s a perfectly placed throw Under Pressure Packers get the touchdown this play he doesn’t actually get targeted out of his initial break but he’s running an in Breer against off coverage he gets to the top of the route rocker step freezes the corner causes him to lose his footing he doesn’t get the ball initially out of his break but love escapes the pocket Wix does a good job of extending his route and love finds him in the end zone and then this isn’t really a rocker step but just an outstanding play from week two against Atlanta wix’s in motion again they’re using the cheat motion so he can build up speed he’s in pretty much the ideal situation at the top of his route he’s running an in breing route but he’s got the corner fully turned to the sideline so he throttles down sells the comeback that gets Trey flowers to react and start to break on the route and then he crosses his face over the middle makes the catch breaks the first tackle from Trey flowers and then evades Richie Grant gets into the end zone and like I said Yak was one of the most pleasantly surprising aspects of Davian Wick’s tape as a rookie this play against the Chargers he catches a 5y sit route he’s got a Defender Crashing Down Over the Top absorbs a huge hit stays on his feet the linebacker takes a bad angle he avoids a Sant Samuel avoids alohi Gilman and overall gets about 30 yards after the catch and what should have been just a simple 5 yard gain right here he takes a little slide route breaks two tackles gets some good yards after the catch you see this play against Chicago he takes the screen pass plants his foot makes the first Defender Miss he might get caught from behind by the time he’s 25 to 30 yards down the field but I think davien Wix is going to add a lot of value after the catch and then also got a shout out his run blocking he was the one Packers receiver that really stood out in that area outstanding block here against Denver on a crack toss play drives this defensive back to the sideline puts him on his back and then he also had a couple nice blocks clearing the way on the goal line or in the red zone so for Wick’s Scouting Report when it comes to Route running and press coverage I think he’s the best of the Packers receivers he’s also up there with Jaden Reed after the catch it’s hard to really compare them because Jaden Reed got so many more opportunities to create with the ball in his hands he had three fumbles and dating back to college he had three in his last two seasons at Virginia so that is going to be his lowest rated skill the other main weakness or limitation is speed like I said not going to be someone that wins consistently on go routes and with such a small sample size it’s just hard to tell what he’s going to look like on contested targets he was three for seven last last year improved his hands on open catches from his last year in college but we’ll see if the drop issue pops back up but if I had to pick one Packers receiver that I’m most confident in I got to go with Romeo dos and that’s not the conclusion I was expecting to come to before I got into his film from last year dos was a fourth round pick in 2022 and I wasn’t Blown Away by his rookie tape but in 2023 he ended up leading the team in receiving yards and touchdowns with 908 and n and I actually see a lot lot of Nico Collins in his game I think he has the potential to become a true number one his per snap statistical profile is less impressive than Reed and Wix but still solid very good contested catch rate top 25 in first down and success rate but definitely the worst after the catch out of the top three and his route tree is pretty similar to davien Wicks like I said any outside receiver in this offense is going to run a lot of digs almost one fifth of do’s routes last year were dig routes and he had the fourth highest dig rate in the NFL but the key differences are Fades which made up 11% of his routes and ranked sixth League wide he was also their primary double move receiver which I think is one of the strengths of his game he’s 62 20101 with over 32 in arms so ideal size for an X he was injured during the pre-draft process so he didn’t test at the combine but I think he’s probably a bit faster than Jaden Reed and definitely faster than Wix I really like him as a deep threat and unless Christian Watson’s in the game game he’s the player I want getting the shot targets down the field he has the best ball skills of anyone on Green Bay’s roster he’s so physical and skilled at the catch point he can overpower smaller corners on jump balls track the ball through contact and use his length to High Point and pluck it out of the air and coming out of Nevada he was more of a straight line receiver with limited ability as a route Runner to separate out of horizontal breaks but I was really surprised at his Improvement in that area and it’s what allowed him to take Tak such a massive jump in production from year 1 to year two the double moves are what really caused me to lean forward in my chair when I was going through dobs tape he had a couple outstanding Blaze out circus type of routes in the wild card game against Dallas this play he’s matched up with Jordan Lewis he takes a hard inside release and then starts to accelerate vertically down the field he gets the corner in trail position with underneath leverage gives a jab step away from his break at the top of the route and then breaks out to the sideline wide open and then somehow he creates even more Separation on this route again hard inside release really selling the Deep over here Gilmore’s trying to undercut this route dobs kind of pumps the brakes a little bit to get behind him and get him lost and then a crisp break out to the sideline he could have taken a nap before Gilmore caught up to him right here he runs more of a traditional Circus route where he’s going to diagonal release inside he starts to sim his route vertically and then he breaks outside the route diagram should look like the top third of an octagon but on this play see the advantage of do’s size and play strength Ward grabs onto him with the outside hand but he’s able to power through that contact causes the corner to lose his footing and because the safety took the over route from Jaden Reed there’s no safety help and he’s got wide open space after the catch good rep here against Trey flowers who was just getting cooked this entire game inside release converts it to a vertical stem Stacks the receiver down the field gets the corner into Trail and then good job using head fakes to extend the separation out of his break the passes overthrown but I believe this was called a holding penalty at least it should have been and then like we discussed with Davian Wicks the Packers receivers love using rocker steps at the top of the route not going to break down every example for dos cuz we went into a lot of plays for wicks but this play from the divisional round he’s running a deep out Thomas has outside leverage but he’s in a full side turn pointed away from Do’s break and dobs takes an outside step inside step breaks outside and he’s wide open to the sideline and then this play you see him use a rocker step to separate on an in-breaking route he’s got Eddie Jackson on a late rotation and he’s facing about as heavy of inside leverage as you