The Green Bay Packers offense needs a spark. Unfortunately, head coach Matt LaFleur doesn’t seem to know how to light that spark. This is not an opinion; he admitted it himself. After the Packers’ 17-13 loss to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders, LaFleur addressed the media and expressed his bewilderment as to why his offense has not been able to score a touchdown until after halftime in their last three games.
According to Matt Schneidman of The Athletic, LaFleur said:
“Obviously searching for a little bit of answers right now,” he said after the loss to the Raiders. “I think this week will give us an opportunity to kind of go back and — you know, I thought we did that over the mini-bye, but we’ve got to find something to get us going, to jump-start us. I think just reflecting how the game kind of laid out, probably needed to stick with the run a little bit more.
To be fair, LaFleur has never worked with a roster of players this young before. That being said, Green Bay has to be better prepared going into games. LaFleur’s halftime adjustments are among the best in the NFL, as Jordan Love and the offense lead the league in several second half offensive categories.
Play calling aside, Love has to be better at finding his receivers when they are open. He missed Christian Watson being wide open several times on Monday night and has sometimes chosen to not go through all of his reads. If he is able to do this more frequently, he will find one particular wide receiver wide open often: Dontayvion Wicks.
Green Bay Packers Wide Receiver Dontayvion Wicks Leads the NFL in Getting Open vs Man Coverage
It seems absurdly specific, but statisticians do measure how often wide receivers are able to get open against man coverage. So far this season, Wicks is leading the NFL in how often he gets open against man coverage, and it is not particularly a very close race:
Top-10 WRs rate of getting open vs man coverage
1️⃣Dontayvion Wicks: 62.50%
2️⃣Elijah Moore: 56.82%
3️⃣AJ Brown: 53.85%
4️⃣Demario Douglas: 52.38%
5️⃣Chris Moore: 51.85%
6️⃣Stefon Diggs: 51.56%
7️⃣Mike Evans: 50.00%
8️⃣Justin Watson: 48.57%
9️⃣Josh Downs: 47.92%
🔟Randall Cobb: 47.37%— Hogg (@HoggNFL) October 12, 2023
In other words, Wicks is open a lot, but he is not getting the ball thrown his way very much. In five games this season, he has just 14 targets, seven receptions, 95 yards, and a touchdown. Those are not the kind of stats one would expect from the wide receiver who is tops in the NFL at getting open against man coverage.
Here is how his receiving yards on the season stack up to others on the list:
- AJ Brown- 541
- Stefon Diggs- 520
- Mike Evans- 337
- Josh Downs- 255
- Justin Watson- 219
- Elijah Moore- 147
- Demario Douglas- 143
- Chris Moore- 134
- Dontayvion Wicks- 95
- Randall Cobb- 20
How Can Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers Get Dontayvion Wicks the Ball More?
One of the biggest challenges the Packers face is getting all of their young receivers the targets they need to grow as players. Wicks, a boundary wide receiver, saw the number of his targets drop with the return of Watson from injury.
This is not to say that Love should target Watson less, but rather that he needs to be smarter with when he is targeting his top wide receiver. Aaron Rodgers fell victim to becoming predictable with how often he targeted Davante Adams in key situations.
If the Packers realize that Wicks is open in man coverage, he should be one of Love’s first looks when he sees the defense playing man.
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