A lot of teams will carry only five wide receivers on their active roster, and if things don\u2019t pick up on the back end of the Green Bay Packers\u2019 depth chart, they could do the same.<\/p>\n
Among the many mishaps and errors on Saturday night against the New York Jets, there emerged a valid question:<\/p>\n
Does anyone want the WR6 spot?<\/p>\n
Romeo Doubs<\/a>, Jayden Reed<\/a>, Dontayvion Wicks<\/a>, Matthew Golden<\/a>, and Savion Williams<\/a> aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n The Packers have five wide receiver spots filled, and it will become six once Christian Watson<\/a> returns<\/a> during the season. For now, Mecole Hardman<\/a> or Malik Heath<\/a> will likely fill that spot.<\/p>\n The former had a nightmarish<\/a> showing on special teams, while the latter had a case of the drops.<\/p>\n Hardman\u2019s best bet to make the roster is probably by showing some semblance of stability at punt return. It\u2019s something that\u2019s been lacking in Green Bay for a few years. Receiving a punt at your own five-yard line only to be immediately pummeled, followed by muffing your next shot with the opposition recovering at your nine-yard line, isn\u2019t exactly a ringing endorsement.<\/p>\n A drop on offense early on was just the beginning of what was a night to forget for Hardman.<\/p>\n Per Matt LaFleur:<\/p>\n It seems like a pretty routine play that happens more often than not where you can scoop that punt up. I was disappointed with that but also, we can\u2019t field a punt on the five-yard line. So those were obviously two bad decisions.<\/p>\n Heath didn\u2019t have a much better evening.<\/p>\n On Green Bay\u2019s second possession, Heath was a checkdown option for Jordan Love<\/a> in the flats. After scanning other options, Love targeted Heath on as routine a pitch-and-catch as you can get in an NFL game. Heath was wide open, and he dropped it. Luckily, Matthew Golden would go on to make a nice catch on a quick-hit slant on the next play on third down to move the sticks.<\/p>\n Later, when Malik Willis<\/a> was under center, Heath was working across the field on a crossing route. Willis put the ball right where it needed to be despite tight coverage, but Heath couldn\u2019t corral it. While it was a contested play, the ball hit Heath in the hands.<\/p>\n It begs the question of what Green Bay could do at wide receiver if the mistakes continue.<\/p>\n A lot of this could hinge on Jayden Reed<\/a>\u2018s health and availability.<\/p>\n After reporters saw him in a boot on Saturday night, LaFleur and Reed were unsure<\/a> if Reed would be ready for Week 1 against the Detroit Lions. Maybe some of that is gamesmanship, but their statements sounded more cryptic than strategic.<\/p>\n Suppose Reed misses the start of the season. Then, it\u2019s almost certain that either Hardman or Heath would make the squad as the fifth option, for the time being. Despite the multiple errors against New York, Hardman\u2019s versatility and apparent ability to be the punt returner should give him an edge. That is, unless he keeps having the yips and remains indecisive in the return game.<\/p>\n If Reed is good to go at the start of the season, is it crazy to think that the Packers could roll with only five wideouts on the final roster?<\/p>\n Should they go through with that plan, there would be a void at punt returner. There are players like Reed and cornerback Keisean Nixon<\/a> who have experience returning punts. Still, having Hardman fill that spot is the path of least resistance.<\/p>\n He\u2019ll have to be noticeably better than he was on Saturday to reassure LaFleur, special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia, and the rest of the staff.\u00a0Keeping it simple by not receiving a punt inside your own five-yard line would be a nice start.<\/p>\n Neither Hardman, Heath, nor any of the other wide receivers has stood out enough to warrant a claim to the No. 6 wide receiver spot. Behind Hardman and Heath are options like Julian Hicks<\/a>, Cornelius Johnson<\/a>, Will Sheppard<\/a>, and Isaiah Neyor<\/a>. If there\u2019s one thing that group has going for them that Hardman and Heath don\u2019t, it\u2019s that nobody in that group had multiple, noticeable, fairly egregious errors on Saturday.<\/p>\n What Hardman and Heath have going for them is a longer leash with proven NFL experience. One of them will need to do something to remind the coaching staff of that. If it doesn\u2019t get better and nobody wants to claim the No. 6 spot at wide receiver, maybe Green Bay starts the year by running with five on the active roster. It seems far-fetched for now, but it could become plausible if the struggles continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of teams will carry only five wide receivers on their active roster, and if things don\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,7330,451,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-287001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-malik-heath","14":"tag-mecole-hardman","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115026253877635234","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287001","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=287001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}