It’s been an amazing first two weeks for the Green Bay Packers. They’ve had two dominant performances against two of the top NFC contenders coming into the season, and it still feels like there’s a lot of room to improve.
However, injuries have been a common theme with the offense. Christian Watson started the season on IR, still recovering from a torn ACL last December. Jayden Reed suffered a Jones fracture in his foot during training camp and continued to play through it.
Green Bay also lost two starting offensive linemen in Week 1 against the Detroit Lions: Zach Tom to an oblique injury and Aaron Banks to ankle/groin injuries. However, both have returned to practice on a limited basis after missing the Week 2 game against the Washington Commanders last Thursday.
Reed’s collarbone is now the latest addition to the list of offensive injuries. After entering the season looking healthy despite the foot injury, Reed came down hard on his side and needed to be helped off the field on a play where he made an impressive catch on a beautiful throw. He was reported to have suffered a fractured collarbone. To add insult to a literal injury, it was all for naught, as a holding penalty erased the play.
Despite the number of injuries Green Bay has suffered, this is the first one that will cause a major contributor to miss significant time (outside of Watson’s injury, which has carried into this season).
Because of the timing of this injury, Reed elected to get surgery on his collarbone and his foot. He chose to play through the Jones fracture earlier in the season instead of having surgery that would knock him out for the first half of the season, because it was just a matter of pain management.
However, now that he must get surgery to fix the broken collarbone, he decided also to get foot surgery, as they both have similar recovery timelines of about eight weeks.
Reed’s injury removes an explosive element from the offense. Still, it won’t take their focus off the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl, and it didn’t keep Reed from also being focused on that goal.
In the interim, the offense is going to look a little different. Players will have to play in different roles and assume larger roles, and that starts with Matthew Golden.
If you’ve been paying close attention to the Packers, you know Golden’s lack of production is hardly on him. If you watched the game last Thursday, you saw the two deep shots where Jordan Love just missed Golden. Love took the blame for those two.
However, outside of those two, he wasn’t targeted. Still, he was getting open consistently throughout the entire game. He was just rarely the first read, or pressure sped up Love’s process, forcing him to checkdown just as Golden won his route. With a larger role likely coming, I expect Golden’s production to start matching what we’re seeing on tape: a guy who’s always open.
Before the Reed injury, there were almost more players than snaps available in this wide receiver room. Before it was Doubs as the X, Golden as the Z, and Reed as the slot, with Wicks stealing snaps from players you wouldn’t necessarily want taken from them. Still, Wicks also deserves and needs snaps. It was a weird spot.
Doubs, Golden, and Wicks have solidified themselves as the top three, at least until Watson is back. Wicks will also have a set role in the offense, so we need the strong (handed) start to continue.
Wicks didn’t have a huge game or do anything special last week, but he led the receivers in targets (six), catches (four), and yards (44). Those numbers won’t jump off the page, but the real encouraging thing is that Wicks has caught the ball and looked confident doing it throughout the first two games. He even recovered an onside kick. That’s going to need to continue to keep this offense going.
Outside of the offense, Reed’s injury will also have some ramifications on special teams. Green Bay’s punt return unit didn’t seem to have a designated punt returner. However, Reed was one of the returners.
In Week 1, Reed returned two punts and Golden returned one. In Week 2, Keisean Nixon returned two, and Golden returned one more. With Reed out, he is no longer an option. Between Nixon’s play on defense and Golden’s likely increased role on offense, I don’t think either is worth risking putting back there. That leads me to believe that Mecole Hardman will receive the call-up from the practice squad and possibly even earn a roster spot in the coming weeks.
Hardman can take over punt return duties and give you some slot snaps on offense if needed.
Reed’s injury is not going to help the team in the short term. However, Green Bay has the guys to overcome it. In the long run, it gave Reed reason to get the foot fixed and be ready for the stretch run rather than playing through it. Plus, it’ll provide guys like Matthew Golden more reps to build that chemistry with Jordan Love and Wicks’ reps catching the ball, which is much needed.
