Packers face a good problem that still requires Matt LaFleur to get creative as new signs point to intriguing options ahead
Once again, Packers’ desire to spread the ball around will be a big topic ahead of the Bears game.
Look back at the past three games, and each had a leading receiver for the Green Bay Packers — Romeo Doubs against the New York Giants, Christian Watson against the Minnesota Vikings, Dontayvion Wicks against the Detroit Lions. Now, early signs are pointing towards rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden returning to the lineup to play the Chicago Bears, and there’s a realistic chance for Jayden Reed to be activated from injured reserve.
A good problem to share targets
With so many viable receivers producing at a good level, the Packers are back to that same old story about the WR1. They don’t have one, don’t need one at this exact moment, and head coach Matt LaFleur is happy to create variance and matchup-specific advantages.
“It could go a lot of different ways in regards to how these guys are feeling or how they’re performing,” Matt LaFleur said. “But when you have a ton of guys in that room that you have a lot of confidence in, you’d rather have that than not have just enough guys to go out there and get the job done. So I think it can be a challenge, obviously, to try to feed everybody and get them the touches that they deserve, but I do think there’s an unknown for the defense when you’re not quite sure who’s going to be the heavy-share target guy. So we’ll have to do a good job of managing that as an offensive staff.”
Before his injury, tight end Tucker Kraft was clearly the most consistent part of that engine. But without him, each game could be completely different. This is awful if you have Packers weapons on your Fantasy team, but guess what, LaFleur doesn’t care about it.
So far this season, Romeo Doubs leads the Packers in receiving yards (542), and Kraft is still second in yards (489) and first in touchdowns (6). With only six games, though, Christian Watson is already third (363). In terms of efficiency, Jayden Reed is the top guy in yards per route run (3.21), followed by Kraft (2.33) and Christian Watson (2.24)
Matt LaFleur has to be creative and adaptive. Each game will present different challenges based on how the opposing defense operates, and those challenges will dictate where Jordan Love goes with the football — and which target will have more opportunities to put up big numbers.
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