Development of Packers WRs Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs key for Jordan Love

The route-running abilities of Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs will hopefully make things easier on Green Bay Packers’ first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love and allow Matt LaFleur as the play-caller the opportunity to keep opposing defenses off balance.

For a Packers team that is limited in what they can do in free agency, Green Bay’s biggest improvements in 2023 are going to have to come internally from players who are entering their second and third NFL seasons, where the largest leaps are often made.

Watson and Doubs, of course, fall into that category. Both were limited at various points during their rookie seasons due to injuries, which slowed their growth, but they were also learning a new offense and adjusting to the NFL as well.

Now entering Year 2, where Watson and Doubs are presumably healthy along with more comfortable with the playbook, each has the opportunity to take on larger roles within the offense, with both possessing the ability to run a variety of route concepts.

At the NFL Annual Meetings last week, LaFleur was very complimentary of his second-year pass-catchers, telling reporters that Watson will be asked to run more routes. LaFleur added that he doesn’t believe there is a route that Doubs can’t run and compared his movement skills to that of Davante Adams.

“He (Watson) is a guy who can handle a lot,” said LaFleur via Packers.com. “I haven’t been around too many rookies where you can move their position in game, and he wouldn’t even flinch. He is exceptionally intelligent and knows the plan inside and out, but there’s a level of detail that is going to get better with him. Quite frankly, we are going to ask him to run more routes than he did a year ago.

“He’s (Doubs) got a unique skill set,” LaFleur later mentioned. “I want to temper this comparison, but he’s got some Davante Adams-type movement skills. Now, he’s got to learn when to use it and how to harness that, but he’s got that twitch that you’re looking for. I don’t think there’s a route that he won’t be able to run; we’re just going to have to give him enough reps to where he can continue his progression.”

What this does is it allows LaFleur to get much more creative with his play designs. We hear LaFleur talk about the “illusion of complexity,” and what Watson and Doubs can do as route runners helps him achieve that by the offense being able to run similar plays from a variety of formations, along with different…