All offseason long, the big debate in Green Bay was about who was WR1. Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, Dontayvion Wicks, and Jayden Reed all realistically could make the claim, and despite the team's insistence that those things don't actually matter, every single Packers fan on the planet will tell you that yes they absolutely do.
And obviously it's not a question that's going to get totally answered after just one game – and certainly not after just one half – but through the first two quarters of the Packers' 2024 season, it sure looks like they have a frontrunner.
The first overreaction of the season may already be here: Jayden Reed is that Dude. And he has the historical anecdotes to prove it!
Jayden Reed quietly had one of the best first halves of the last 40 years
Per @ESPNStatsInfo: Jayden Reed is the third player in the last 40 years to have a 70-yard receiving TD and 30-yard rushing TD in the same game. He joins Ezekiel Elliott and Herschel Walker.
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) September 7, 2024
Ezekiel Elliott snark aside, that's some wild company to be in. When you're being thrown in the same Fun Stat Fact as Elliott and Herschel Walker, you know things are going pretty well for you. It's also kinda wild that only three players in the past four decades have had both a 30-yard rushing touchdown and a 70-yard receiving score, yet somehow two of those three are running backs?
Stay tuned for next week when Watson sets some sort of bizarre, obscure record and takes over as the obvious Packers WR1. That should be the new goal for deciding who's the best: how many random records that only ESPN beat writers would know can you break?
Traditional stats are overrated – now it's all about trying to join the weirdest group of record-holders you possibly can. But for now, Jayden Reed is the undisputed Packers WR1, and will stay that way until next week when someone else becomes the undisputed Packers WR1. This definitely won't ever get old.