Despite being used as their primary kick and punt returner, Randall Cobb was the best receiver for the Green Bay Packers last season and with Donald Driver retiring and Greg Jennings leaving to a different team, Mike McCarthy is planning on making the second-year player a full time wide receiver.

Cobb caught more passes (80) for more yards (954) than any other receiver on the Packers’ roster, and after leading the NFL in all-purpose yards last season, also scoring a touchdown on a kick return (his third return touchdown of his career). Cobb played 635 snaps last season on offense and another 138 on special teams for a total of 773 over 15 games. In 2013, he’ll probably the main offensive weapon for the Packers.

I hope he’s not playing next year. That’s really the responsibility of the rest of the skill players in the locker room. He’s someone who we spent a lot of time this time last year developing packages for him, as far as putting him in the backfield and so forth. I prefer not to play him on special teams. We’ll let time answer that.

So while Cobb has shown plenty of potential and promise, not to mention ability, of being the Packers’ #1 wide receiver (even if Greg Jennings does choose to return and re-sign with the team), there’s also the issue of finding someone to take his place as the team’s return guy on special teams. They’re still not 100% sure Cobb will be the next great receiver to preform Lambeau leaps on almost every weekend, but after he missed the last game of the season due to an ankle sprain on a kick return, there’s no more reason to mix both duties.

Jeremy Ross had some brief stints as a return man last season, but the numbers he produced – a 58-yard punt return and a 44-yard kickoff return, might give him the role on special teams, although Green Bay might simply look for someone to fill that role in the draft or College free agency.

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