Packers wrestle with yanking Randall Cobb off special teams

Weston Hodkiewicz | USA TODAY Sports

Pound-for-pound, no receiver in the NFL was more productive last season than Greeen Bay Packers receiver Randall Cobb, whose 2,342 all-purpose yards led the league and smashed Ahman Green's franchise record of 2,250.

With Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson battling injuries, Cobb's role expanded, and the 5-10, 192-pounder flirted with his first 1,000-yard receiving season before succumbing to an ankle injury that forced him out of the team's regular-season finale.

With Jennings leaving for the Minnesota Vikings in free agency and Donald Driver retiring, the expectations will increase in 2013 for the 22-year-old Cobb, who is younger than 17 of the 24 rookies on the Packers' roster.

"It's definitely going to be a lot more weight on me (and) James' (Jones) and Jordy's shoulders," Cobb said before the start of the Packers' Tailgate Tour on Tuesday.

"But we're taking on the challenge head-on. We've been really excited to get back and work. We've got some young guys, some drafted guys that (are) coming in. We're excited to see how it's going to turn out this year."

Cobb's swift maturation — a team-high 80 receptions for 954 yards and eight touchdowns last season — has raised questions about his future on special teams, where he's served the past two seasons.

Cobb has averaged 26.5 yards per kickoff return and 10.3 yards per punt return, with four combined touchdowns. The Packers' kickoff return team has averaged more than 24 yards per return in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1963 and 1964.

With Cobb's increasing importance on offense, however, Packers coach Mike McCarthy said in February he wanted to move Cobb off specials teams. But McCarthy backpedaled a bit at the NFL owners meetings in April.

"We have to look at special teams and wide receiver and be smart there, whether we fully take him off special teams or only partially," McCarthy said. "That's a decision we're talking through right now. Everyone wants to know: 'Why wouldn't you just do it?' I look at decisions like that as a responsibility to the locker room. It's a responsibility of the players. It's about opportunities."

In the wake of the ankle injury, the Packers teased switching out Cobb for first-year returner Jeremy Ross, who showed good instincts and explosiveness in relief during the final 5½ quarters of the regular season.

During the Packers' 45-31 NFC divisional playoff loss to San Francisco, however, Ross muffed a critical punt that led to a 49ers touchdown, resulting in Cobb's reinsertion.

The Packers have several players on their off-season roster with return experience, including Ross, but Cobb's impact on special teams has gone a long way toward improving a unit McCarthy often credited as the team's most consistent phase of the game throughout 2012.

"If I'm able to do it and they want me to do it, perfect. If not, perfect," Cobb said. "We have one goal and that's to bring the title back home. Whatever it's going to take to bring us there, if that's me returning, if that's me not returning, that's something we'll figure out over the next few weeks going into training camp and early on in the season."

Even without Jennings, the Packers' array of offensive weapons remains one of the league's most formidable with Cobb, Nelson, tight end Jermichael Finley and Jones, who led the league with 14 touchdown receptions last season.

Cobb was 20 when he was drafted at the end of the second round by the Packers in 2011. Kansas City, Detroit and Cleveland all passed on the 5-foot-10, 192-pound receiver out of Kentucky in favor of wideouts Jon Baldwin, Titus Young and Greg Little.

Two years later, Cobb has outperformed all three and isn't too far behind the 2011 draft class' top two receivers, Cincinnati's A.J. Green and Atlanta's Julio Jones, both top-10 picks.

"I really don't think I've peaked yet. I'm 22 years old," Cobb said. "I've got a lot of learning still to do. I have a long way to go and I just hope I continue to get better over the next years."

Weston Hodkiewicz writes for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, a Gannett property.