If not Davante Adams (or DK Metcalf) then who can boost the Packers pass catchers?

Green Bay has some big-name options to consider this offseason, but what if those plans fall through? Where can they turn to provide an upgrade for 2025 and beyond?

Brian Gutekunst knows how Josh Jacobs feels. Perhaps in more ways than one. Gutekunt told reporters at the combine he’d spoken to his star running back about his feelings on adding a veteran receiver, but intimated in a response to a question from The Leap that he didn’t want players going to the media to make these cases. He would hear them out if they came to him personally but would ignore media jockeying.

The Green Bay Packers general manager must also see the potential a veteran could bring, even if it comes with some risk. Like Jacobs, he may want to add a veteran to this receiver room, particularly as Christian Watson recovers from ACL surgery.

But there has to be a move to make. The Seattle Seahawks are holding the line on DK Metcalf. Davante Adams will have his pick of destinations and reporting going back to the Super Bowl pegs his heart set on returning to the West Coast … and Lake Michigan doesn’t count.

Then what? ESPN reported the San Francisco 49ers could still be willing to trade Branon Aiyuk, even after swapping Deebo Samuel for a fifth-round pick. But he’s also recovering from a torn ACL. Any compensation discount to account for that lost time makes a potential deal unsavory for the Niners when they could have dealt Aiyuk for a haul last summer but decided on an extension instead.

Signing receivers in free agencies is a nightmare. There’s a dreadfully long track record of secondary pass catchers from good offenses being overpaid and then underperforming. Any true WR1 doesn’t make it to the market.

Amari Cooper proved he wasn’t one of those last year in Buffalo. He’s not the type of player the Packers would be able to go to in have-to-have-it situations late. Ask the Bills.

Speaking of ex-Bills receivers, Stefon Diggs is 31 and coming off an ACL tear. Even if Russ Ball could get him for cheap, he’d expect to be a major target-getter once he’s healthy, even though the Houston Texans offense failed to produce well when that was his role last year with C.J. Stroud.

Perhaps the best way to get a quality veteran is to draft a player who becomes one.

That doesn’t solve the short-term problem of course, but what the Packers need is a force-multiplier, someone who elevates those around him merely by his presence. Either he does something the other guys can’t, or his presence alone allows space for others to operate.

The 2025 receiver class lacks elite talent at the top. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter may be a cornerback in the NFL, but even if he is a receiver on the Packers’ board, not even a bong gas mask would be enough to get him to fall to 23.

After Hunter, Arizona star Tetairoa McMillan didn’t work out at the combine amid speculation he wouldn’t test as athletic as his tape suggests. He’s the prototypical size, but some folks in Indy believed he’d run 4.6 or worse in the 40-yard dash.