Packers Morning Buzz: Free-agent wide receivers in short supply

Welcome to your Morning Buzz, rounding up news and views regarding the Green Bay Packers from around the web and here at PackersNews.com.

We'll start with the free-agency outlook at the wide receiver position. It's a good thing for the Packers that the draft is deep in talent there, because it will be slim pickings for veterans on the open market, writes SI.com's Bill Huber:

Heading into the offseason, Green Bay has a massive need at receiver. Free agency is not the place to look.

You can read Huber's full story and list of the top 10 available wide receivers (which inclues former Packers slot receiver Randall Cobb) here:

Rob Reischel of ForbesSports narrows his list of potential Packers targets at the position down to five:

Albert Breer also weighs in on the topic in his MMQB column:

On the free agency front, the one persistent thing—and we mentioned this in two columns last week—is that veteran receivers could face a soft market because the draft is so strong at the position. Amari Cooper should get paid. After that? A.J. Green gets tagged, Larry Fitzgerald is going back to Arizona, and then you have older players like Emmanuel Sanders and Randall Cobb, guys with red flags like Robby Anderson, and former first-rounders with untapped potential like Breshad Perriman and Nelson Agholor. It could be that we see some one-year “prove it” deals as a result of teams deciding they can find answers in April rather than March.

The draft is a totally different story. An up-close look at another wide receiver that some have projected to the Packers at No. 30:

Here's how NFL.com's Cynthia Frelund assesses the Packers at the position:

Green Bay Packers

Top three WRs in 2019: Davante Adams (83-997-5), Allen Lazard (35-477-3 -- exclusive rights free agent), Marquez Valdes-Scantling (26-452-2).

Last season, the Packers' offense threw passes behind the line of scrimmage at the third-highest rate in the NFL (26.2%), which is why their second- and third-ranked pass-catchers in terms of total catches were both running backs (Aaron Jones caught 49 passes for 474 yards and three scores; Jamaal Williams had 39 catches for 253 yards and five scores). Adams led the team with 83 receptions in just 12 games, but no other Green Bay receiver had more than 35 receptions in 2019. Since last year's offseason was heavily focused on defense, it's probable that this offseason will be spent reinforcing the offense, especially with regard to finding a complement for Adams.

Check out the entire story for each team's outlook here:

Our series on the Packers' unrestricted free agents kicks into high gear:

Matt LaFleur adds another assistant with an offensive line background:

It's striking how many of these plays involved Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who virtually disappeared late in the season:

This is lofty company for Davante Adams:

ESPN's Rob Demovsky tells the story of how James Morgan rose from obscurity to become potentially the first QB from Green Bay to get drafted in 32 years:

Cory Littleton, who would be an ideal free-agency fit for the Packers, has an interesting routine before games:

Charting Aaron Rodgers' improvement in 2019 using play action:

Spoiler alert: The Packers don't make this list (not after what they did last year):

Your (seemingly) daily Taysom Hill analysis, this from The MMQB's Breer:

The Saints’ decision to put a first-round tender on Taysom Hill is pretty reasonable, if you think about it. It’ll cost New Orleans close to $5 million to do it. It’d cost them about $3.5 million to tender him at the second-round level. I don’t think anyone touches Hill with a first-rounder as the comp. For a second-rounder? That’s possible. And so having the peace of mind that you’ll get Hill back, and get to develop him as a quarterback for another year, is well worth the $1.5 million. Especially with Teddy Bridgewater leaving.

The CBA voting process gets an extension:

Aaron Rodgers' frustration with the process is evident:

Maybe there should be even more time devoted to studying the CBA's fine print:

And finally:

Contact Stu Courtney at (920) 431-8377 or scourtney@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stucourt