At Wide Receiver, We've Seen This Before

We’re seeing a tremendous battle at wide receiver in training camp.

Two players - one a tall, strapping athlete, the other a smaller, shifty slot-receiver type - are battling it out near the bottom of the depth chart. Both are so talented that head coach Mike McCarthy is reportedly considering keeping six wide receivers on the active roster.

But this isn’t Jeff Janis and Jared Abbrederis.

It’s Tori Gurley and Diondre Borel. We’ve seen this position battle before.

In 2012, the Packers and, to a larger extent, Packers fans, were convinced that Gurley or Borel would be the next big thing in Green Bay. Both had turned down offers from other teams to stay with the Packers’ practice squad in 2011, and both acknowledged they were essentially battling for one roster spot.

The Packers did end up keeping six wide receivers… but neither Gurley nor Borel made the cut. It was Jarrett Boykin that grabbed the sixth wide receiver spot.

I bring this up as Geronimo Allison makes a push to stay in the conversation at wide receiver. He’s not as fast as Janis or as polished as Abbrederis, but he’s making plays. Lots of them.

I don’t know if the Packers will keep six wide receivers. I don’t know if Allison will be one of the six, even if they do. But I do know that Janis and Abbrederis both have their limitations, and it wouldn’t be unheard of at all for the Packers to go completely out of the box with their sixth wide receiver spot.

It’s happened before.