Jayden Reed entered Thursday night’s Packers-Commanders game with a significant foot issue. The third-year wide receiver had played through that, but a collarbone injury will sideline him for the foreseeable future.
Matt LaFleur said postgame Reed suffered a broken collarbone and is heading for IR. This may not be a season-ending malady, but Reed will miss a chunk of time. This will further deplete a Packers offense playing without Christian Watson. Reed is expected to return later this season, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport adds.
The team is hoping for a return around the six-week mark, per Rapoport, though the recovery timetable could stretch to two months. A six- to eight-week timetable would sideline the talented pass catcher into November.
This is a major blow for Reed, who saw the Packers draft two more wide receivers — Matthew Golden, Savion Williams — during the draft’s first two days. Green Bay will need to call on its rookies after this setback, though veterans Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks — and fast-emerging tight end Tucker Kraft — remain healthy exiting the team’s Week 2 win.
Kraft and Doubs’ early-career production notwithstanding, Reed has been the most reliable Jordan Love target during the young passer’s first two-plus seasons at the helm. Reed led the Packers with 793 receiving yards in 2023 and 857 last season. Despite suffering a Jones fracture in his foot this summer, the former second-round pick opted to play through the malady — one that regularly sidelines players for several weeks — and scored a touchdown in Green Bay’s Week 1 rout of Detroit. But the Michigan State product will see a separate injury blunt his momentum.
The Golden and Williams draft choices (in Rounds 1 and 3, respectively) prompted Reed agent Drew Rosenhaus to meet with Packers brass about his client’s standing in the organization. LaFleur, as could be expected, endorsed Reed as a key Packer. But the team will need to get by without the inside playmaker for a while. Kraft, whose 124 yards were the most by a Packer tight end in a game since 2015 (the Richard Rodgers Hail Mary night), figures to be a key part of the Pack replacing Reed’s production.
Reed, 25, will become extension-eligible in January. Golden’s arrival does complicate the Packers’ long-term receiver plan, especially with Love on a $55MM-per-year contract and Micah Parsons smashing the defender AAV record (at $46.5MM) after his trade arrival. Reed, who entered Thursday having missed just one career game, could certainly make a strong case for an extension if he submits a productive second half for a Packers team that has looked dominant through two games. The Pack have Doubs unsigned beyond 2025 but extended Watson this week (on a one-year, $11MM deal), providing some clarity for its WR room.
Green Bay already placed running back MarShawn Lloyd and offensive lineman Jacob Monk on short-term IR upon setting its initial 53-man roster. This leaves the Pack’s injury-activation count at six, with Reed poised to become an in-season IR-return player as well. While Reed’s upcoming absence could be complicated due to having two injuries, he will now have more time to stay off his fractured foot ahead of a possible stretch-run reemergence.
Sucks for 11. The Packers will be fine. But he is a good player and you hate to see it.