could possibly see I mean three yard shaded inside to be able to separate on an in breing route against this kind of coverage look is incredible he’s squared up with the back of the inzone plants the outside foot explodes into the inside break and gets the touchdown he’s also very good against press I think much improved there from college he has the straight line explosiveness he’s got the size and play strength to absorb some contact but the footwork and movement efficiency I think has really developed from what I remember from his Nevada tape and I think he’s probably the best Stop Route Runner that the Packers have with his size and speed it’s really impressive his ability to sink his hips quickly cut off those curls and comebacks right here you see straight line explosiveness off the line of scrimmage a couple steps into his route he’s high on the outside hip threatening vertically down the sideline once he gets the corner Michael Davis to fully turn and run he sits down two throttles steps and he’s completely cut off his route Davis does a solid job recovering here but dos is able to box him out and make a nice contested catch this play he’s got Jamal Dean in a side turn he attacks his blind spot he accelerates and gets behind him gets outside of his field of vision so for all Jamal Dean knows he’s just running a go route down the sideline that causes Dean to drift down field he cuts off his route and gets plenty of separation and I really like this seven stop against La a seven stop is just a corner which is seven and then a stop route so he stems vertically diagonal break into the corner route and then he actually sells this even further by turning his route up field and applying that vertical pressure to get the corner back on his heels and then he cuts it off and moves the chains on Third and 17 his main weakness as a route Runner is Slants against press coverage he doesn’t really have the timing down and doesn’t consistently explode out of his release into the route with a quick slant you’re in tight quarters so when you win an edge with your release you’ve got to be urgent separating horizontally of any route that’s the one where you absolutely can’t afford to round your Cuts or drift in and out of breaks but what completes Romeo dobs as a player and another area that he showed a lot of improvement from year 1 is catching the football he cut his drop rate in half going from 10.1 to 5.6% and he raised his contested catch rate from 33 to 54 he has the natural ability to be one of the Premier contact catch receivers in the NFL with his size and catch radius but it’s his ball tracking focus and technique at the catch point that has allowed him to approach that potential he does a great job adjusting to slightly inaccurate or difficult throws deep down the field I really like the design and execution of this play against New Orleans they’re sending elante Taylor on the slot blitz so Romeo dobs runs his route towards the void and flashes his hands like he’s the side adjust ready for a quick throw that gets the safety to bite down and try to break on this route and then dos accelerates vertically and basically runs a stop and go here he draws a holding penalty as the DB’s trying to recover but it doesn’t matter because dobs makes an incredible adjustment to the ball down the sideline fingertip catch over his shoulder this play the Chargers have a coverage bust in the secondary dobs is wide open down the seam but the ball’s a little bit behind him there’s a chance Michael Davis could make a play on this if dos wasn’t aggressive attacking the football he reaches back rips it out of the air when ADB has his back to the quarterback he’s reading the receiver’s body language so the moment starts to play the ball he’s going to reach up and try to rake it out dobs does a great job of securing the catch and then immediately pulling it away into his frame shielding the corner from the ball this play against the Broncos he wins the jump ball over pater tan they both get hands on it but dobs comes out of the pile with control and then he can just post somebody up in the back corner of the end zone and come down with a goal line fade great job here against Chicago to get the touchdown on Tyreek Stevenson and then this rep against the Saints really good adjustment to the back shoulder fade so I was honestly sleeping on Romeo dobs before I started making this video but I’m now a Believer I think there’s still some room for improvement as a separator but after watching his last year of college and his rookie year in the NFL he was a fine receiver but I never really saw much of a dynamic route running skill set 2023 he took a major step forward and I’m very optimistic that he can take a similar jump and be talked about somewhere in the DK meta to T Higgins tier of receiver which I know is a hot take and when you look at the Packers receiver room as a whole they have a really well balanced blend of skill sets dos is the x that can beat press win at the catch point and eventually run the entire route tree at a high level I think Wix is kind of the doit all Z but he can play every position and honestly he’s so green and inexperienced in terms of usage and development I don’t even want to put him in a box Matt LeFleur comparing him to Devonte Adams is definitely bold and I probably wouldn’t make that comp but he wasn’t just purely blowing smoke I think the tape speaks for itself and there’s a ton of upside Jaden Reed is the well-rounded slot efficient route Runner good deep threat productive with the ball in his hands if he can recapture some of that strength at the catch point he showed in college he could become one of the better slot receivers in the NFL and then with Christian Watson you’re playing with house money whenever he’s healthy he’s a high volatility big play deep threat if he can figure out the hamstring and be on the field consistently that’s great as your third or fourth option but there’s still upside that he can develop as a route Runner and actually be a complete receiver that runs a more diverse route tree he has decent change of Direction skills for his size he just got to improve his footwork and technique you tack on Bo Melton samori turay Malik Heath who have all shown flashes at certain points I’ve never seen a team be set up for the future like the Packers are wide receiver where they have one of the deepest rooms in the NFL but everyone on the roster is in their first or second year and Brian gudun deserves a ton of credit he took a lot of valid criticism for neglecting or failing to address this position during Aaron Rogers Prime but he isn’t making the same mistake with Jordan love [Music] [Music]

In this video, I take a deep dive into the Green Bay Packers WR room, which I think is the best group of young wide receivers in the NFL. The room features Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, and Dontayvion Wicks, who are an incredibly talented bunch.

*The Green Bay Packers Have An Embarrassment Of Riches At WR*

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00:00 – Intro
01:35 – Christian Watson
03:56 – Jayden Reed
10:10 – Dontayvion Wicks
17:34 – Romeo Doubs

*All film used is courtesy of NFL+ and the All-22 broadcasts associated with that service and subscription. No copyright is intended.*