For a guy who hardly plays, Green Bay Packers receiver Jeff Janis has a lot of fans.
Part of the reason for that is because the Packers refused to play him on offense last season. Everyone saw the Packers’ passing game struggling. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers openly stated the reason for that was the lack of a deep threat. And you’ve got the fastest receiver on the team rotting away on the bench.
That didn’t make much sense to anyone besides Packers coach Mike McCarthy.
There was talk that Janis couldn’t grasp McCarthy’s super-complex offense. There was talk that Janis hadn’t secured the coveted Aaron Rodgers’ trust nod.
Both of those things are stupid.
You put playmakers in a position to make plays. End of story.
And then when the Packers absolutely had to put Janis on the field, he went out and tore it up and we all said, “I told you so.”
That came in the Packers’ playoff loss to the Cardinals. Davante Adams missed that game with a knee injury and Randall Cobb left early because of a punctured lung.
In comes Janis and catches seven balls for 145 yards and two touchdowns.
Both the media and fans talked about Janis as a solution all season. After that performance, Janis was a hot topic throughout the offseason.
Some people are tired of hearing about Janis. Count quarterback Aaron Rodgers among them.
“I know you guys love Jeff Janis. All you people out there love Jeff. I love Jeff, too,” Rodgers said. “Jeff made some great plays there at the end of that game, and he’s coming along. Again, these are important years for young guys like that — years 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 are when you can really take jumps. You’ve seen a lot of them over my course of 12 seasons, where you see guys really take jumps and start to figure it out. I think he has an opportunity.”
You can see Rodgers isn’t quick to predict stardom for Janis.
He probably learned his lesson when he predicted stardom for Davante Adams last offseason.
Regardless, Janis clearly has to get over some hurdle with either Rodgers or McCarthy to actually get on the field. We have no idea what that hurdle is, but we’ll soon have an idea of whether the Packers plan on giving Janis a real opportunity.
We’re not going to predict stardom, but if given the chance, we expect Janis to be a solid contributor on offense and a big-play threat.
Then we can all stop talking about why Jeff Janis isn’t on the damn field.