GREEN BAY, Wis. -- This is Jordy Nelson with Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback for 5¼ games: 20 catches for 240 yards and six touchdowns. This is Nelson with Brett Hundley as his quarterback for 4¾ games: 15 catches for 142 yards and no touchdowns.
While Davante Adams has enjoyed some degree of success since Rodgers broke his collarbone early in the Green Bay Packers' Week 6 game at the Minnesota Vikings, Nelson's numbers have plummeted. Hundley's only two touchdowns in his five games both went to Adams.
No one connected better with Rodgers than Nelson. The two own the franchise record for most touchdowns between a single quarterback and receiver, a total that reached 65 this season.
Nelson couldn't pinpoint why he hasn't developed the same bond with Hundley.
"I don't know," he said this week. "Probably different things. Brett feeling comfortable with Davante and being able to hit a couple big plays for him. You see that, and I think you see that with any quarterback in connection with the receiver. If you're able to make some big plays for him, you feel more and more comfortable with it.
"I don't think I've changed anything. I'm not going to change anything. I think the execution's been there. It's just sometimes the way it goes as a receiver. The quarterback feels comfortable with certain guys or whatever it is. I'm not saying he doesn't feel comfortable with me, but it's just sometimes that's the way the games play out sometimes."
Don't expect Nelson to make any demands of Hundley or of coach Mike McCarthy to make him the primary read on more of the play calls. That's not Nelson's style.
"I'm not worried about it," Nelson said. "I don't think he is or I don't want him to feel like he needs to try to get me the ball or anything. He just needs to continue doing what he's doing, go through his read, his progression, do what the coaches are teaching him to do, and we'll be able to execute."
Nelson will turn 33 this offseason but his age didn't seem to impact his production when Rodgers was healthy. After catching 97 passes and 14 touchdowns last season, he's on pace for 62 catches and nine scores this year.
"I've never put my game or how I play on my stats," Nelson said. "I've never set goals to get so many yards because I know, in our position as receivers, you can only control so much. That's what I'm worried about is what I can control and that's how I'm running my routes, how I'm doing my assignments, what the coaches are seeing, if they're coaching me up and I need to improve those things and continue to grow in the others. You want to be a part of it more but you have no control over it. Again, I don't want to sit here and say he needs to throw me the ball because that's definitely not the case. I'm going to do my job, they're going to do theirs. If we continue to do that and be more consistent in everyone doing that, we'll be successful."
One explanation for Adams' connection with Hundley is the two had practiced together more when both were backups early in their tenure. Typically, the No. 1s get more reps with Rodgers than the backups, and Adams had been No. 3 on the receiver depth chart until last season.
McCarthy has made it clear on several occasions since the loss to the Baltimore Ravens that the Packers' offensive "time clock" needs work. Solving that could help Nelson get back on track.
"Well, really that's what you practice for, that's what preparation is," McCarthy said. "You're always trying to get the timing down, there's always specific adjustments to certain routes based on who you're playing, how they play. It's no different this week. There's definitely different coverage tendencies from Pittsburgh we haven't seen in a number of weeks. As you go through the situations of how they play; that's why we're going to practice today and practice again tomorrow and keep working the fine details of the route-running and the ball placement and just make sure we've got the time clock between the quarterback and receivers where it needs to be."