There may be no position that is more enticing to watch during the Green Bay Packers\u2019 training camp than wide receiver. It\u2019s the whole spectrum: There\u2019s quantity and there\u2019s quality. There are rookies and players entering the final year of their contracts.<\/p>\n
As expected, Christian Watson<\/a>\u00a0will start<\/a> camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list. After suffering a torn ACL in Week 18 against the Chicago Bears in January, it\u2019s widely expected that Green Bay\u2019s vertical threat will miss a substantial part of this season. On the more hopeful side, videos surfaced during minicamp and throughout the offseason programs of Watson running around, although he was not officially participating due to his injury.<\/p>\n Even though we know Watson will miss time to start 2025, will he log any official practice time during training camp? It would lead to the idea that he\u2019s ahead of schedule, even though the Packers won\u2019t rush him back. It\u2019s one thing to keep an eye on over the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n New toys Matthew Golden<\/a> and Savion Williams<\/a> will attract plenty of attention from fans during training camp. For Golden, the question will be whether or not a lot of his work comes with the first team. Do the Packers roll with a combination of Romeo Doubs<\/a>, Jayden Reed<\/a>, and Dontayvion Wicks<\/a> to handle most of the first-team reps, or could Golden get an extended look there?\u00a0Worrying about snap totals in training camp is a bit extreme, but it will be worth monitoring.<\/p>\n The Packers have a lot of mouths to feed in this offense already, but they took Golden in the first round for a reason. He\u2019ll have an opportunity early in camp to prove his worth.<\/p>\n For Williams, it\u2019s more of how many different spots the Packers line him up at in camp instead of when he\u2019s out there and who he\u2019s out there with. Williams demonstrated his versatility in his final year at TCU.<\/p>\n Will the Packers experiment with lining Williams up in the backfield or next to the quarterback in the shotgun? Will they stretch it out further and flirt with the idea of a \u201cFrog Package\u201d that Williams was more than comfortable handling in college? Achieving success from such a package will be more challenging in the NFL, but it\u2019s a possibility.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Mecole Hardman<\/a> will be a fascinating name to follow. The veteran played in 12 games for the Kansas City Chiefs but was barely involved in the offense. Hardman logged just 14% of the snaps for the Chiefs in 2024 and had 14 total targets.<\/p>\n Will Hardman line up in camp as the starting punt returner for the Packers. If so, is that his best way to scratch out a 53-man roster spot? His speed bodes well for his chances, considering Watson will be on the shelf for a bit. Still, there are a lot of names in the mix at wide receiver.<\/p>\n Doubs is probably Jordan Love<\/a>\u2018s most reliable target as camp begins, but he\u2019s in a contract year and dealt with multiple concussions in 2024. On top of that, the floor is high in Doubs\u2019 game, but are there more layers in his development that he can get to another level?<\/p>\n Any idea of him being a bona fide No. 1 option is a stretch, but he could be a valuable puzzle piece.<\/p>\n Reed and Wicks have two years left on their rookie contracts, and after both finished in the top five in drops a season ago, can they and have they put that behind them? Wicks\u2019 issues with drops date back to his college days at the University of Virginia. It wasn\u2019t a glaring weakness for Reed coming out of Michigan State, but it occasionally hindered him in 2024.<\/p>\n It feels odd to say this because the trio of Doubs, Reed, and Wicks are all 24 or 25 years old. Still, they will be trusted to help the rookies get comfortable in Matt LaFleur\u2019s scheme.<\/p>\n Finally, the overarching theme for the wide receiver group in training camp will all come down to the numbers game. How many WRs will the Packers keep, and what names will be left off the list? Doubs, Reed, Wicks, Golden, and Williams are locks. If you think otherwise, I\u2019d suggest you stop sipping from grandpa\u2019s old cough medicine.<\/p>\n That\u2019s five right off the bat. Some teams will have five players on the final roster, while others will have six. Could Green Bay keep seven?<\/p>\n After those five, Hardman, Malik Heath<\/a>, and Bo Melton<\/a> will all look to earn their keep.<\/p>\n Melton has even experimented at cornerback this offseason, in addition to his duties on special teams and at wide receiver. Green Bay loves players who can do multiple things, and Melton is expressing just that.\u00a0However,\u00a0keeping all three isn\u2019t realistic, and keeping two might not be feasible\u00a0either.<\/p>\n And we can\u2019t forget about Watson, who will return at some point and will also be a lock.<\/p>\n There\u2019s comfort in knowing Green Bay addressed the wide receiver spot in the draft with premium picks and brings back a lot of familiar faces. The hope would be they grow alongside Love and help elevate the offense to a new level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There may be no position that is more enticing to watch during the Green Bay Packers\u2019 training camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[1501,3992,7,41,345,2514,2513,763,701,451,6,428,3995,904],"class_list":{"0":"post-235837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-christian-watson","9":"tag-dontayvion-wicks","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-green-bay","12":"tag-green-bay-packers","13":"tag-greenbay","14":"tag-greenbaypackers","15":"tag-jayden-reed","16":"tag-matthew-golden","17":"tag-mecole-hardman","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-packers","20":"tag-romeo-doubs","21":"tag-savion-williams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114915713239750882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}