{"id":219281,"date":"2025-02-25T11:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=219281"},"modified":"2025-02-25T06:27:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T11:27:24","slug":"why-the-packers-should-draft-stanford-wide-receiver-elic-ayomanor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/02\/25\/why-the-packers-should-draft-stanford-wide-receiver-elic-ayomanor\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Packers Should Draft Stanford Wide Receiver Elic Ayomanor"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, the Green Bay Packers<\/a> have the privilege of hosting the 2025 NFL Draft for the first time in franchise history. While it is an incredible milestone to be able to have loads of collegiate talent from across the country visiting Titletown, it is important that the Packers can keep some of that talent in Green Bay for longer than the three-day event. Those plans should include drafting Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor<\/a> as the Packers’ offense needs some reinvigoration and star power at the position.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why the Packers Should Draft Stanford Wide Receiver Elic Ayomanor<\/h2>\n

Ayomanor\u2019s College Career<\/b><\/h3>\n

Ayomanor was the sole bright spot in the Stanford offense, even when he took a step back from the 2023 season where he recorded a 1,000-yard season and was awarded the CFB\u2019s best Canadian Player. 2024 saw much of the same production and consistency from his breakout year, putting him on the map as one of the best wide receiver options<\/a> in the 2025 NFL Draft.<\/span><\/p>\n

Need or Want<\/h3>\n

Green Bay will be without their primary downfield threat Christian Watson<\/a> for the majority of the season. Ayomanor has done much of the same at Stanford, averaging over 13 yards a catch, and has the potential to provide those same kinds of downfield looks for a healthy Jordan Love<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Packers struggled deeply with drops all season as they had the third most drops<\/a> among all NFL teams last season, recording 33. Ayomanor is a talented pass catcher who can improve that number greatly as he earns more snaps throughout the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Availability Concerns<\/h3>\n

The Stanford wideout is projected to go in the late first round to early second round in many mock drafts<\/a>, which means the Packers would have to risk their first-round pick to pick him up or pray he stays on the board late in the second round. If there is still an opportunity to take him after the first round, Brian Gutekunst could trade up for a pick early in the second round to select Ayomanor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Teams including the Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> and Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> are in search of wideouts. Both teams have their first picks at 21st and 22nd overall, just before Green Bay\u2019s 24th overall pick, which may pose a threat to Ayomanor being available in that first round.<\/span><\/p>\n

Risky Business\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

While Ayomanor is one of the more talented offensive players in this draft class, risking a high draft pick to bolster an already elite offense may cause problems in addressing larger holes on the defensive side of the ball. Drafting an edge rusher or cornerback<\/a> may be the better call because the Packers have more depth at the wide receiver position and can afford to wait.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once Watson returns later in the season, the role of Ayomanor may also become jeopardized and he may slowly provide less value to the team come playoff time. Unless Ayomanor has an insane rookie season under the helm of new wide receivers coach Ryan Mahaffey, Watson is inevitably going to be taking that starting spot back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Eakin Howard-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Packers’ offense needs improvement following their early exit from the playoffs. Could wide receiver Elic Ayomanor be the answer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5320,"featured_media":219295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[8920,32933,7460,6067],"class_list":["post-219281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packers","tag-christian-watson","tag-elic-ayomanor","tag-green-bay-packers-news","tag-jordan-love"],"modified_by":"Will Koshover, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219296,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219281\/revisions\/219296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}