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The Green Bay Packers seem to have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the wide receiver position in 2024. Sporting one of the youngest position groups of any position across the league, the Packers have drafted and developed extremely well to make their receivers a five or even six-person deep group that will strike fear into opposing defenses trying to cover and account for them all.
Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, and Romeo Doubs are the consensus top-three receivers on the Packers, and all are supremely talented and offer varied skills to the receivers' room. For real-life NFL football, it's a fantastic situation to be in. For fantasy purposes, this makes trying to figure out which player to draft even more confusing in this ambiguous group.
Let's take a look at these top three wide receivers for the Packers and provide their fantasy football outlooks heading into the 2024 NFL season.
Be sure to check all of our fantasy football rankings for 2024:- Quarterback fantasy football rankings
- Running back fantasy football rankings
- Wide receiver fantasy football rankings
- Tight end fantasy football rankings
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Jayden Reed 2024 Fantasy Football Outlook
As a second-round pick out of Michigan State in the 2023 NFL Draft, Reed was tabbed to be an instant contributor with the Packers from the jump. I don't think people realized just how productive and efficient Reed would be right away.
Reed's 2.05 yards per route run led the Packers last season as the primary slot man, earning snaps at a 75.7% rate. Reed never really had a consistent, full-time 80%+ route share in his rookie season, but he made his target count, averaging the third-highest fantasy points per target (2.41) among wide receivers with 75 or more targets.
Getting Reed on the field seems to be a priority for the Packers and manufacturing touches for him in the rushing game is a focus as well, as Reed had 11 carries last season with two rushing touchdowns. Everybody wants to talk about the "Deebo role" with Reed, but while Samuel is a maniac with yards after the catch, Reed is much more versatile and can do it all for the Packers.
#Packers OC Adam Stenavich on the next step for Jayden Reed:
“It’s just a matter of how many times can we get the ball in his hands.” pic.twitter.com/GZYb52mzxb
— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) July 30, 2024
The sky is the limit for Reed and the Packers, but the one concern is that he only played out wide on 23.3% of snaps, which limits his on-field usage. With Doubs and Watson on the outside, somebody has to come off the field when the formation condenses down to two wide receivers. More often than not, Reed will be coming off the field.
At his current fourth-round ADP, many have looked at Reed's inability to play out wide and coming off the field as a detriment. With a player so efficient as Reed is, you know he's going to be a focal point for the Packers' offense each week, so with the touches he does get, Reed will make them count. He's a fine upside pick in the fourth round or later in every fantasy format.
Christian Watson 2024 Fantasy Football Outlook
Watson's 2023 was bookended by injury, namely, his nagging lower leg injuries that kept him out for the first three weeks of 2023 and then knocked out Week 14 through the end of the season. It took him a little bit to find his footing but when Watson did, he put up two straight games of 20+ fantasy points in Weeks 12 and 13 before his nagging hamstring crept back up, ending his regular season.
The offseason reports on Watson's hamstrings have been pretty positive, as he saw a specialist who found a strength imbalance between his right hamstring and left by 20%. The right hamstring is the one he's had injury issues with, so Watson has worked to narrow that gap considerably, which should hopefully keep him on the field.
One of the most polarizing players in the NFL, Christian Watson has been dealing with recurrent hamstring injuries for the past several years.
Here's his @InjuryExpertz Injury Profile
I am releasing 1 player profile a day for all of August. Please see my profile for the 1st 5. pic.twitter.com/kYL8dNmEzs
— Jesse Morse, MD (@DrJesseMorse) August 6, 2024
Watson is the likeliest deep threat of all of these Packers' receivers, sporting an aDOT (average depth of target) of 16.7 yards last season in his nine games. Earning a high volume of targets at a high aDOT is very hard to do, so as far as target-earning capabilities, that's likely not in the cards for 2024. In terms of splash plays and touchdown equity, Watson has that in spades.
Drafted in the sixth round and sometimes into the seventh and later, Watson can pay off his ADP and then some as long as he stays on the field in a Packers' offense that's primed to score a ton of points this season.
Romeo Doubs 2024 Fantasy Football Outlook
Doubs was solidly productive last season, scoring eight touchdowns and putting up a 59-674 line on 93 targets. Efficiency-wise, Doubs was the low man on the totem pole, with a below-average yards per route run (1.32) profile and below-average targets per route run (18.3%), illustrating his lack of efficiency and ability to earn targets consistently. Doubs' fantasy value was propped up by his touchdowns.
The thing that props up Doubs' opinion is his playoff run, where Doubs went off for 6-151-1 and 4-83 in the Packers' two playoff games against the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers. The team is also talking up Doubs in a major way throughout training camp, so he has the benefit of some buzz and momentum. That is all talk. Doubs needs to show it on the field.
I'm not sure why people think Romeo Doubs is so insulated within the Packers' offense in '24.
Better players earn their way onto the field. Doubs' profile is littered with inefficiency & was propped up by TDs in 2023.
Could Dontayvion Wicks usurp Doubs' role this season?
— Kevin Tompkins (@ktompkinsii) August 18, 2024
Doubs is the most likely to lead the team in routes, but he is also live to lose his role as the chief route runner in this offense. His profile is the most fragile of all of the Packers' wide receivers, so while he's tabbed as the starter now, his situation could change during the season.
Because of the weaker efficiency profile and the insulated roles of the other Packers' WR, including a better one behind him in Dontayvion Wicks, I'm avoiding Doubs at his mid-round ADP and letting somebody else take the plunge.
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