GREEN BAY − What is Jayden Reed? 

Is he a wide receiver, a slot receiver, a running back? Is he a deep threat or an intermediate weapon? Is he a speed guy or a shifty runner who uses angles to his advantage? 

Maybe, Reed should decide. 

“I always thought I was kind of a gadget player,” the Green Bay Packers rookie said Monday. “Be used on jet sweep, end arounds and also be used in the pass game where they could throw passes. So that’s kind of how I was used some a little bit in my college, but I definitely always thought I was more gadget player.” 

A gadget player is undefinable. They are not one thing, but a little bit of everything. More than just a jack of all trades, a gadget guy is the kind you create in a video game just to try in crazy scenarios; something Reed admits he used to do, then trying the plays on the field. 

Now in his rookie season in the NFL, the Michigan State alum has seen his role increase and the playbook open as he’s shown coaches how versatile he can be. 

“(Reed’s) a playmaker, he was in college and he’s been doing that since he’s been here,” receivers coach Jason Vrable said. “I think he’s a natural football player. He’s competitive. And, yeah, as many times we get the ball in those guys hands, I think good things are gonna happen.” 

This season, Reed has been sent into motion more than 75 times, averaging more than six times per game. Specifically in jet motion, Reed has been used close to 20 times, and he’s been used on a curl motion (motioning behind quarterback Jordan Love at the snap) around 15 times. Those are times he’s been in motion at the snap. The Packers also have used Reed in pre-snap motion, moving him from one position to another after the rest of the offense was set, around 30 times. 

Following the injury to running back Aaron Jones, the Packers even lined up Reed in the backfield, flanking Love with him and tight end Tucker Kraft. 

This amount of motion requires not only an athletic player, but someone who understands the offense from every spot on the field … because he could feasibly be at every spot on the field.   

“I really just think it’s a repetition thing,” Reed said. “The more you do it, the more you understand it, and the more you have a better feel for it. So the more reps I got, the more I was comfortable and confident to go out there and run plays like that.” 

Reed has 36 receptions for 497 yards and five touchdowns. He’s added seven rushing plays for 81 yards and one touchdown. Six of his seven rushing plays have come in the past three wins. That threat has become real for opponents, and now the Packers can move into a new facet of Reed’s impact: as a tell. 

“We tried earlier in the year,” Vrable said. “Sometimes the right look might not be there, they might be pressured on the edge and then it looks like, hey, maybe we were just using him as a disguise.

“We’ve had (Christian Watson) kind of doing the same things and (Watson) did it last year. Sometimes the front or the coverage of their look kind of dictates where the ball is gonna go, so Jordan doesn’t hand it off into a dirty edge or something like that.”

Added Reed, “Defenses try to definitely disguise a lot. Try to make it seem like they’re in one look, then when the ball is snapped, a whole different look. So they definitely try to do that. But that’s why you got to have those motions to definitely kind of expose them a little bit … It definitely just gives you like man-zone tells. Shows what the defense is running, what the defense is in, how to attack them and stuff like that.” 

It’s poetic that the Packers are blossoming with Reed right as they prepare to face offensive guru Andy Reid, and the reigning champs, the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s in that system the current iteration of the NFL has come to appreciate the use of the gadget guy. 

“I’ve been watching (Chiefs receiver/gadget player) Kadarius Toney since college really, since he was at Florida. He was definitely a player I looked up to,” Reed said, going on to compare himself to a former Chiefs player who also thrived in the role. “Tyreek Hill a little bit. He’s more used for deep threats and stuff like that. But you can see that they motion him a lot, they get him in different positions on the field, which is dynamic.” 

The gadget guy is not new in football, but players like Hill, and now Reed, provide a weapon on offense against today’s speedy defenses. 

“I’m seeing it a lot more,” Reed said of the style of play. “I definitely believe you need a player that, to create mismatches, throw the defense off a little bit, even just a little small motions and stuff like that, just to identify what the defense is in. So I definitely think that’s definitely a good thing to have on offense.” 

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