Jayden Reed’s devastating season-ending injury exposes a critical depth chart void, leaving the Green Bay Packers to rue an offseason trade that sent a potential rising star to Philadelphia.
The Green Bay Packers have lost slot receiver Jayden Reed for the season.
Reed went down in Week 2 against the New York Jets on the second play of the game. It was an apparent neck or back injury, and it was bad enough that Reed had to be carted off the field and taken to a local hospital.
On Wednesday, the Packers announced that Reed was lost for the season. He'll have to undergo neck surgery and they're placing him on the injured reserve.
Head coach Matt LaFluer doesn't believe that the surgery will be career-ending for Reed, but it's a very serious thing. There is no guarantee he'll ever make it back onto the field.
"Any time you go through a situation like that, it's a pretty scary deal," LaFleur said on Wednesday, per Rob Demovsky of ESPN. "I didn't even realize the magnitude at the time but certainly when I was out there [on the field] with him and seeing what was going on, it shocks you. It jolts you a little bit because you never want to see anybody in that position let alone one of your own guys."
The Packers will now more than likely try to replace Reed internally with a combination of Skyy Moore, Bo Melton, J. Michael Sturdivant and Savion Williams (who is on the IR himself).
The NFL is a "next man up" league, so they'll have no choice but to figure it out.
What could have been, though, because this injury makes decisions made this offseason look short-sighted.
Never mind the big contract extension the Packers gave Reed despite the fact that he missed much of the 2025 season on the IR. He deserved to get paid and he got his money, so there's no use dwelling on that.
More troublesome was the trade that general manager Brian Gutekunst decided to make in April that sent wideout Dontayvion Wicks to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2026 fifth round pick and a 2027 sixth round pick.
So far this season, in three games for the Eagles, Wicks has caught nine passes for 179 yards and a touchdown.
He would be the perfect candidate to get extra snaps for the Packers in this situation. Instead, it's the Eagles who are hoping to get all the extra potential out of him.
They believe in him, of course. Not only did they trade for him, but they gave him a one-year, $12.5 million contract extension to keep him in Philly through 2027.
In fact, the Eagles knew they liked Wicks before they even traded for him.
“I think that happens when you're watching the tape prior to him even getting here,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni recently said of Wicks. “That's why Howie (Roseman) was aggressive to go and get him, because we saw the potential of what he could be, and then we knew about the person with the guys that were in Green Bay.
“When he started doing the things that we saw on tape, it wasn't a surprise because there was a lot of work that went into identifying that, and the words that were being said by Sean [Mannion] and Ryan [Mahaffey] were matching what we saw on tape. He's been a great addition. I love his physicality within the game of football and his mentality and competitiveness for football. Forget about how explosive he is at the top of the route, his ability to catch contested balls. I just love his mentality of how he goes about his daily work and the competitiveness that happens on the field with him.”
Sep 20, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni slaps the helmet after wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks (13) makes a first down catch against the Tennessee Titansduring the first half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.Football mentality. Explosive at the top of the route. Having the ability to catch contested footballs.
That sounds pretty good right about now, doesn't it?
Wicks was heading into the last year of his deal in Green Bay and Gutekunst and the Packers felt the need to have an established wide receiver pecking order and create more opportunities for guys like Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.
It made sense at the time, but in hindsight, it was foolish to not hold onto a great depth player in Wicks, who had put up 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns in three seasons for the Packers.
By the way, that 2026 fifth round pick the Eagles sent to Green Bay became Jager Burton, who has been a part of the Packers' craptastic offensive line over the first three games.
