Wide receiver appears to be set to be one of the most hotly contested position battles for the Packers this pre-season.  While Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb are locks to make the team, Davante Adams and Ty Montgomery are likely also near locks to make the 53 man roster.  That leaves Jared Abberderis, Jeff Janis and 5^th round rookie Trevor Davis to battle out for the final 2 spots.  Or does it?

Much speculation has been made about whether the Packers roster could actually afford to keep all 7 wide receivers.  Some have postulated the keeping only 2 quarterbacks, 3 running backs will be enough to keep 7 wide receivers while other have stated that keeping 7 wide receivers leaves the team dangerously thin at other positions.  My first question wasn’t if the Packers keep 7 wide receivers, but is it even possible and have any other teams kept 7 wide recievers?

To see how common 7 wide receivers actually are in the NFL I used Ourlads depth chart archives at the beginning of the regular season over the last 5 years; the rationale behind this is that the start of the season likely best represents the “best case scenario” for rosters, in other words, as players get injured rosters likely vary more and more away from the “standard”. 

Of course there are some caveats, for one Ourlads sometimes is making an educated guesses as to what a position a player actually plays, for instance Niles Paul was listed as a wide receiver on the Washington depth chart as a rookie when in actuality he’s more of a tight end (he was a WR/TE hybrid in college so Ourlads listing is understandable). 

Also just because a player is listed as a wide receiver doesn’t actually mean they are a wide receiver either; return specialists are often listed as wide receivers even though they never appear on offense.  For instance, Trindon Holliday has been listed as a wide receiver on 4 different official team rosters even though Denver was the only team to actually pass him the ball (2 rec, 17 yds).

Unfortunately, looking at depth charts early in the season also biases rosters based on suspensions; teams may carry extra players in odd roster spots while waiting for suspended players to return, for instance keeping an extra wide receiver while waiting for a suspended tight end to return.   However, given the impact of injuries likely overshadows suspensions I still feel looking earlier into the season is more indicative of how teams build rosters.

Surprisingly, 10% of all rosters featured 7 wide receivers at the beginning of the season, which is almost on par with the number of teams who kept only 4 wide receivers.  There doesn’t appear to a pattern of which spot this 7^th wide receiver is taking; New England has kept 5 RBs (HB/FB) while keeping 7 wide receivers, while Buffalo had 4 tight ends for 11 pass catchers on their roster at one point.

In conclusion it wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Packers to keep 7 wide receivers on their final roster.  In reality, the bottom 3^rd of the roster of all teams are widely regarded to be replacement level players and frankly when considering 3^rd string players, position likely isn’t as important.  For instance having a 7^th wide receiver at the expense of a 4^th running back or a 6^th cornerback likely won’t hurt the Packers in any appreciable manner.  Furthermore since there will always be players inactive on game days make their position even more irrelevant.  

Now will the Packers actually keep 7 wide receivers?  I honestly have no idea but if Trevor Davis, Jared Abberderis and Jeff Janis all make good impressions on the coaching staff and front office I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of them make the roster.