Green Bay continues managing the recovery of their third-year wideout carefully. Jayden Reed has been on injured reserve since early September after injuries to both his collarbone and foot. Now that he’s practicing regularly and has been activated, will fantasy football managers see him back on the field this week?
Is Jayden Reed Playing Week 14?
Reed’s collarbone break occurred in Green Bay’s second game of the season against Washington after he landed awkwardly following what would have been a touchdown grab before a penalty flag negated the score. Complicating matters was a Jones fracture in his foot that he had been dealing with since training camp.​
Green Bay shut Reed down and had him undergo dual surgeries on September 16 to address both injuries simultaneously. Having both issues fixed at once ensures he’ll be at full strength whenever he does return.​
On Friday before facing Minnesota in Week 12, the Packers designated Reed to return, opening his 21-day activation window. The timing of this move raised eyebrows since it happened on a Friday. Obviously, Reed was not going to return after just one practice following a lengthy layoff. Nevertheless, that kickstarted Reed’s road to returning.
Reed practiced again this week as he makes his way back from a long absence. He was limited at practice all three days and has yet to get in a full session. Clearly content with his performance at those limited session, the Packers activated him from IR on Saturday ahead of the 4 PM ET deadline.​
While Reed is still technically listed as questionable, it would be completely devoid of all logic for the team to activate him and not play him. If Reed wasn’t ready to make his return, the Packers would’ve left him on IR for another week.​
Head coach Matt LaFleur said Friday that he was hopeful Reed would be able to play Sunday but the Packers were still going through the process of him being fully cleared medically.​ On Saturday, Ian Rapaport reported that Reed will play.
Reed’s Fantasy Football Outlook
The Packers opened up Reed’s (collarbone) 21-day practice window in the middle of November and prevailing wisdom is that he takes the field for this huge NFC North battle.
This is a player that is going to be hard to trust in an offense that spreads it around, but don’t forget that Reed was battling a foot injury before the collarbone injury, and that means that we could be getting as good a version of Reed as possible once he returns.
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No player in this offense has established himself as a strong target earner, thus leaving the door wide open for Reed to put himself in the PPR flex conversation the second he is officially ruled active.
I still prefer Christian Watson if we are stacking Packer pass catchers, but the case can be made for Reed if you’re backed into a corner.
— Kyle Soppe, PFSN Fantasy Analyst
