The Green Bay Packers roll into Sunday with the NFL's sixth-best pass defense and a unit that's largely kept tight ends at bay. Can they put the clamps on Washington's Jordan Reed?
"They haven't seen a tight end like Jordan,"Â Redskins coach Jay Gruden told reporters this week, per CSN Mid-Atlantic. "He's different, he's a different animal."
Finally healthy, Reed has sizzled down the stretch, piling up 370 yards and five touchdowns over his last four games. After failing to cross the 100-yard barrier over the first three-quarters of the campaign, the fourth-year pass catcher scorched the Bears for 120 yards in Week 14 and the Eagles for 129 yards in a Week 16 win over Philly that handed the NFC East to Washington.
The problem for Green Bay is that committing too many resources to Reed leaves Washington's other targets open for business.
"If they choose to double him or take him away that's where DeSean Jackson, Pierre Garçon, our halfbacks come into play and Jamison Crowder," Gruden said. "We feel good about dispersing the field with the weapons that we have. If they choose to take one guy away, we like our matchups across the board."
The Packers held Jason Witten to 40 yards in Week 14 and Greg Olsen to 66 in Week 9, but Reed is operating on another level heading into the Wild Card Round. He looms as a juicy X-factor for Sunday's win-or-else showdown.
