Packers to Receive Boost at WR at Just the Right Time in Savion Williams

The Green Bay Packers have a need on their depth chart at WR3. 

That was the spot formerly occupied by Jayden Reed, whom the Packers gave a fancy new three-year, $50.25 million contract extension to this offseason.

Unfortunately, Reed may have broken his neck for this team, literally. They placed him on the IR and ruled him out for the rest of the season after he had to be carted off in Week 2.

It was bad enough that Reed had to have neck surgery.

General Manager Brian Gutekunst traded Dontayvion Wicks to the Philadelphia Eagles this past offseason and, again, that's unfortunate, because Wicks would have been the perfect candidate to step into the WR3 role alongside Christian Watson and Matthew Golden.

Instead, in Week 3 and Week 4 -- a loss to the Atlanta Falcons and a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively -- the Packers rolled with a combination of Skyy Moore (who was signed specifically for his ability as a kick returner) and J. Michael Sturdivant (an undrafted free agent rookie).

It has not been effective.

In fact, a strong case can be made that since Reed went down, tight ends Mark Redmond and Jonnu Smith have played a bigger role in the passing game for the Packers than either Moore or Sturdivant combined.

This goes back to the premise we started with. The Pack needs a talent infusion at WR3.

The good news is that help may be on the way.

That help comes in the form of former third-round pick Savion Williams, who was the "forgotten" wideout of the 2025 NFL Draft for the Packers because Golden got all the hype for being the team's first, first-round wide receiver since Javon Walker in 2022.

The Pack selected Williams with pick No. 87 out of TCU. The initial read on him was that he was more of a "gadget" player for head coach Matt LaFleur to mess around with because Williams was a strong returner in college and excelled with the ball in his hands and room the run.

The seemed more like the type to take a jet sweep 100 yards than put up 100 yards receiving at the NFL level, at least initially.

That essentially played out in Williams' rookie season, too. He caught just 10 passes for 78 yards and a touchdown in 10 games played. Meanwhile, he ran the ball 11 times (for 37 yards) and returned 28 kickoffs for 717 yards.

Here's the catch, though. Williams was only targeted 10 times as a rookie, so he comes into the 2026 season with a 100-percent catch rate. He's also big, strong and fast at 6-foot-4, 222 pounds.

He looks like he was built in a lab to be a possession receiver, and with homerun threats to the right and left of him in Golden and Watson, he could end up being the perfect WR3 for the Pack.

All he needs to do is stay healthy, and therein lies the trouble. He injured his ankle in the preseason and was placed on the injured reserve to start the 2026 season. With that said, LaFleur did not rule him out for the Week 5 matchup with the Chicago Bears.

He was just activated off the IR, and technically, he can be placed on the active roster at any time in the next 21 days.

"He's been ramping up with our strength coaches and with our athletic trainers," LaFleur said, per Packers News. "We'll see how he handles the week."