The Packers are officially the Jayden Reed show

As a rookie in 2023, Jayden Reed shared the spotlight with other receivers. For his encore, he has become the true fulcrum of the Packers offense.

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur typically doesn't shy away from praising his players. However, when he holds one of them in particularly high regard, it comes through in his words and enthusiasm.

The coach spared no detail when praising wide receiver Jayden Reed and his seven-catch, 139-yard, one-touchdown performance against the Minnesota Vikings this past weekend.

"I love the energy he brings," LaFleur said. "And it's not just on game day, it is every day. We're lucky to have a guy like that. He's a tone-setter. He really is. I love how he competes and how he prepares for each and every battle. And then he goes out and I think it's probably why he performs pretty well.

"There were three outstanding catches I thought he made in that game, one being the touchdown. Then there was another one late in the game on our last drive where he was uncovered, and Jordan (Love) sped it up and got him the football. And it was a little behind him, but Jayden made a hell of a catch. And then the last big play was right before Wicks' touchdown where Jordan just gave him a chance to go up and get it, and he beat Harrison (Smith) for the ball."

In just his second season, Reed finds himself on the verge of stardom. The wideout ranks near the top of the NFL in a handful of major categories despite playing half of his games with a backup quarterback. Reed has delivered some of the most explosive plays seen anywhere this season -- some of which didn't even count toward his official tallies -- and the larger football community has begun to take notice.

In a certain sense, Reed's emergence has come as a bit of a surprise. Granted, he had anything but a quiet rookie year, leading the Packers in catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns. However, the team generally treated him like a secondary weapon, a playmaker who could make contributions in certain areas but not a complete wideout as The Leap documented at the time:

Because of Reed's measurements, the Packers largely envisioned him as a slot receiver and returner with utility on gadgets like jet sweeps. Indeed, he spent training camp and the preseason working primarily as an inside receiver and remained there when the games began to count, registering 72.1% of his offensive snaps from the slot, according to Pro Football Focus. Green Bay also frequently moved Reed around the formation before the snap, with 68.8% of his routes coming off pre-snap motion, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

For many teams, slot receivers will primarily operate in the short-to-intermediate range. Reed's speed allowed the Packers to give him more downfield work last season as his 10.3 average depth of target attests. Even so, Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson, and Dontayvion Wicks all ran deep routes at a higher frequency than Reed.

And outside of Reed's designed touches in the running game, the Packers didn't feature him to the same degree as their other top wideouts a year ago. When LaFleur reshaped the offense for its post-Aaron Rodgers reality, the shift tended to highlight the other receivers. Wicks in particular saw extensive work on Dagger and Yankee, two concepts popularized by LaFleur's former boss, Kyle Shanahan.

However, as Reed has evolved, so too has his role within Green Bay's offense.