Packers type receivers thriving at Senior Bowl, giving Brian Gutekunst options

The Green Bay Packers have a type at receiver, whether you like it or not. The 2025 receiver class isn't loaded overall, but several Senior Bowl standouts fit.

Green Bay Packers fans know better than to get excited about a 150-pound jitterbug receiver from Oregon showing out at the Senior Bowl. Brian Gutekunst subscribes to the Ron Wolf philosophy of receivers that prioritizes taller, bigger prospects with excellent lateral movement skills. These are rarer than they might seem given the Packers care less about straight-line speed than most teams. Even rarer are the players who fit this model and produced at a high level in college.

While the Packers are more than willing to snag a project pass-rusher with low sack numbers in college, their receivers almost always produced top-of-their-class-type collegiate careers. That hasn’t meant they’re ready to step in right away. Jordy Nelson and Davante Adams took three years to find their football.

That’s the hope with Dontayvion Wicks. But it’s a box they prefer to check.

Without athletic testing, we can’t put together a definitive list of Packers types, but with the pre-draft bowl season going, we’re seeing these college players on the field with official measurements. Is that receiver listed at 6-foot actually only 5-foot-10 and change? Is the receiver listed at 190 truly only 182? These might seem like small differences, but they matter to the Packers.

The Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama has long been a favorite for the Packers curating their draft. Executive Director Jim Nagy used to work in the Green Bay front office and Gutekunst’s standout 2023 class was basically all Senior Bowl guys.

This week has so far not disappointed in showing off the kinds of receivers the Packers could be interested in, guys big enough to play on the outside, with the movement skills to create separation on their own, and the production that screams, “We aren’t projects!” (even if sometimes they still are).

Green Bay loves to take receivers on Day 2 who can play like first-round guys and while this class isn’t top-heavy, it’s loaded with Packers types on Day 2, many of whom are showing out this week in front of scouts in Mobile.

Jayden Higgins — Iowa State

For the moment, this is one of the marquee names to watch for the Packers on Day 2. He’s 6-foot-3, 215 pounds with the ability to run routes like a much smaller human. Watch him run this whip route in the scrimmage portion of Senior Bowl practices earlier this week. He’s been a standout.

He led college football in third and fourth-down catches that resulted in early first downs or touchdowns last season with 25. According to Ben Fennell, Higgins has just seven drops in 350 career targets.