Finding the Next Star: 14 Wide Receivers the Packers Should Target in 2025 NFL Draft

By looking at the characteristics the Packers have coveted in their previous wide receiver picks, a pool of likely targets can be found.

Green Bay’s group of young receivers sputtered in 2024, and did not make the kind of progress many hoped to see in their second year with Jordan Love at quarterback.

With two of them – Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson, who is also recovering from a serious knee injury – set to hit free agency at the conclusion of the 2025 season, it is important Packers GM Brian Gutekunst continues to stock the cupboard at receiver.

While there will be opportunity to add to the room in free agency, the draft is Green Bay’s bread and butter, and there are certain characteristics the team tends to look for in their wideouts, which can help to provide an early outlook on the prospects they could be eyeing.

As with most positions, the Packers have an ideal height and weight threshold they want players to meet at receiver, and in general, they prefer bigger guys.

This tradition stretches all the way back to Ron Wolf, but can still be observed in the Gutekunst era. Since he took over as GM in 2018, the Packers have not drafted a receiver shorter than 5’9.4” or lighter than 187 lbs.

If you take away Amari Rodgers, who it seems pretty clear was an outlier pick (which failed miserably), the height floor raises to 5’10.7”

5’10.7” and 187 lbs – or the height and weight of Jayden Reed – is not an especially high bar to clear, and that’s the point. The Packers are not disregarding receivers recklessly, they are just not going to draft the 165 pounders, the Tank Dells, Xavier Worthys, or in this draft, Tez Johnsons.

There are athletic testing markers the team looks for, too, but with the scouting combine still a couple of weeks away, that information is not yet available for the 2025 draft class.

Another data point we can use to narrow down the search pool however, is production. Green Bay is well known for valuing traits over production, especially with their premium picks, but as I recently detailed, they value production at receiver.

Since 2018, every single receiver they drafted had at least 800 yards in their best college season, and at least six touchdowns.

This twofold outlook is important, because 800 yards is not that many, even in the shorter seasons college teams play, but the receivers Green Bay has drafted who are closer to that floor, namely Watson and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, had strong touchdown totals to make up for it.

After MVS was drafted, director of college scouting Matt Malaspina mentioned his “15-yard average” yards per reception as a selling point, and when you go through the receivers the Packers have selected, a high YPR is a consistent theme.

Ignoring Rodgers again, the player with the lowest YPR drafted by Gutekunst is Grant DuBose at 13.5. For context, the NFL average in 2024, 2023 and 2022 was 10.9.

YPR is another way of showing production aside from just total yardage or touchdowns, and seems to be something the Packers value.

So if Green Bay is looking for receivers 5’10.7” or taller, 187 lbs or heavier, with at least 13.5 YPR in college, at least one season of 800-plus yards and six touchdowns (a sliding scale will be used for touchdowns, i.e. if they had more yards, the touchdown number can be lower), what are their options in the 2025 class?

The qualified players who are currently projected to be drafted according to the consensus big board are:

• Elic Ayomanor – Stanford
• Jack Bech – TCU
• Ja’Corey Brooks – Louisville
• Pat Bryant – Illinois
• Emeka Egbuka – Ohio State
• Matthew Golden – Texas
• Tre Harris – Ole Miss
• Jayden Higgins – Iowa State
• Tory Horton – Colorado State
• Kobe Hudson – UCF
• Kyren Lacy – LSU
• Tetairoa McMillan – Arizona
• Nick Nash – San Jose State
• Jalen Royals – Utah State
• Ricky White – UNLV

Spoiler alert: McMillan is not making it anywhere near the Packers, and is probably getting picked in the top 10. That leaves 14 of the 15 names above as the probable shortlist for Green Bay’s receiver options in the 2025 draft.

If the Packers care about arm length, which they might, given all of the non-slot receivers they have drafted have at least 31 ⅞” arms, which is pretty long, that would mean Bech, Bryant and Royals are out, as they already had their arms measured at the Senior Bowl and were smaller than that.

The list will likely get pared down even further once athletic testing information is obtained via the combine and pro days, but it’s a healthy, talented list right now. Seven of the players listed are currently ranked between 24th and 79th overall on the consensus big board.

With the Packers holding the 23rd, 55th and 87th picks in the 2025 draft, they should have a good opportunity to upgrade the wide receiver position in the first two days if they feel it necessary and the value is right.