Jordy Nelson
Inducted: 2023
Wide Receiver: 2008-14, '16-17
Height: 6-3; Weight: 217
College: Kansas State, 2005-07
Honors:
Years selected to an all-pro first team: 2014
Pro Bowl Selection (game played from 1950-2022): 2014
Even with some of the best of the best among NFL wide receivers, they honed a patented route that became their trademark. That didn't necessarily mean they were less than complete receivers, just that they excelled at a specific skill that forever stuck in the mind's eye of many of their contemporaries.
In Jordy Nelson's case, it was the back-shoulder throw.
Few receivers have ever executed the play any better. Nelson had the size at 6-foot-3, 217 pounds to tower over most cornerbacks, the discipline as a route runner to stay the course and leave room for the quarterback to fit the ball where it needed to be, and then the concentration and hands to make contested catches.
"He's got the best feel of any receiver I've ever played with and it's not really that close," Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback for almost all of Nelson's receptions, once said.
The origin of the back-shoulder pass was as a red-zone play, but the Packers took it to another level during the Rodgers-Nelson years, using it anywhere on the field and off both short and long patterns. Beyond that, the play was all about timing and, arguably, there was never a passing combination that mastered that aspect of the play better than those two.
"(Nelson) probably had the best connection with Aaron out of that whole group," former coach Mike McCarthy said in reference to a deep and talented receiving corps that also included Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, James Jones and later Randall Cobb.
The Packers selected Nelson with the fifth pick in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft, and he turned out to be a steal in one of the leanest wide receiver crops in history. When no wide receiver was taken in the first round, there was a run on them in the second round with Nelson being the 36th overall pick and the third to go.
Ten wide receivers were taken in all in that year's second round and half of them caught fewer than 50 passes in their NFL careers. Only DeSean Jackson caught more than Nelson, and Eddie Royal was the only other one to have more than four productive seasons.
Nelson was certainly one of former general manager Ted Thompson's best draft picks and one that was also fully supported by the coaching staff, even if there were others across the league who questioned Nelson's upside, especially after he ran a 4.51 40-yard dash, tied for 25th among wide receivers at that year's scouting combine.
But Nelson's film told a different story. It was highlighted by – but not limited to – his 10-catch, 137-yard performance against rival Kansas in his final college season, including a 68-yard touchdown, where he beat first-round cornerback prospect Aqib Talib.
"For me, this was one player where there wasn't one game (that jumped out)," Lenny McGill, the Packers' Central Plains area scout at the time, said on draft day. "Week in and week out, he was consistently making plays on a team that didn't really have a lot of weapons."
That was never an issue in Green Bay. In Nelson's time with the Packers, there was no shortage of talent at the offensive skill positions. But the consistency tag never changed.
"Jordy Nelson isn't flashy – he's just dependable," Mike Ditka, former Super Bowl-winning coach and Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end, said in 2012 when he was working as an ESPN analyst. "You win games with guys like that."
Nelson made only six regular-season starts in his first three seasons, splitting time as the third and fourth receivers with Jones, who had a year's more experience. At that point, Nelson's biggest contribution might have been as a kickoff returner. Early on, as a receiver, his physical skills were better than advertised, and he was versatile enough to play in the slot. But he could be slowed at the line of scrimmage by bump-and-run coverage.
Nelson's coming out party occurred in Super Bowl XLV, when a first-half injury to Driver increased his snaps and led to the most impressive stat line of any wide receiver on either team: nine catches for 140 yards, including the game's first touchdown on a 29-yard reception, and a 15.6 average overall as the Packers beat Pittsburgh, 31-25.
In 2011, Nelson started nine games as the third receiver and led the Packers in receptions with 68 for 1,263 yards, an 18.6 average, and a team-high 15 touchdowns. In 2012, Nelson missed four games and most of two others with a hamstring injury; and in 2015, he spent the entire season on injured reserve after suffering a knee injury in the preseason.
But in 2013, '14 and '16, Nelson was Rodgers' go-to receiver with some striking stats. His reception totals, in that order, for those three seasons, were: 85, 98 and 97. His average per catch lines read: 15.5, 15.5 and 13. His touchdown totals were eight, 13 and 14. He also won Associated Press Comeback Player of the Year honors in 2016.
In 2017, Nelson finished third in receiving with 53 catches and a 9.1 average as Davante Adams supplanted him as the Packers' No. 1 receiver. Nelson was released following the season, and he played one more year with the Oakland Raiders.
"He's very athletic," Rodgers said when Nelson was at the height of his career. "He can run all the routes needed outside. He's big-bodied and can go up and get the ball. But he's also agile enough and quick enough to be in the slot and make some plays there. So he has all the tools you want in a receiver."
In nine years with the Packers, Nelson started 88 of 136 games. He caught 550 passes for 7,848 yards, an average of 14.3 per catch, with 69 touchdowns. In nine postseason games, he caught 54 passes, averaging 12.4 a reception, and scored five touchdowns.
Born May 31, 1985, in Manhattan, Kan. Given name Jordy Ray Nelson.
