Green Bay Packers rookie report following first quarter of 2016 season

Trevor Davis

With the talk of how much the offense lacked the element of a deep threat to scare opposing defenses in 2015, it seemed prudent of them to pick up a speedster in Davis in the draft. He hasn’t made much happen as of yet, but that could be more due to elements that are entirely out of his hands.

Despite having 7 wide receivers on the roster, Green Bay has struggled to get anyone outside of the usual 3-WR set of Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, and Davante Adams involved. Each of those guys has at least 197 snaps through 4 games, while the other four guys combine for just 87 total.

Of the 4-7 guys Davis has the most snaps (24), but he hasn’t really been looked at even when he’s gotten on the field. He has exactly two targets and no catches. Even so, he has shown glimpses of the deep threat element he can bring. He was the one running the deep route that drew a 66-yard pass interference penalty against the Lions in Week 3, with the team scoring shortly after. He’s also gotten a few chances as a returner on special teams, and may be given more as the weeks progress.

Something we should keep an eye on regarding Davis would be hold Green Bay utilizes another of his underused counterparts: Ty Montgomery. Montgomery has seen a couple snaps in the backfield this year, and could be seeing more with injuries hitting Eddie Lacy and James Starks this past week. If he is in the backfield more often that removes one potential threat for WR snaps, and Davis could possibly get more chances over Montgomery in the return game too as the season progresses.

The biggest thing affecting Davis, however, will be if Mike McCarty decides to change up his strategy. We saw him do so to start the Giants game; every skill position player on offense sans Jared Abbrederis saw at least one snap on that drive, and the offense looked to be back at a pre-2015 level of scariness. Following that drive however, they returned to the same stagnant base sets that plagued the team since last year, and the production plummeted.

If McCarthy took note — and adjusts his gameplan accordingly — we should see more of that first drive variety going forward. More variety will mean guys like Davis should be getting more opportunities, and he’ll have a chance to supply the offense with the deep threat capabilities it has sorely missed.