This week’s Green Bay Packers depth chart update will be a little longer than usual, because we’ll be covering what happened in both Week 13 and Week 14. Because of that, I’ve broken this down into offense and defense (for this week only), so stay tuned for the companion piece coming out tomorrow on defense.
The Packers offense has gone through a lot of changes in the receivers room over the past two weeks. Not only is Jayden Reed back, but Savion Williams has been missing and Malik Heath has been waived and claimed by the Atlanta Falcons. On top of that, both Dontayvion Wicks and Matthew Golden are overcoming nagging injuries.
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So let’s dig into the data from the last two wins. As always, the shots below are manually plotted and include plays with accepted post-shot penalties (such as holding), but do not include pre-shot penalties (such as false starts) or kneeling or spikes.
Cells in red mean a player missed the game entirely due to injury. Cells in yellow mean a player was unable to finish the game due to an injury (officially ruled by the team, which will be relevant in Wicks’ case this week). Black cells mean a player was healthy during that week.
Offensive personnel
The Packers are leaning more toward three-receiver sets in recent weeks. In Week 12, Green Bay only played a third of its snaps with more than two receivers on the field in its win over the Minnesota Vikings. In Week 13 against the Detroit Lions, that number jumped to 47 percent. On Sunday it jumped to 52 percent. For perspective, the season average for the team is around 56 percent.
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So while Green Bay’s immediate reaction following Tucker Kraft’s injury (which occurred in Week 9) was to play a lot more three-receiver appearances, they quickly dissolved that and are now back to a 50/50 split the last two weeks.
We’ve talked about bump sets before and I want to highlight something here because several people have talked to me about it this week. Yes, all of Jordan Love’s touchdown passes against the Chicago Bears were offsides, with all the tight ends on one side of the field and all the receivers on the other side of the field. This gives the Packers a big difference between man and zone on plays where they line up that way, because the defense has to make the decision to play both outside cornerbacks on the same side of the field (likely man coverage) or not (likely zone coverage).
That being said, the Packers didn’t really play big sets often against Chicago. It wasn’t like when the team played the Washington Commanders (who play Cover 1/Cover 3 before the snap and have one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL) or the Arizona Cardinals (who play a lot of disguised coverages that Green Bay tried to gather as much pre-snap data on before snapping).
If anything, Matt LaFleur (and company) had a good rhythm when the Bears were going to show charging fronts and took advantage of that with plays. So while Love’s three passes came from 11 sets of personnel points, the team only lined up on those looks seven times throughout the game. They made big plays off of those looks, but the team didn’t “live” in that formation on Sunday. Maybe they want to do it in the rematch against Chicago.
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Attack player
Jordan Love is your quarterback. And it’s very good.
Most books have Love floating in third place in the MVP race right now, but Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is a heavy favorite. New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye is much closer to Stafford in second place than Love.
I don’t think he’s going to win the MVP award (implied odds give him about a nine percent chance), but there’s a real chance for him to win the second-team All-Pro award this year.
running backwards
Since Josh Jacobs returned to the lineup in Week 13, Chris Brooks has outscored Emanuel Wilson 24-18 in the backfield. Keep this in mind, as former third-round pick MarShawn Lloyd has an open practice window with the team after starting the season on injured reserve.
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Recently, the Packers have essentially been using Wilson as a route runner in passing situations, something LaFleur and the rest of the offensive staff have praised as one of Lloyd’s strengths. There’s a real possibility that Wilson ends up losing his roster spot down the stretch, as it will be difficult for the team to keep four running backs on the 53-man roster, and Brooks has a much more defined role as a blocker.
Just prepare yourself for that news. Green Bay will strive to get its draft investments on the field after their rookie seasons. Lloyd is under contract for two more years, while Wilson will likely hit free agency in 2026, if he finishes the year with the Packers.
Additionally, after playing 15 snaps at fullback in the previous four weeks, tight end Josh Whyle only played one of those snaps against the Bears. The team may be phasing out its I-formation appearance.
Receiver
Well, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the catcher rotation.
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First, receiver Jayden Reed returned to the team in the Packers’ full-time role. In Week 14, the first game Reed played since breaking his collarbone in Week 2, Reed was in the slot 22 times, the highest rate in the field. For perspective, Green Bay only played three-receiver sets 27 times. In three other appearances of the 11 staff, Reed was an outside receiver.
What does this mean? Basically, Reed is on the field full-time when the team has three-receiver looks, specifically on the field as a slot. When the team is in two-receiver sets, he basically doesn’t get on the field. For the most part, this is how LaFluer has used Reed throughout his career, so little has changed there.
While he only played 25 snaps, that’s essentially a full workload of what to expect from Reed going forward, assuming the Packers will go 50/50 in three-receiver sets. I would say Reed was not in the pitch count in the Bears game.
Beyond Reed, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs continue to dominate the outside receiver plays downfield. While Matthew Golden and Dontayvion Wicks both battled injury in this game, their usage was very different.
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For example, Wicks, who LaFleur said the Packers shut down during the game, did not participate in the second half of the snaps. Meanwhile, Golden was used throughout the game, including in the fourth quarter, when the team was trying to get a lot of speed down the field at once (with some combination of Golden, Reed, Christian Watson and/or Bo Melton). So it’s hard to say to what extent Golden was truly limited by his injury, or if the team simply believes the first-round rookie is the fifth (or sixth) receiver in the pecking order right now.
This will be something I’ll monitor in the coming weeks as we get clearer data on how Golden fits in the receiver room when the other pass catchers are healthy.
tight end
Good luck making sense of the tight end room. It seems like the team mixes it up at the position every week. I will say that Luke Musgrave is often paired with offensive lineman Darian Kinnard when the team plays six linemen, which is an interesting way to go. Musgrave sometimes splits wide, but on obvious passes, the team uses Josh Whyle more on control and release plays than Musgrave.
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The team has not shown consistency as to whether Musgrave or John FitzPatrick will be their TE1 moving forward. They could decide this based on the week of practice before a game, which they have said they have done at other positions this season.
offensive line
Nothing sexy from the beginning. The Packers’ starting line over the last two weeks has been Rasheed Walker, Aaron Banks, Sean Rhyan, Anthony Belton and Zach Tom (left to right), and they have played every single snap in these games. Belton has been a little shakier at right guard in pass protection, but he hasn’t been terrible. The trade-off Green Bay gets from being able to run the ball semi-efficiently with him inside is probably worth Jordan Morgan being benched.