With receiver Mecole Hardman’s fortunes turning south over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been asked one question over and over: Well, if Hardman isn’t going to return punts in 2025, who will it be? My answer is simple: receiver Jayden Reed. The Green Bay Packers’ punt return game will probably be below average again this year.
That’s unsatisfactory for a lot of fans, but I want to explain how we’re getting to Reed being the return man on punts year after year. To start, we really have to understand
what a punt returner even is.
According to Pro Football Reference’s season finder, 45 punt returners have recorded at least as many returns over the last two years as both Reed (25) and Keisean Nixon (18). Per PFR’s listed heights and weights, the average return man is 5’9” and 183 pounds. Of those 45 players, 37 are wide receivers. That’s a huge problem for the Packers, considering their philosophy at the position.
Since head coach Matt LaFleur took over the team in 2019, the receiver snaps by the Packers have averaged out to 208 pounds per player per play. Of the seven most-played receivers under LaFleur, six of them have been 204 pounds or larger. Already, Reed, at 5’11” and 187 pounds, is about as small as the Packers are willing to go at the position.
And even though Reed led the team in receiving last season, he’s used in a very specific role: as a slot-only receiver who only plays in three-receiver sets. Special teams ace Malik Heath has actually played five times as many two-receiver sets as Reed has over the past two seasons, and two-receiver sets should be on the rise in Green Bay if both tight ends Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave are ever healthy at the same time for an extended period of time.
Essentially, the Packers already view Reed as a role player, albeit a very good one. Why is that an issue? Because role players don’t get backups. Gameday rosters are still limited to just 48 active players, even with the NFL deciding to emphasize the kickoff year over year.
Reed is already Green Bay’s designated “small” receiver. He’s under contract until 2027. Until then, it’s going to be hard to actually roster the type of body that is good at returning punts off the bench with the team’s mentality. Even Hardman (5’10”, 187 pounds) isn’t much smaller than Reed, and he’s also been used almost exclusively as a slot-only receiver this preseason.
First-round pick Matthew Golden is between Reed and the average Packers receiver at 191 pounds, but he seems to have graduated from being a possible punt return candidate already, as he continues to build steam as a possible starting receiver for this team. You only have to look at Green Bay’s last preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, when Seahawks receiver Jake Bobo was drilled by the back of his own teammate and left the field with a concussion, to realize why a team might not want to put their first-round pick in that position.
I’m sure that Golden would be good at returning punts, but the risk strongly outweighs the rewards. There’s a reason why Justin Jefferson isn’t returning punts for the Minnesota Vikings, even though he would probably excel at it. The injury risk at the position is real. This is why you typically see backups handle punt return duties. At least Reed is a designated role player, and LaFleur wouldn’t blink if he had to sub in a larger slot receiver into the offense. When given that opportunity this preseason with Reed dealing with a foot injury, it was Heath, the 213-pounder, who got looks there over Hardman with the first-team offense.
When the Packers took a second receiver in the 2025 draft, it wasn’t a punt returner body who was brought to help the team. Instead, it was 6’4”, 222-pound Savion Williams, a LaFleur-type receiver, who was taken with the 87th overall pick. Those are simply the types of players that the offense wants to develop. For reference, Williams is taller, by several inches, than any of the qualifying 45 punt returners over the last two seasons, and only 1 of those 45 returners is listed over 204 pounds, essentially the floor for non-Reed Packers receivers under LaFleur.
Beyond just Green Bay’s size scale, Reed is already pretty big for the punt returner position league-wide. Only 5 of those 45 returners are both taller and heavier than Reed: Trenton Irwin, Cooper DeJean, Charlie Jones, Gunner Olszewski and Robert Woods.
Both Irwin and Olszewski were available until deep in the summer, a hint that their time in the NFL is about to be done. So by the time the regular season comes around, that list could be whittled down to just three names: DeJean, a second-round pick who like Reed plays a slot-only role but on the defensive side of the ball, Jones, a fourth-round selection in 2023 who basically only contributes as a returner, and Woods, a 33-year-old who signed for five-times as much guaranteed money as Hardman this past offseason.
Overall, the pickings are slim at punt returner if the Packers aren’t willing to roll with a smaller receiver at the position. With Green Bay’s receiver room in a logjam until at least Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson’s contracts expire this offseason, I wouldn’t hold my breath on the team making a move to get better in the return game.
So that’s why Reed (or Nixon) will probably handle punt returns this year. Most punt returners in the NFL are smaller backup receivers, a player archetype LaFleur doesn’t seem to value much. This is just a personnel choice on the Packers’ part, based on what their offense demands out of the position.
