GREEN BAY — Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks weren’t even close to being born when Bobby McFerrin’s iconic “Don’t Worry Be Happy” topped the Billboard charts in September 1988.  

But the two wide receivers might as well have been whistling the catchy tune throughout the Green Bay Packers’ locker room on Tuesday when it was suggested to them that the offense is running out of time for getting on the same page before the regular season starts.

After all, only one training-camp practice remains (Thursday’s joint practice with the Seattle Seahawks at Ray Nitschke Field) and after Saturday’s preseason finale between the teams, the Sept. 7 regular-season opener against the reigning NFC North-champion Detroit Lions will be two weeks away.

And their star quarterback, Jordan Love, is a week removed from surgery on his left (non-throwing) hand to repair a torn ligament in his thumb — limiting him to 7-on-7 periods and rendering him unable to take center-quarterback exchanges.

“Running out of time?” Wicks said, scrunching up his nose at the question. “I feel like we’ve got a lot of time. We’ve got a lot of time.”

Wicks is certainly entitled to his opinion, but lot of time has passed, too, since the Packers’ top wide receivers and quarterback Jordan Love have been on the field together.

Wicks has missed three weeks of practice with a calf injury, and he wasn’t participating in the team’s 17th practice of training camp on Tuesday, either.

He will have missed all three preseason games and while he has done some side work while wearing his helmet this week, he hasn’t been on the field for a full practice since dropping out on July 29.

Reed, meanwhile, is out of the walking boot he was wearing on the sideline of the preseason opener against the New York Jets on Aug. 9, but he still isn’t practicing and hasn’t been reduced to being a spectator ever since.

On top of that, Christian Watson will spend all of training camp on the physically unable to perform list as he recovers from offseason surgery to repair the torn ACL in his right knee he suffered in the Jan. 5 regular-season finale and will start the year on the PUP list, meaning he’ll miss at least the first four games.

And rookie third-round pick Savion Williams, whose offseason work was significantly curtailed because he underwent shoulder surgery at the end of his final college season at TCU, has missed most of camp with a concussion and a hamstring injury.

No wonder head coach Matt LaFleur acknowledged that it’s a “great question” last week when someone wondered aloud how his offense could achieve synchronicity with all the time the principal players are missing.

The only two top-tier wide receivers who’ve managed to stay healthy for the majority of training camp are rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden, and fourth-year man Romeo Doubs, who missed practice time with a back injury he suffered last week but returned to action on Monday.

Asked Tuesday if the most experienced wideouts’ time on the sideline forced Golden to accelerate his maturation process, LaFleur replied, “I wouldn’t say necessarily because of that. Has he gotten more reps? Possibly. But I think he would have gotten a lot of reps regardless.

“A lot of guys are getting more reps than maybe you’d usually get if you had everybody available. I think the more reps you get, the better you get, the more you get to showcase what you can do, and get ingrained into the offense.”

The argument both Wicks and Reed made in separate conversations Tuesday was that they are already ingrained in the offense and have built up so much connectivity and chemistry with their quarterback that they won’t have trouble picking up where they left off once they do return to action.

“Chemistry is always important, I think. That’s just this game, man. But you’ve got to be able to adapt and change to whatever’s going on,” Reed said. “I just am big on living in the moment, man. And then when the time is the time, that’s when you get back to doing what you were doing. I do think we have a lot of chemistry together. I feel like we’ve had more time together than we’ve had away from each other.”

Added Wicks: “We’re together a lot. We’ve been together for three offseasons. So there’s chemistry there. When we get back, we’ll get it right.

“We know ‘10,’ ‘10’ knows us. So I wouldn’t say missing this time affects it. It’s going to take a little time to get back in football cardio, football shape, but I would say that’s the only thing that’s really a factor.

“I wouldn’t say our chemistry is a big concern. We put a lot of work in together, we know each other. He knows us well, what type of players we are, what routes we run and how we run them. So I feel like chemistry, it’s there.”

Wicks said he is simply taking his return to action “day-to-day,” and that “whenever I feel at my best,” he’ll be back out there. Reed, meanwhile, insisted that he’d be playing in Saturday’s game if it was a regular-season matchup.

He still has soreness in his left foot, he said, and admitted it could be an issue for him all season, even with the rest it has gotten over the last two weeks.

“I’m just trying to get back to where I was. Obviously, I’ve still got a little soreness going, so I’m just trying to get used to the feeling [and] just trying to work my way back to it,” Wicks said.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to live the reality of it. I hope it goes away, but ain’t nothing promised.”

Yep, nothing to worry about. Right?

“I’m just following the protocol. Me, if I had the choice, I would go out there tomorrow,” Reed insisted. “I don’t feel great, but I would do it. But I also have to protect myself to be at the best I can be for Week 1.”

​COPYRIGHT 2025 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.