Just like that, the Green Bay Packers have made the biggest splash of the Brian Gutekunst era. It was audacious, out of character, and expensive, but the addition of Micah Parsons catapulted Green Bay into serious Super Bowl contention.
New team president Ed Policy starts his tenure with about as big a bang as you can drum up in this league, 33 years after his father was on the other side of a similar deal that sent Charles Haley to Dallas. An offseason after adding Josh Jacobs and Xavier McKinney, Gutekunst brings in Parsons and Matthew Golden. The young core and their proven coach now have all the firepower to make a serious run. The trade news understandably commanded everyone’s attention.
However, a story that broke earlier on Friday concerned Green Bay’s current No. 11 – Jayden Reed.
Reed has been limited by a slew of minor injuries over the course of his first two NFL seasons. He has also showcased game-breaking dynamism with the ball in his hands. The foot injury he has dealt with in camp felt like it fit into a relatively mild category, but when he was spotted in a walking boot during the preseason opener, concern began to mount.
The Packers have been adamant that they expect him to be available for Week 1, similar to their messaging about Jordan Love’s minor left thumb surgery earlier this month. However, with Reed expected to be a major offensive chess piece, vertically and laterally, losing him would be difficult to overcome.
On Friday morning, USA Today‘s Ryan Wood reported that Reed is still not running routes pain-free and that his status is uncertain for Week 1. He practiced on Wednesday for the first time since early August. A report from Jason Wilde began to circulate claiming that Reed suffered a Jones fracture and intends to play through it.
A Jones fracture is a break in the bone that joins the pinky toe to the base of the foot. It often requires surgery and a long recovery time. That would be a massive blow to an energized Packers team that just pushed all its chips into 2025.
Like clockwork, the army of “fantasy football doctors” has hit the timeline to deliver their thoughts. Jeff Mueller posted that, if the injury is indeed a Jones fracture, it must be relatively minor. He noted that Reed has been sprinting, cutting, and running routes after about three weeks of rest, compared to a six-to-eight week estimate to heal the injury.
That protracted downtime would then explain why he is still feeling pain running routes. Mueller also notes the conservative nature of the Green Bay medical staff and that it’s unlikely that they would approve something as risky as this sounds. From a fantasy football perspective, this new report is a huge red flag for Reed’s 2025 ceiling. He will enter the year in a pain tolerance situation, which may impact his snap count and usage, and likely puts him at a disproportionately high risk for a major injury.
However, from Matt LaFleur’s perspective, you just have to hope the situation settles in a way that keeps Reed available for as many games as possible. He already had a suspiciously low snap count in 2024, which can be attributed to load management for his ailments at the time, among other factors.
Reed recorded zero snaps out wide and zero snaps in two receiver sets during Family Night at Lambeau Field on August 2. That follows from what we saw in his usage last season. Golden led the team in both categories, with Romeo Doubs and Malik Heath not far behind. All indications suggest Golden will be a major factor in the offense from Day 1. Doubs will be Doubs and, at some point, Watson will be Watson.
If you’re LaFleur, you probably feel okay about outsourcing some of Reed’s mid-range routes to Dontayvion Wicks, another third-year receiver who has occasionally flashed. Reed has been extremely efficient deep down the field, winning at an absurd rate on posts specifically. He has also been a threat at the line of scrimmage in the manufactured touch game, utilizing jet sweeps, misdirection, and screen passes. He’s a big-play weapon, and that’s how he should continue to be deployed.
At this point in the offseason, it’s tough to interpret injury news as vague and concerning as what we have heard about Reed over the course of this month. Just how much the injury will affect him and what his ceiling and floor outcomes for the season might be are pieces of information we cannot pin down. It’s hard to imagine that the Packers themselves have much of an idea, either.
Still, Reed has become an instant spark and difference-maker on offense. They are going to need him at his best, whether he can reach that point now or down the stretch.
