StaTuesday: Packers wide receivers with rushing touchdowns
Is Ty Montgomery a wide receiver or a running back?
Well, Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that Montgomery has been considered a running back for weeks. However, Montgomery is still wearing No. 88, which in NFL numerology means he is a wide receiver.
If you still consider Montgomery a wide receiver -- in the past seven games he's had 39 rushes, although never more than nine carries in a game, and 31 passing targets (with 25 receptions) -- he joined some rare company.
And if you don't consider Montgomery a wide receiver, don't worry, Jeff Janis also entered the club.
Both Montgomery and Janis had rushing touchdowns, a rare occurrence over the years for a Green Bay receiver. It had been done in the regular season by just seven wide receivers previously, and three of those were during or before World War II, including a pair in the 1920s.
| Player | Season | Carries | Yards | TD | Career carries |
| Tubby Howard | 1921 | n/a | n/a | 1 | n/a |
| Jack Harris | 1926 | n/a | n/a | 2 | n/a |
| Don Hutson | 1941 | 4 | 22 | 2 | 62 |
| Don Hutson | 1945 | 8 | 60 | 1 | 62 |
| Jon Staggers | 1973 | 4 | 33 | 1 | 8 |
| James Lofton | 1982 | 4 | 101 | 1 | 32 |
| Phillip Epps | 1985 | 5 | 103 | 1 | 11 |
| Donald Driver | 2001 | 3 | 38 | 1 | 34 |
| Jeff Janis | 2016 | 2 | 38 | 1 | 2 |
| Ty Montgomery | 2016 | 44 | 228 | 1 | 47 |
Some notes:
-- Hutson not only rushed for touchdowns, but he also kicked the extra point after scoring, including an 11-yarder against the Chicago Cardinals in a 17-9 win on Nov. 16, 1941.
-- Staggers was the Packers' leading receiver in 1973 with 412 yards. His touchdown came on a 20-yard reverse against the Giants on Oct. 7, 1973.
-- Lofton's touchdown also was against the Giants, on Sept. 20, 1982, on an 83-yard run. He also had 101 receiving yards in the 27-19 win. The play occurred on a third-and-2. According to the New York Times, "James Lofton, the Packers' all-pro wide receiver, raced over from the left side and took a reverse from [Jim] Jensen. [Quarterback Lynn] Dickey knocked down Byron Hunt with a block. Phil Epps, a 165-pound rookie wide receiver, bumped Mark Haynes. With those two Giants out of the way, Lofton, a former top-grade sprinter, had clear sailing, and he ran 83 yards untouched for a touchdown. It was the third longest running play in Packer history and the longest in 18 years.
"The play was called by Bob Schnelker, a former Giants' tight end who is now the Packers' offensive coordinator. 'It was a great call,' said Coach Bart Starr of the Packers. 'It proved to be a great impetus to us.' 'You never know what Bob Schnelker is going to call,' said Dickey. 'He has a great knack for calling the unexpected.'"
-- Epps got his touchdown in the 1985 season finale against the woeful 2-14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in front of a road crowd of just under 34,000, which, according to the Orlando Sentinel, "seemed to have its loyalties divided between the Packers and the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL." The 30-yard TD off a reverse was unexpected -- if only because it was supposed to be Lofton who got the carry, but the wide receivers lined up on the opposite side they were supposed to, thus Epps got the ball instead, and made the most of it.
-- Driver didn't have a catch against Minnesota in a 24-13 win on Dec. 30, 2001, but he did score on a 31-yard reverse which was keyed by a big block on Vikings safety Orlando Thomas by Packers quarterback Brett Favre. "That was great," Driver said after the game about Favre's block. "I was so close behind him I knew he was going to make a great block. I cut back inside and was gone after that."
Statistics courtesy pro-football-reference.com's Play Index
Dave Heller is the author of the upcoming book Ken Williams: A Slugger in Ruth's Shadow as well as Facing Ted Williams Players from the Golden Age of Baseball Recall the Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived and As Good As It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns
