Green Bay Packers: Can Jordy Nelson return to form?

The Green Bay Packers haven’t gotten much from Jordy Nelson most of the year. Can Aaron Rodgers return help to change that, though?

Heading into the season, there were strong arguments to be made that Jordy Nelson was a top-5 receiver in the NFL. Even if you didn’t believe so, it was hard to put him too far away from that distinction. Now though, Nelson looks like nothing more than an aging receiver who has little left in the tank.

In 13 games this season, the 32-year old has 47 receptions for 443 yards and six touchdowns. While those numbers aren’t miserable, they aren’t great and definitely don’t live up to the standards Nelson has built. These numbers are especially disappointing when considering the fact that Nelson’s coming off arguably the two best seasons of his career.

After posting a career-high 98 receptions and 1,519 yards in 2014, Nelson missed the entirety of 2015. He returned last year to record 97 receptions though, adding 1,257 yards and 14 touchdowns. So, what’s been different this year? It could be that he’s just starting to decline as a player of course. There could be more to it though.

Nelson started the year strong. Through six weeks he had 25 receptions for 290 yards and six touchdowns. It’s also important to remember that he missed basically the entire week 2 battle with the Atlanta Falcons, resulting in a zero catch performance. Those were his numbers with Aaron Rodgers as the primary quarterback.

Since Brett Hundley has taken over, Nelson has 22 catches for 153 yards and zero touchdowns in seven games. So in more time, he has less catches, a lot less yards, and six less touchdowns. It’s safe to assume that the quarterback has a little something to do with his drop in production. Chemistry is a major factor in quarterback-receiver combinations. Early on, it simply appeared that Hundley and Nelson had none.

Over the last two weeks, a little something has been established, leading to a combined nine catches for 50 yards. While those numbers still aren’t great, they show Nelson can still be somewhat of a volume option.

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With Rodgers back the question becomes, what Jordy Nelson will the Packers get? Was he simply not the same due to his favorite quarterback being injured? Or has the tank started to empty for the Kansas State product? If I had to give you an answer, I’d tell you to expect a spike in production, and a return to form for Jordy Nelson.