The Packers’ wide receiver room has been turned over almost completely, and that’s left Green Bay with a big question at a key spot. Christian Watson is being counted on to hold up at the top of the depth chart, while last spring’s first-round pick, Matthew Golden, is expected to handle a larger role. But there may be another name worth tracking as the season moves along.
Undrafted free agent Michael Sturdivant turned heads throughout the preseason and did enough to earn a roster spot when final cuts were made. For a player who entered camp without much fanfare, that alone made him one of the summer’s best surprises for Green Bay.
The numbers back up the buzz. Pro Football Focus ranked Sturdivant among the league’s highest-graded rookies this preseason, and Gordon McGuinness noted that the former Florida Gator saved his best for the Packers’ preseason finale.
“The former Florida Gator started the Packers’ preseason finale,” McGuinness writes for PFF. “And it turned into his best game of the summer.
He averaged 2.96 yards per route run in the preseason and caught all nine of the catchable targets thrown his way.”
Sturdivant finished with an elite 85.8 overall grade, which made him the eighth-highest graded rookie in the NFL. If that kind of production carries over even in part once the games count, Green Bay could end up getting major value from a receiver who arrived with little attention and quickly forced his way into the conversation.
In Other News...
Packers Fans Got Caught In Foxs Most Infuriating Broadcast Mess
Fox Sports turned a busy Week 2 Sunday into a strange viewing experience for fans following the Packers and the rest of the early slate, as audio feeds did not match the games on screen for multiple contests. For Green Bay viewers in particular, the problems were compounded when the network briefly lost its scorebug during overtime of the Packers-Jets game, adding another layer of confusion to a broadcast day that was already off the rails.
The network did get the audio issues corrected before the primetime Cowboys-Commanders matchup, but the afternoon left plenty of viewers wondering how so many technical glitches lined up on the same broadcast window. Even by NFL TV standards, it was the kind of mess that overshadowed the football for a while, and Packers fans had every reason to feel caught in the middle of it. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Nearly Faced A Wild In-Game Fix During Jets Win
In a game that was already tight all afternoon, the Packers got pushed to the edge up front when injuries thinned out their offensive line against the Jets. The situation got so thin that the staff had to consider a wildly unconventional fix, with Tucker Kraft even in the conversation as a possible emergency option at tackle while the group tried to hold together.
Jacob Monk ultimately got the green light to play, which kept Kraft where Green Bay needed him most, and the Packers were able to lean on rookies Jager Burton and Anthony Belton to help steady the line. It was the kind of survival-day football that can decide a September win, and Green Bay barely got through it with a 20-17 victory. [Read more 🡒]
Two Packers Drew NFL Discipline After The Vikings Game
The Packers latest trip through the rivalry with Minnesota carried the usual physical edge, and the league office noticed. Green Bay came away with a pair of fines tied to actions from that game, with linebacker Lukas Van Ness and safety Evan Williams both cited for plays the NFL judged to be over the line.
Van Ness was fined for a hit to the head or neck area of a quarterback, while Williams was penalized for unnecessary roughness on a defenseless player. The dollars from those fines will be funneled to the Professional Athletes Foundation and the NFL Foundation, which use the money to support athlete health and wellness programs. [Read more 🡒]