GREEN BAY — Jayden Reed was back on the practice field on Wednesday. Just how often the Green Bay Packers wide receiver will be able to do that in the coming weeks while nursing a significant left foot injury remains to be seen.
“I mean, I’m working through it,” Reed said after practice. “I didn’t feel 100% today, but it felt great to be out there, I’ll tell you that.”
Reed did not want to discuss the specifics of his foot injury, but a league source said Wednesday evening that Reed has a Jones fracture — a break in his fifth metatarsal, the bone that joins the pinkie toe to the base of the foot.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Jones fractures occur when sudden force is placed on the outside of the foot with the foot twisted away from the body. Jones fractures are one of the most common types of foot fractures and are especially common in athletes, dancers and people with jobs that require them to be on their feet a lot.
Reed would potentially have been lost for the season had he suffered the dreaded Lisfranc fracture, where there is a break or dislocation on the top of the foot where the metatarsal bones connect to the rest of the foot.
A Jones fracture can require surgery and most who suffer the injury require a few months to recover.
Reed has no interest in such a timeline. The Packers open regular-season play on Sept. 7 against the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field, and he intends to be in the lineup.
Asked what he can do for his injury, Reed replied, “Just rest, man. What I’ve got going on, there’s not much I can do. But I’m going to manage it and get rest and treat it.”
Told that the injury doesn’t sound like the kind of injury he should play through, Reed smiled and said, “Hey, man. That’s what comes with it sometimes.”
Reed’s injury first came to light publicly when he was on the Packers’ sideline for the team’s Aug. 9 preseason opener against the New York Jets at Lambeau Field wearing an orthopedic boot on his left foot. He’d sat out the team’s Aug. 7 practice with the injury but the severity of it was never disclosed.
His return to practice Wednesday meant he had nearly three weeks of rest for his foot. While that time off was helpful, it clearly didn’t resolve the issue.
Reed had dealt with a toe injury earlier in camp on his right foot, and told reporters after the Jets game that his left foot injury was unrelated to that issue. Asked how it happened, Reed’s explanation sounded like the medical textbook definition of a Jones fracture.
“I just cut wrong off my foot and [it’s] just a little sore,” Reed said that night.
He declined to discuss the details of the injury that night as well.
Asked before Wednesday’s practice if Reed would be able to work without any restrictions, head coach Matt LaFleur replied, “I hope so.”
Reed led the team in receptions and yardage each of his first two NFL seasons, catching 64 passes for 793 yards and eight touchdowns as a rookie second-round pick in 2023 and 55 passes for 857 yards and six TDs last year.
Despite a myriad of injuries, Reed has played in 36 of a possible 37 games (including playoffs) during his first two seasons. He suffered a significant shoulder injury in the Packers’ season-ending NFC wild card playoff loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in January that required four months to heal — but insisted he would have played the next week had the Packers won and advanced to the divisional round.
Last week, both Reed and fellow third-year receiver Dontayvion Wicks, who missed more than three weeks with a calf injury, downplayed the idea that the time they and quarterback Jordan Love missed with injuries would make it hard for the Packers offense to hit the ground running early in the season.
But on Wednesday, at least, Reed was just happy to be back out on the Clarke Hinkle Field grass — even with some limitations — after so much time as a spectator.
“Anytime I’m out there, it’s a joy. So just to be back out there with my guys, it felt great,” Reed said. “Obviously, I didn’t do the whole practice. I’m still working through some things.
“[But} I’m just trusting the process, following the protocol and trying to be the best I can be with where I’m at.”
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