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To make room for the addition of receiver Jayden Reed from the injured reserve, the Green Bay Packers waived receiver Malik Heath, who had been with the team for three years, last week. The Packers likely wanted Heath to return to the team on the practice squad, considering his experience with the squad, but that plan failed when the Atlanta Falcons claimed Heath on Monday.
Without Heath, the Packers have six or seven receivers on the 53-man roster, depending on what you want to do with Bo Melton. Beyond Melton, they are Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Matthew Golden and Savion Williams. Williams, notably, has missed back-to-back games while both Wicks and Golden were on pitch counts last week as they pushed through nagging injuries.
Melton was a receiver for the first three seasons of his NFL career, but converted to cornerback this offseason. While he’s listed as a cornerback on the Packers’ roster, Melton hasn’t played a single snap of defense during the regular season, even though he has had spurts where he’s played significant time on offense in 2025.
On the practice squad, Green Bay also has three receivers on the team: Will Sheppard, Isaiah Neyor and Jakobie Keeney-James. Sheppard was actually called up to the 53-man roster for the team’s Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions, but the receiver/returner didn’t play a single snap on offense or special teams and reverted back to the practice squad last week after passing through waivers unclaimed.
In three seasons with the Packers, Heath has played 37 games, recording 31 receptions for 308 yards and three touchdowns. He’s best known for doing dirty work as a blocker, rather than his contributions as a pass-catcher. Beyond offense, he’s also played 156 snaps of special teams as a non-returner, though his special teams snaps played dropped to just 9 percent of the overall in 2025 compared to 22 percent in 2023 and 17 percent in 2024. As a reminder, special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia rarely plays receivers as non-returners, often electing to use defensive backs when possible, so Heath was one of Green Bay’s rare special teams-playing receivers over this era.
