Greg Jennings
Inducted: 2022
Wide Receiver: 2006-12
Height: 6-0; Weight: 198
College: Western Michigan, 2002-05
Honors:
Pro Bowl Selection (game played from 1950-2022): 2010, '11
Among the several hires on Ron Wolf's player personnel tree who became NFL general managers or the equivalent, the overriding consensus was that Greg Jennings was the best of the Green Bay Packers' procession of highly productive wide receivers between Pro Football Hall of Famer Sterling Sharpe and bookend Davante Adams.
It is those type of evaluations, dating to Vince Lombardi's director of player personnel Pat Peppler and several of the assistant coaches from the 1960s, that have long served as a starting point for the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame selection process. And it was largely why Jennings was enshrined in his first year of eligibility, taking into account that there were no inductions in 2021 due to the pandemic and the delaying of the 2020 banquet.
Nobody was fonder of Jennings than Ted Thompson, the general manager who drafted him and once whimsically wondered aloud why the Packers didn't throw to him every down because he was that good.
"That's a real compliment to Greg," said Mike McCarthy, Packers coach during Jennings' seven seasons with the team. "Ted loved Greg Jennings, no doubt about that."
Selected in the second round in 2006 in what was the second of Thompson's 12 drafts, Jennings broke into the starting lineup as a rookie and then became the Packers' go-to receiver for five straight years, even if he didn't always lead the team in receptions.
In Thompson's case, it was Jennings' raw talent that he found alluring.
"Greg was Ted's kind of guy. Great athlete, smooth as silk," said Packers GM Brian Gutekunst, who was first hired by Wolf as an area scout and then advanced through the organization under Thompson, who also had been hired by Wolf as a pro personnel assistant in 1992.
McCarthy, in turn, valued Jennings as much for his versatility as his skills. By being equally up to the task as both an outside and slot receiver, Jennings provided invaluable flexibility when McCarthy designed his game plans.
"When we got into the big games against Pittsburgh, New England, you had to go to your third, fourth and fifth matchups to be successful," McCarthy explained. "And I think Greg started the evolution of that because he could play anywhere. He could play outside and he was effective inside, too. His plays from the Super Bowl were from the slot and that was huge for us."
Jennings' two most memorable catches illustrated his value in either role.
The first was his 82-yard reception on the first offensive play of overtime to beat Denver in 2007. On that occasion, Jennings lined up wide left and won a footrace down the sideline to catch a Brett Favre bomb that hung in the air for 47 yards.
The other was arguably the biggest offensive play of the Packers' victory in Super Bowl XLV. On a third-and-10 play from the Packers' 25-yard line late in the fourth quarter with the Steelers trailing by three points, Jennings was the inside receiver on a trips-left formation and ran down the hashmarks to catch a 31-yard strike from Aaron Rodgers between two defenders that set up what proved to be a game-clinching field goal.
That was after Jennings had caught two touchdown passes that day for 21 and 8 yards.
"That was a veteran Super Bowl team that we beat. And we were a young team coming up," said McCarthy. "So where I'm going is the momentum that came off of Greg's catch shifted the game.
"That's as fine a throw and a catch as I've ever seen. (Jennings) runs a post, and they're playing two-man. That's a route that I've shown over and over again because Aaron absolutely throws that thing right on time and throws a strike, and Greg just steps on his toes and keeps that angle right inside and really almost scores. His route running and his ability to go full stride and set angles, drop his weight, cleats in the ground, I thought he was really special."
Jennings led the Packers in receptions in 2008 and '10. He was second to Donald Driver in 2007 and again in 2009 by two catches. He was second to Jordy Nelson by one catch in 2011. As a rookie, Jennings finished third on the team in receptions and then played in only eight games in his final season in Green Bay.
Overall, Jennings started 86 of 96 games with the Packers, finishing with 425 receptions for 6,537 yards with 53 touchdowns. His average of 15.38 yards per catch was better than any Packers receiver with 300 or more receptions from 1988 to 2021 except for Antonio Freeman, whose average was 15.43.
Other averages over that span were James Jones, 14.4; Nelson, 14.3; Robert Brooks, 13.8; Sharpe, 13.7; Driver, 13.6; Adams, 12.1; and Randall Cobb, 11.9.
As for Jennings' big-play impact, he led the NFL in 40-plus-yard receptions with eight in 2008 and also finished in the top five in 2007 and 2010.
In addition, Jennings played in 10 playoff games with the Packers, catching another 50 passes for 603 yards and six touchdowns.
"Is he a star receiver? I think so," Jimmy Robinson, Packers wide receivers coach from 2006-10, said after Jennings' third season. "I don't throw those kind of terms around loosely, but he's a guy that makes so much happen out there on the field – time after time, game after game."
While Jennings' speed wasn't exceptional, he was so smooth and disciplined in his routes that he could sneak up on cornerbacks and then race past them. He also had a knack for dropping his hips in full stride, snapping off his route and creating separation with a second burst of speed.
"Smooth. Sweet, sweet. I mean just pretty. He made it look effortless," said McCarthy. "Excellent hand-eye coordination, yards after the catch."
With Jennings due to turn 30 one week into the 2013 season and having missed eight games in 2012 with an abdominal injury, Thompson declined to use the franchise tag on him that offseason. Thus, Jennings became a free agent and signed with Minnesota in mid-March. In 14 games against the rival Vikings, Jennings had caught 10 touchdown passes, including two in the 2012 regular-season finale when he caught eight passes in all for 120 yards.
Jennings played two years with the Vikings and one with the Miami Dolphins but never matched the production he had in Green Bay and announced his retirement in July 2016.
Born Sept. 21, 1983, in Kalamazoo, Mich. Given name Gregory Jennings Jr.
