Jayden Reed is the Packers' new answer for everything

The Packers designed an offense with Jordan Love under center and then rebuilt it in a week to account for his absence. In both cases, they chose to feature Jayden Reed extensively.

For football coaches, the offseason represents an opportunity. After a long and typically grueling campaign, they can take a step back, review their team's performance over the past year, and figure out what worked, what didn't, and what needs to change.

If the first two weeks of the 2024 season provide any indication, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur spent his summer scheming up new and creative ways to put the ball into Jayden Reed's hands.

Given the number of quality pass catchers on Green Bay's roster, a talented wideout can easily go overlooked. For much of the offseason, Reed fell into that blind spot, figuratively and literally overshadowed by Christian Watson's elite size-speed combination, Romeo Doubs' chemistry with quarterback Jordan Love, and Dontayvion Wicks' route-running prowess.

Yet, for all the praise understandably poured on his teammates, none finished the 2023 regular season with more catches, receiving yards, or touchdowns than Reed. In the process, he broke the franchise record for receptions by a rookie, a mark previously held by the great Sterling Sharpe. Reed had a few quiet stretches -- a critique that applies to all of Green Bay's wideouts that year -- but his best moments matched or exceeded that of everyone in the receiving room.

"I think there was a lot of things, obviously, that we liked about him, taking a guy in the second round," LaFleur said of Reed last week. "But until you start working with somebody on a daily basis and see how they approach everything from practice to the meetings, I mean, he is a dog. And I mean that in the highest regard. He loves football. He's such a competitor. You could see it last year, playing through injury. He was beat up pretty good last year, and we continued to feed him the football.

"He continues to get up, and he battles, and he competes, and he does it on a daily basis."

LaFleur likely had those traits in mind when he drew up the game plan for the season opener. The most effective plays featured Reed in some form or fashion.