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And if he is, is that a good thing?
A week ago, Adam Schefter reported the Packers had met with Jayden Reed following their decision to select Matthew Golden in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. According to Schefter, the Packers assured Reed that he would remain a key part of their offense, and that choosing Golden “will not affect Reed’s status as its top receiver.”
It’s easy to see why Reed might be worried. Golden, by and large, appears a virtual clone of Reed. It’s easy to see how Reed might wonder how they could coexist, especially considering that the Packers are pretty inflexible with how they use him. There’s only so much redundancy an offense can sustain, and as our Justis Mosqueda pointed out last week, Reed’s role in the Packers’ offense is already fairly limited from a personnel perspective. Any threat to his snaps could be pretty serious.
But there’s even more to it than that. It’s all well and good to say that Reed is the Packers’ top receiver, but he actually needs to play like one for it to be true.
Reed’s stats are impressive in aggregate and disappointing on further inspection. First, the good. At his best, Reed can certainly be an explosive, dynamic receiver. He showed that in Week 1 of the 2024 season, stuffing the stat sheet with 138 yards and a score on four catches, scoring an additional touchdown on a 33-yard run. He also posted a 139-yard game in the Packers’ first matchup with the Vikings and added 113 yards in the Packers’ first appearance against the Lions.
The Lions game begins to hint at bit of a problem with Reed’s stats, though. He’s a little bit of a boom or bust player, and some of his numbers reflect that. In the Lions’ game, a good chunk of Reed’s impressive yardage total came on essentially meaningless plays. He gained 41 yards on the last play of the first half, hauling in a deep heave from Jordan Love while surrounded by multiple Lions well short of the goalline. An impressive play, to be sure, but not one that actually helped the Packers at all. The same goes for a 28-yard catch in the fourth quarter. To be sure, Reed’s catch did keep the Packers technically alive (it came on a fourth down play), but the game was well in hand by that point. The Packers didn’t score on that drive, anyway, and only made it a respectable 24-14 by scoring with a little less than four minutes to go.
If we’re calling Reed a “boom or bust” player, the second half of the season was a lot more bust than boom. After Week 9 against the Lions, Reed wouldn’t break 100 yards again — and he topped 50 just once more, with 76 yards in a blowout win over the Saints. And the second time the Packers played the Lions? Reed was shut out. He was targeted with just...
