Packers Wide Receiver Problem "Solved"
When Packer’s wide receiver Jeff Janis, who is most famous for his two huge catches in the divisional round at Arizona last season, suffered a fracture in his hand and is out 4-6 weeks. As essentially every football fan knows, that timeframe goes into the regular season, meaning the Packers need to figure out what to do with Janis.
Janis’ injury brings the Packer’s crowded wide receiver position down to a more manageable level. Outside of Janis, Jared Abbrederis, Davonte Adams, Trevor Davis and Ty Montgomery were all battling for presumably four receiver positions behind starters Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. Without Janis, that brings the group down to six players fighting for six spots (with all due respect to the likes of Geronimo Allison and Ed Williams, you need a miracle or a massive amount of injuries to the aforementioned players to make the team).
So, the Packers now have six receivers filling six slots on the roster assuming Janis lost his job, but if he was already a lock on the roster before the injury in the minds of Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy, what do they do with him? If they cut him, somebody will pick him up immediately, based off two catches and flat-out potential. If they keep him on the roster until he regains health, they have to find somebody else to get rid of, because keeping six receivers is too much to begin with (since you can only play five, at most, anyways). That option is best if the Packers believe he will return for the home opener in week 3 at the latest. The third option is to put Janis on the injured reserve list with a designation to return, but if somebody more significant gets injured, it would be foolish to put Janis there since each team can only do that with one player.
Ultimately, putting him on IR-designated to return is probably the best move, and it will give the other receivers more time to state their case on making the roster. Like usual, though, we just need to hope that there are no more injuries.
