Can Green Bay Packers Afford to Keep 6 Wide Receivers on Final Roster?

The Green Bay Packers consistently have a stable of talented wide receivers due to the efforts of their scouts and general manager Ted Thompson, who has drafted such stars as Greg Jennings, James Jones, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. 

This offseason, the Packers have so much talent at the position that they may consider keeping six wide receivers on the 53-man roster. But will that harm the team overall?

Sure, the Packers can financially afford to keep six receivers in 2015. Though Nelson and Cobb have a combined cap hit of $9.95 million in 2015, Davante Adams, Jared Abbrederis, Jeff Janis and Ty Montgomery would only count $2.04 million against the cap. 

Behind Nelson and Cobb, second-year player Adams looks like a top candidate for the No. 3 spot. He has built a rapport with Aaron Rodgers and demonstrated he can take some heat off Cobb and Nelson. Adams earned 11 starts in 2014.

Behind Adams, 2014 draft selections Abbrederis and Janis will compete with 2015 rookie Montgomery for a spot. The Packers also have practice-squad holdover Myles White. 

All the above mentioned players, save for White, are recent investments, and most are high-stakes investments, with Adams being a second-round draft pick and Montgomery a third. Abbrederis was a fifth-round pick. 

The Packers also have undrafted rookie wide receivers trying to make the roster in Javess Blue, Ricky Collins, Adrian Coxson, Larry Pinkard and Jimmie Hunt, but given how crowded the position is, they will likely be competing to make the practice squad. 

Being a rookie, Montgomery is essentially a lock to make the roster, and yet it's not likely he'll see many snaps lining up wide in his first season.

As a pass-catcher, Montgomery is still in need of some development. He had 16 drops and three fumbles over his last three seasons, though his drops last year may have been a result of the offseason shoulder surgery he underwent before the 2014 season. 

"Allows too many passes to get to his pads, resulting in some ugly drops in which the ball simply goes right through his fingers," wrote Rob Rang of CBS Sports in Montgomery's draft profile. 

Montgomery could also improve in his ability to gain yards after the catch. 

Where Montgomery could really make an impact for the Packers in his first year, however, is as a pass-catcher out of the backfield and, of course, in returns. At Stanford, he averaged 30.3 yards per kick return in 2013, second-most in the nation, and had two touchdowns. 

Montgomery totaled 1,091 yards total on kick returns in 2013, becoming the second player in Stanford history with more than 1,000 kickoff-return yards in single season.

Built like a running back at 6'0" and 221 pounds, Montgomery could be used out of the backfield much the same way the Packers have used Cobb in recent seasons. 

Though it's unclear which receiver will be used as the No. 4 in four-wide sets at this point in OTAs, Janis is in line for more snaps in 2015. As a rookie, Janis was only on the field for 15 snaps, per Pro Football Focus. 

However, recent comments from head coach Mike McCarthy indicate that 2015 will be a different story for the fan favorite. 

"Jeff Janis is definitely moving forward," McCarthy said after OTAs on June 2, per ESPN.com's Rob Demovsky. "I thought he really came on at the end of last year. He was definitely ready to play at that point."

Abbrederis missed his entire rookie season with a torn ACL, so he's already behind in terms of showing coaches his skills heading into training camp. However, he has been a strong participant at OTAs and was surprised and pleased to learn that he could keep up with or even surpass the other players in running "200s," per Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Let's assume that Adams, Montgomery, Abbrederis and Janis join Nelson and Cobb on the final roster and the Packers carry six receivers into the regular season. These players are young and have potential, and it wouldn't make sense to cut any of them.

However, how does that hurt other positions? That sixth roster spot has to come from somewhere. Having five wide receivers on the depth chart in 2014 allowed Green Bay to also keep four tight ends, three running backs, three quarterbacks, nine linebackers and six cornerbacks on the roster. 

The tight end group might be the area to take a hit. If Andrew Quarless and Richard Rodgers are roster locks and rookie Kennard Backman impresses, perhaps Justin Perillo doesn't make the cut. 

The Packers also currently have two fullbacks on the roster in veteran John Kuhn and rookie Aaron Ripkowski. Ripkowski is the future, and it's not worth risking other teams poaching him by attempting to place him on the practice squad. He'll also be a special teams contributor in 2015 and will need to be active on game day to do that. 

However, Green Bay also just re-signed Kuhn to a one-year deal worth the veteran's minimum of $870,000 with two $25,000 workout bonuses, and it would be surprising to see him let go before final cuts. His lead blocking for Eddie Lacy proved essential in 2014. 

To make up for the extra wide receiver and the extra fullback in 2014, the below potential configuration features only three tight ends and eight linebackers. 

	Offense	Defense	Special Teams
Quarterbacks	3
Wide Receivers	6
Running Backs	3
Tight Ends	3
Fullbacks	2
Offensive Line	8
Defensive Line		6
Linebackers		8
Cornerbacks		6
Safeties		5
Kicker			1
Punter			1
Long Snapper			1

Of course, that additional roster spot might not only affect offensive positional groups. The Packers were able to keep six cornerbacks on the roster in 2014. Could they make do with only five in 2015, with Sam Shields, Casey Hayward, Damarious Randall, Quinten Rollins and Demetri Goodson?

The Packers also had nine linebackers on the roster in 2014. They may have to keep only eight (meaning an undrafted rookie like Tavarus Dantzler wouldn't make the cut) to afford the extra receiver. 

Wide receiver is a much stronger unit than any defensive one, and it seems almost like a luxury to have six receivers at the expense of any defensive group. 

However, none of Adams, Montgomery, Abbrederis or Janis seems expendable, and any would be at risk of being signed away off the practice squad.

The Packers can certainly get good use out of six receivers, running more five-wide sets as they did in 2010 and getting Montgomery involved out of the backfield, possibly even on carries. But finalizing an NFL roster is a balancing act, and the luxury of six wideouts will have a corresponding cost somewhere else on the team. 

Salary-cap information via Spotrac.com.