Training camp indications bring a surprising possibility for the Packers WR room

It's impossible to determine who the Green Bay Packers wide receiver one will be in 2024, and the difference from the top target to the others is certainly not as significant as it would have been with a Davante Adams-esque dominant receiver on the roster. But early training camp indications are that Romeo Doubs can be the main target in the structure of the passing offense, even though you could argue that Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, and Dontayvion Wicks all have higher ceilings.

The first indication of that came from Jordan Love himself. When doing an exercise to design an unstoppable play , Love shared how much he liked to target Doubs as an X receiver.

"He's one of my favorite fade targets," Love pointed out. "He's going to come down with the ball, I know that 100%."

A fourth-round pick in 2022, Romeo Doubs hasn't had overly notorious numbers. He had 42 catches for 425 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie, then improved to 59 receptions for 674 yards and eight touchdowns last season. Those are solid, but unspectacular stats. His efficiency numbers are good not great as well — 1.33 yards per route run, seven yards per target, 1.16 yards per team pass attempt.

However, he does have important traits, like a 47.6% contested catch rate and a 13.6% touchdown rate. Throughout the first weeks of training camp, he has been the focus of the passing game.

"His route-running right now has been pretty tremendous," said Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich. "The last half of the season, he was playing at a pretty high level, and he's really continued that in camp so far."

ESPN has a metric to track receiver quality. After being 119th in 2022, he went all the way up to 16th in 2023. And that includes the entire season. Doubs was much more efficient, just like the Packers offense in general, down the stretch.

"He goes about it the right way," said cornerback Jaire Alexander, who's faced Doubs every day at practice. "He comes in, I mean, he catches 100 balls and he catches more after practice. You can see he's a real pro. You can see his attention to detail is very on point."

Romeo Doubs might not have the volume or overall productivity to be your fantasy darling. But the Green Bay Packers don't care about that. They want a solid, reliable piece to facilitate Jordan Love's game. Doubs can be exactly that, and he can take his game to another level in year 3 — a particularly important season for him individually, because it's the last one before he's eligible to a contract extension in the NFL.

Related: Packers' wide receiver group has new questions after a year full of answers