The Green Bay Packers were a bit of a surprise last season. Not many expected them back into the playoffs immediately after Aaron Rodgers' departure from the team. But Jordan Love took the league by storm and Green Bay found themselves in the postseason again. The Packers are looking to build upon that success heading into the 2024 NFL season, but they have some training camp battles to figure out first. Most important for them would be how their wide receiver room shakes out and what happens at kicker.
Wide receiver hierarchy
The Packers have a great problem on their hands. They have a number of young and very talented wide receivers on their roster. All four of Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, Dontayvion Wicks, and Romeo Doubs have already proven their worth in the NFL. Unfortunately, it's hard to play all of them at the same time.
Reed was probably the best of the four last season. Head coach Matt LaFleur mostly used Reed in the slot and he feasted there. Nearly 67% of his snaps were from that spot according to playerprofiler.com. That led to Reed getting targeted on 24.4% of his routes and averaging 2.06 yards per route run.
Watson was equally as impressive as a rookie. He's much more of a downfield threat than Reed is, but he still averaged 2.4 yards per route run and was targeted on 25.5% of his routes. But, a hamstring issue festered all throughout the season and limited him to playing just nine games.
That opened a path to playing time for Wicks. Wicks was a fifth-round rookie from the University of Virginia who wasn't expected to play much last year. But he found a path to playing time and refused to give it up. Wicks averaged 2.07 yards per route run on a solid 281 routes as a rookie. He has legit skills as a route runner and getting yards after the catch.
Doubs was the least efficient of the four with his 1.33 yards per route run average. But, he did go for 151 yards and a touchdown in the Packers' playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys. All four of these guys can really play. How the pecking order between them looks after camp will be of utmost intrigue.
Who will be the kicker?
Last year was a great year for rookie wide receivers in Green Bay. The same did not hold true when it came to kickers. Anders Carlson, the Packers' sixth-round pick last year, had his ups and downs as a rookie in the NFL, which will lead to him having to battle to win his job again in training camp. He will be competing with Greg Joseph and James Turner for that spot.
Carlson had some very costly misses last season. He missed a field goal in games against the Denver Broncos and New York Giants that the Packers wound up losing by two points in each match. The biggest miss was in the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers on a kick that would've put the Packers up seven points. He did have bright spots, however, including a game-winning kick against the Carolina Panthers.
Carlson converted on only 81.8% of his field goals last season. That's not good enough. Joseph, his main competition, has made just 80% of his field goals for his career. He's coming off two seasons in Minnesota where his field goal conversion percentage was 78.8% and 80%. Carlson should be able to beat him out.
Turner could be the wild card here. He made just 81.3% of his kicks in college at Michigan and Louisville, but was above 85% in three of his four collegiate seasons. There's a non-zero percent chance that he emerges victorious from this group.
Most kickers in the NFL have to win their spot in training camp. That will be the case in Green Bay. Through two days of this training camp battle, Carlson has been the best Packers kicker. He's made all six of his kicks. But this duel is far from over. Carlson is the favorite but has to keep the momentum going to be Green Bay's kicker again in 2024 and beyond.
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