3 questions the 2024 Packers must answer before Week 1

The Packers won't kick off their 2024 season for nearly three months. In the time before Week 1, they must find answers to three key questions.

In less than three months, the Green Bay Packers will face off against the Philadelphia Eagles to open the regular season. In the time between now and Week 1, they will learn a lot about its roster and outlook for 2024. Green Bay will also have to answer several key questions about its identity on both sides of the ball.

How do the wide receivers stack up entering 2024 and how should the coaching staff deploy them?

Since the earliest portions of the offseason, countless football observers have wondered aloud how much it matters that the Packers currently lack a traditional No. 1 receiver. The discourse extended through the draft and deep into the team's offseason program when head coach Matt LaFleur addressed the matter directly.

"I personally don't think it matters," LaFleur said last week. "If you just look throughout the course of a season ago, and every season's going to be a little bit different, but all those guys had their moments where they were the leading receiver in a game. I feel really good about the collective unit. The hardest part is we feel so good about them it's hard to get everybody the amount of touches you'd like to get. But that's a good problem to have."

But whether the Packers would meaningfully benefit from a clear leading wideout represents just one piece of the puzzle. LaFleur and his staff must also figure out how the receivers stack up against one another and determine how best to deploy them. While a good problem to have -- Green Bay's receiving corps legitimately goes more than four deep -- the process of finding the answers could take considerable time.

A year ago, the Packers thought their receiving corps had a straightforward hierarchy. Christian Watson looked like a bona fide star in the making, Romeo Doubs showed promise as a secondary weapon, and the 2023 rookie class featured promising role players in Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks to develop behind them.

However, the season unfolded far differently. Watson's persistent hamstring issues prevented him from stringing together more than a handful of games as more than a limited option. Doubs developed into a red-zone maven but couldn't quite match that consistency in other parts of the field. As for the first-year wideouts, Reed led the team in most major receiving categories, breaking the franchise's rookie record for receptions by a rookie previously held by Sterling Sharpe. Arguably, Wicks looked even better by the end of the year, growing into a featured target on a variety of staple concepts in LaFleur's offense.

And that group doesn't even include Bo Melton, a late 2022 waiver claim who ended up becoming the first receiver to record a 100-yard game for Green Bay last season. Melton didn't just flash in a game or two. His contributions included critical plays in de facto playoff games against the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears as well as hauling in the go-ahead touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round.

"Bo's got an elite trait, I mean he can run," LaFleur said during organized-team activities, adding, "Bo's one of our best run blockers as well. He's not the biggest guy, but it's the mentality that he has. He's got that dog mentality, whether it's run game, pass game, whatever it may be. He's willing to do whatever it takes to get out there on the field. I think he's embraced that, he's embraced his role, and he's excelled in it."

With so many capable options who can and have handled multiple roles within the offense, the Packers will soon have to make tough decisions about the wideouts. More than one "right" answer to this problem might exist, and perhaps injuries will make some of these calls for the coaching staff. Still, how LaFleur answers these questions will have a major impact on how the offense looks in 2024.