The competition to see who will replace Jordy Nelson, who is out for the season with a torn ACL, in the Green Bay Packers’ three-man receiving corps (alongside top two WRs Randall Cobb and Davante Adams) is between second-year man Jeff Janis and rookie Ty Montgomery.
In their first two preseason games, Janis has a team-high nine targets in 57 snaps played, while Montgomery only has four targets but 70 snaps played. Packers QBs have thrown deep (more than 20 yards in the air) only six times, two of which targeted Janis.
Grade-wise Janis and Montgomery aren’t tearing it up — both are in the red at -1.6 and -2.1, respectively. Janis hardly played in the 2014 regular season and was pedestrian in the 2014 preseason. From our CFF data, Montgomery was the sixth-best graded Pac-12 receiver last year with a +9.2 overall grade and had 17 missed tackles forced. It’s a big step up in class from a Power-5 school to the NFL, so those figures don’t carry that much weight.
The Packers’ initial plans for Montgomery were obviously to feature him in the slot. At Stanford he lined up in the slot only 21.7 percent of the time, per our CFF data. That skyrocketed in two preseason games all the way up to 77.8 percent. His grades haven’t been great as he has adjusted to the new position, but all things considered his play could have been worse.
Seeing as how Montgomery comes in as the higher-drafted player, and Janis failed to distinguish himself in Year 1, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the rookie get the nod. Either way, it’s a huge step down from Nelson, our No. 7-rated receiver in the NFL.
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