Green Bay Packers receiver Greg Jennings is getting paid for standing around right now. He’s battling a groin injury and will miss his second straight game.
Jennings has been injured much of the season. When he’s been on the field, the injury has limited his production. Jennings didn’t make it past the first quarter against New Orleans. He pulled himself at the end of the San Francisco game and didn’t play at all against Chicago.
All of this standing around on the sidelines might actually be making Jennings more money though.
He’s in a contract season. You could argue that Jennings’ suddenly injury-prone nature and paltry production (12 catches, 78 yards on the season) isn’t going to help him get a giant contract next season. Certainly, his value is probably dropping around the rest of the NFL.
It just might be increasing in the eyes of the Green Bay Packers though.
When Jennings went down, we were pretty ho hum about it. “Just throw James Jones in there and we’ll be fine!” Well, we have not been fine and neither has the Packers offense.
The passing offense is currently ranked 15th in the NFL. They were third last season.
The other receivers’ numbers, with the exception of Jones, who’s seen his playing time increase dramatically, are down too. The Packers haven’t had a receiver record a 100-yard game yet this season.
Jordy Nelson came the closest with 93 yards in week four. These guys clearly benefit from the attention Jennings draws from opposing defenses when he’s on the field.
Gone too, is the big play the Packers were known for last season.
Is this lack of offensive production all because Jennings isn’t in the game? Absolutely not — poor game planning, lack of execution and general buffoonery, among other things, have all plagued the Packers.
But if Greg Jennings ever gets healthy, gets in the game and the Packers offense suddenly starts humming, the Packers are going to know just how valuable he is to what they do and then they have a real problem.
They can’t afford to pay Jennings top receiver money because of all the guys they absolutely have to pay top dollar in the near future.
If this is turns out to be confirmation the offense doesn’t work without him, they may not have a choice, though.