GREEN BAY — Aaron Rodgers made the comment so offhandedly, as he was running through all of the wide receivers that still remain at his disposal. He wasn't singling Randall Cobb out; he was simply mentioned him first, as if going in order of most receptions last season.

"I still like the guys we've got," the Green Bay Packers quarterback said after the first open organized team activity practice of the spring, in the wake of Greg Jennings' free-agent departure and franchise all-time leading receiver Donald Driver's retirement. "We have a lot of talent at that position. I think Randall Cobb is a guy who could be a 100-plus catch guy every year. James Jones led the league in touchdown receptions last year. (And) Jordy (Nelson) has had some real big years for us.

"I like what Jarrett Boykin brings. He's a big, physical receiver who's going to get some opportunities this year. And I think he really has a great approach to the game, as does Jeremy Ross. Both those guys last year really stepped up and cared about it enough to put in a lot of extra time."

A 100-plus catch guy every year. Put into the context of how many times that's happened in Packers history, and how many receptions the team's top receiver has had during Rodgers' time as the starting quarterback, and you realize that the QB must have an awfully high opinion of Cobb to make such a statement — even after Cobb caught 80 passes for 954 yards and eight touchdowns in 15 regular-season games last season.

In Packers history, only two players have caught more than 100 passes in a season: Sterling Sharpe caught a team-record 112 passes in 1993; Sharpe caught 108 passes in 1992; and Robert Brooks caught 102 passes in 1995. A player has caught more than 85 passes in a season only five other times: Sharpe's 94 in 1994; Driver's 92 in 2006; Sharpe's 90 in 1989; Javon Walker's 89 in 2004; and Driver's 86 in 2005.

Since Rodgers took over as the starter — with his "My favorite receiver is whoever's open" mentality — only two players have even reached 80 receptions in a season: Jennings in 2008, and Cobb last year. Driver had a team-high 70 catches in 2009; Jennings led the team with 76 receptions in 2010; and Nelson caught a team-best 68 (one more than Jennings) in 2011.

And yet, 100 receptions might very well be realistic for Cobb because of how much better he can get, according to Rodgers and wide receivers coach Edgar Bennett.

"(He made) tremendous strides, but again, he can do so much more," Bennett said. "He can clean up certain areas and be even more fundamentally sound and be even more productive."

Added Rodgers: "I think the best is yet to come with him."

Cobb played 733 snaps (including playoffs) last season — 400 fewer than Jones, who played 1,149 — and while he has been savvy publicly about not complaining about his special duties, both his quarterback and his head coach have talked about the idea of pulling him from kickoff and punt returns because of his importance to the offense. Rodgers spoke openly about it late in the season last year, and coach Mike McCarthy did replace Cobb with Ross for the NFC Divisional Playoff game — with disastrous results.

Last month, McCarthy said Cobb's "special teams responsibility is really up to his teammates. There's opportunity there for others to compete and perform. And we won't know that until training camp. And hopefully (someone will) take Randall's place."

Cobb set a franchise single-season record 2,342 all-purpose yards last season, and special teams coordinator Shawn Slocum suggested that Cobb could still do both and be even more productive than he was last season. On returns, Cobb returned 38 kickoffs for 964 yards and 31 punts for 294 yards.

"Last year he did both jobs and caught 80," Slocum said. "Go look at the number of returns and the number of yards. Numbers for me are really about how you look at them, and we can turn them a number of ways to evaluate them — which we will. We'll hypothetically come up with a bunch of scenarios. We're just trying to find the best combination and what we want to do."

The truth of the matter is that Cobb, even in the Packers' spread-the-wealth passing game, is the one player on offense beyond Rodgers that the team can't afford to lose for an extended period of time. If the coaches don't feel he's being put at unnecessary risk on returns — and the team's history would suggest that the coaches don't see returns as inherently more dangerous — then he'll be back there.

For his part, the mature-beyond-his-years Cobb is simply focused on being productive — no matter what his roles are.

"You can always improve. I've always said you can never really reach your full potential so I always try to continue to climb that mountain," Cobb said. "In the offseason, I've definitely worked a lot on my route running and trying to perfect my craft.

"It doesn't matter to me as long as we're getting wins. Whatever it's going to take ... is what I'm down to do. If that's returning, great. If not, great. Whatever it's going to take for us.

Jason Wilde  wrote: