Jarrett Boykin, wide receiver
FOX Sports Wisconsin's Paul Imig gives an in-depth statistical analysis and film study of every Packers player in his annual offseason checkup. You can find every report here.
Season stats (playoffs included): 15 games, three starts (242 snaps; 19.9 percent of total offensive snaps); three catches, 12 targets, 23 yards, zero touchdowns, three dropped passes, forced two missed tackles, zero fumbles
ProFootballFocus.com season rating: minus-7.1 (ranked No. 18 out of 21 Packers offensive players; ranked worst among Green Bay wide receivers)
Best game: Week 2 win over New York Jets (played 35 of 72 snaps); one catch (three targets), six yards, zero touchdowns, zero dropped passes, one forced missed tackle; minus-0.9 PFF rating
Worst game: Week 1 loss at Seattle (played 49 of 62 snaps); zero catches (zero targets), zero yards; minus-0.8 PFF rating
Expectations at the start of training camp: Medium
Expectations were ... Not met
Looking live: Following the 2013 season, there was a lot of positivity surrounding Jarrett Boykin. In his Annual Checkup from last year, I wrote that Boykin's "sophomore campaign showed drastic improvement." He had an eight-catch, 103-yard game while working with Aaron Rodgers, a performance that included Boykin making six notable plays. In that one game alone, Boykin did everything from catching a high pass on third down to making an all-out diving grab to scoring a touchdown by plowing over a defender at the goal line. In what seemed like proof that Boykin wasn't just a product of playing with Rodgers, he had eight catches for 112 yards in a game that featured Seneca Wallace and Scott Tolzien at quarterback. I wrote at the time that "his quick progress could give Green Bay's front office enough reason to believe that Boykin can be the No. 3 wide receiver in 2014, thus possibly making James Jones (a free agent) expendable."
Boykin checked in at No. 22 on FOXSportsWisconsin.com's Most Important Packers of 2014 list that was released before training camp. Green Bay had indeed let Jones leave in free agency and had confidence that Boykin could replace that production. However, I was somewhat skeptical about him as the Packers' No. 3 wide receiver, writing, "Boykin will be drawing more attention and will be matched up with better cornerbacks at times. Perhaps Boykin excelled as the No. 4 or No. 5 target but struggles when elevated up the depth chart."
Boykin had a lot of support from Rodgers in training camp as the former undrafted receiver worked daily with the starting offense. In words that would later prove that Boykin simply wasn't cutting it, Rodgers said on the sixth day of training camp, "if you're consistently in the right place at the right time, you can't help but make plays; the ball is going to find you. We throw to the open guy in this offense, we go through our progressions. We don't lock in on one person. And if you're consistently doing the right thing, running the right route at the proper depth you can't help but make plays. And that's what happened with Jarrett."
Even as training camp was coming to a close, Mike McCarthy was still very excited about Boykin. "Jarrett Boykin, just clearly he's taken the next step," McCarthy said on Aug. 26. "I just love the way he plays. He's physical, his toughness, he's relentless. I think he's exceptional at the top of his route. You see his strength and balance to separate from a DB (defensive back). I think he's had an excellent camp."
Upon further review: Boykin's 2014 season was nothing like his 2013 season and nothing deserving of the type of praise that Rodgers and McCarthy were giving him just weeks earlier during training camp.
It all began with the much-discussed Week 1 matchup in Seattle. McCarthy had Boykin lined up outside right with Richard Sherman in coverage, and the Packers' expectation was that Sherman would soon decide his time was better spent on the left against Jordy Nelson. Instead, Sherman stuck to his side, while Rodgers completely avoided throwing a pass anywhere near Boykin. Sherman deserves a ton of credit for blanketing Boykin, but Rodgers didn't avoid the right side of the field out of respect or fear for the three-time first-team All-Pro. Boykin was just never open. Remember, Rodgers had stated less than a month earlier that "we throw to the open guy in this offense, we go through our progressions." Boykin never got open, thus no passes were sent his way.
OK, but that's Sherman. Many receivers struggle to get open against him. Surely Boykin would create better separation in the following weeks. Nope. It didn't happen. In Weeks 2 and 3 combined, Boykin had seven passes sent to him, catching two of them and dropping two of them.
Boykin then suffered a groin injury in practice and missed the next three games. By the time he returned, his days as a starter and playing more than two-thirds of the snaps were gone. Boykin didn't start another game all season and added just one more catch for six yards after Week 3. He played the same amount of snaps in Week 1 as he did in the final five games of the season (playoffs included) combined.
There were reasons why Boykin didn't get drafted and was released by the Jaguars after just a few days in Jacksonville as a rookie. But it seemed prior to the 2014 season that his lack of speed wasn't going to prevent him from having a decent NFL career, partially thanks to his large hands. Perhaps Boykin's confidence sunk to a low point early in the season that it couldn't recover from, but his fall-off from 2013 to 2014 was drastic.
Overall 2014 grade: D-minus
Status for 2015: Twenty percent chance of being on the Packers' active roster to begin the 2015 season. Boykin is a restricted free agent, and tendering him an offer that would cost Green Bay $1.5 million seems unlikely. Boykin might need a change of scenery to reboot his career in an effort to show that he's more like the 2013 version of himself than the 2014 version. But if a wide receiver can't succeed playing with Rodgers in the NFL's No. 1 scoring offense, where can a receiver succeed? That logic will likely work against Boykin if he is forced to look for interest elsewhere across the league. The Packers have Jared Abbrederis and Jeff Janis who will be looking for playing time as No. 4 and 5 receivers in 2015, so Boykin's job has replacements already lined up.
Next: Linebacker Carl Bradford
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