Acme Packing Company
The Packers are doing a lot of work on receivers this year.
The Packers haven’t drafted a wide receiver in the first round since 2002.
You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. It’s a meme at this point. A punchline, to some. “Look at the Packers, they don’t take wide receivers early!” Even if the Packers have largely found pretty decent success taking receivers outside the first round, the talking point masquerading as criticism is still there.
I don’t know if that streak will change this year, but I think we can all but guarantee the Packers will take a wide receiver. The Packers don’t do much to tip their hand prior to the draft, but the few bits of public information we have point toward a wide receiver — perhaps more than one — coming to Green Bay next weekend.
I’ve been compiling data this spring on the Packers’ pre-draft visits to see if we can identify any trends in their approach to the draft and pre-draft visits. There is a lot to unpack (you can look at my full spreadsheet here — I’ll explain more about it in a future post), but one of the clearest trends is how the Packers handle wide receiver pre-draft visits. Since 2015, every time the Packers have had at least five wide receivers in for a visit prior to the draft, they’ve selected at least one.
In 2016, they had predraft visits with five wide receivers and selected one, adding Trevor Davis in the sixth round. In 2017, they visited with eight and selected two: DeAngelo Yancey and Malachi Dupre. In 2018, they brought five in for visits and ultimately drafted three: J’Mon Moore, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Equanimeous St. Brown. In 2022, they held pre-draft visits with seven wide receivers and drafted three: Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure. And, finally, in 2023, the Packers visited with five wide receivers, again drafting three: Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, and Grant DuBose.
Frequently, but not always, the receivers the Packers draft come from their pool of visits. Yancey, Moore, Valdes-Scantling, Watson, Doubs, Toure, and Wicks all were among the Packers’ pre-draft visits, but Jayden Reed, notably, was not. But it seems fair to assume that when we see pronounced signs of the Packers doing their due diligence on the wide receiver class, a receiver will be among their selections in that year’s class.
And if that’s true, it’s almost a sure thing that the Packers will take one this year. So far, the Packers have invited six wide receivers to Green Bay for a pre-draft visit, including Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, the consensus top receiver in the class, and Colorado State’s Tory Horton, a tantalizing height/weight/speed prospect who seems like a good match for what Matt LaFleur wants from his receivers.
Again, it’s not a given that someone from this list lands in Green Bay. Iowa State’s Jayden Higgins, for instance, seems like a great match for what the Packers typically like...
