Week 11 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Target: Should You Add Packers’ Jayden Reed?
The Green Bay Packers offense found a little life in week 10 of the NFL season, racking up 399 total yards in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Rookie wide receiver Jayden Reed was a player that stood out for the Packers, and he’ll be a hot commodity on the waiver wire going into week 11. Let’s take a look at what Reed has accomplished this season and then determine if he’s capable of more fantasy success going forward.
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Week 10 Showing
Reed played 35 offensive snaps on Sunday, which accounted for just 51% of the team’s total. Despite the low snap count, Reed delivered some big plays for the Pack.
His first catch in the contest came late in the second quarter. It was a 35-yard touchdown grab on a perfectly thrown ball by quarterback Jordan Love.
Reed had a handful of short receptions before hauling in a 46-yard pass to get the Packers in position to possibly win the contest.
Reed finished the day with 84 yards and the touchdown, catching all five of his targets along the way.
Reed’s Season Production
The touchdown grab was the fourth for Reed, who was a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He’s caught 28-of-45 targets overall, going for 417 yards. He’s also attempted two runs, gaining 19 yards.
Reed is second on the team in targets, scrimmage yards and touchdowns, third in catches and first in receiving yards.
Sunday’s contest was the fourth time this season that Reed went over 50 receiving yards. The 84-yard showing was a new career high. Reed only has two contests in which he didn’t reach 35 scrimmage yards.
He’s made at least one catch in each game. He’s had at least three catches in all but two contests. Reed’s five catches on Sunday were also a new career high.
Reed has been targeted at least three times in each of the past four games. He hasn’t been able to match the 25 combined targets he got in weeks 1-3 with Christian Watson out with an injury, but he’s remained involved and is putting up solid fantasy numbers despite not too many touches.
Reed’s Fantasy Outlook
The Packers’ pass catchers are all young, with no receiver over 25 years old. They are all trying to develop a strong connection with Love in his first year as the starting quarterback.
I wrote a story several weeks ago about the Packers’ pass catchers and noted that none of them have been the No. 1 threat. That’s still true today, with pretty much every receiver being the best in a certain statistic instead of one guy dominating each one.
What that means is that any given week, any of these guys can function as the top option in the passing game. In week 10, that happened to be Reed.
There’s going to be weeks he functions as the top wideout, and other weeks he’s barely utilized in. That’s just what the Packers’ offense is right now. Nobody is dominating the touches or targets, so it could be a different player leading the way every week.
Should You Target Reed on the Waiver Wire?
Reed’s production is impressive seeing his snap totals - Romeo Doubs and Watson played 21 and 16 more snaps, respectively. Reed played five more snaps than rookie Dontayvion Wicks.
It’s hard to trust a player in fantasy when they are only playing half of the team’s offensive snaps, but Reed has been fairly consistent this season.
Seeing as Reed is only owned in 29% of leagues, there’s a pretty solid chance he’s available in your league, regardless of what kind of league it is.
In deeper leagues and dynasties - which probably makes up a good portion of the 29% - Reed needs to be rostered, and probably started for that matter. Even the chance of him being the team’s top receiver on any given week should be enough to confidently start him most weeks, especially when it’s a favorable matchup.
Reed should also be a pretty hot commodity on the waiver wire in standard leagues. At this point, Reed is a flex option at best for teams. He’s a solid waiver wire option, but there’s also a few other guys out there right now that are probably better options (check back for those stories).
That means he should sit a bit lower on the waiver wire priority list for week 11. If you miss out on the top few wideouts and end up with Reed instead, I’d base my start/sit decisions for him on which defense the Packers are facing - at least until Reed can consistently prove he’s a solid fantasy option.
Over the next few weeks, the Packers take on the Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs and New York Giants.
We should have a better idea on the type of production Reed can provide at that time, and hopefully he’ll be a player that we can plug into our fantasy lineups every week.
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