Devonte Wyatt hasn’t had a breakout season. This year could be it.
The second of the Green Bay Packers’ first-round picks in 2022, Wyatt has been an impact player without anyone noticing.
In the 2022 draft class, Wyatt ranks eighth with 12 sacks. That might not seem like a lot, but he’s the only defensive tackle from that draft with at least nine sacks. Wyatt had 5.5 sacks in 2023; he would have had more had he not missed so many tackles. Wyatt followed up with 5.0 sacks in 2024; he probably would have had more if not for an ankle injury that sidelined him for three games.
The Packers need someone to step up to add some punch to their pass rush. Wyatt could – and should – be that player as he enters his fourth season.
“It’s crazy how fast this goes,” coach Matt LaFleur said at minicamp last week. “I think he’s had some moments where he’s been outstanding, and I think we can build on that. I think he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do throughout the course of the offseason. I think he’s in a much better place, and I think that he’ll be ready to go. Another guy that I expect to go out there and play his best ball going into Year 4.”
Sacks are great but pressures are important, as well. It’s the pressure numbers from Pro Football Focus that show Wyatt’s impact.
Wyatt played 247 pass-rushing snaps last season. In 2024, 76 interior defensive linemen had at least that many pass-rushing opportunities. Wyatt ranked 10th in pass-rush win rate and fourth in pass-rushing productivity, a PFF metric that measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap. In 2023, 77 interior defensive linemen played at least 247 pass-rushing snaps. Wyatt was sixth in win rate and second in pass-rushing productivity.
Last year’s ankle injury, sustained in the Week 4 loss to the Vikings, took the steam out of Wyatt’s hot start. In those first four games, he had three sacks and six tackles for losses – with at least one TFL in each game – and nine pressures.
Wyatt missed the next three games. The production remained missing when he returned. In his first six games back in the lineup, Wyatt had zero sacks, zero tackles for losses and nine pressures. Wyatt hit his stride down the stretch, though. In the final four games, he had two sacks, three TFLs and 14 pressures.
“I don’t like speaking on it,” Wyatt said of the potential production. “I’m more of a go-out-there-and-show-you type of guy. But I’m pretty sure I would’ve had a great year if I didn’t get no injuries.”
Because of his production and potential, the Packers picked up his fifth-year option, meaning he’ll be under contract through the 2026 season. Wyatt called it a “blessing.”
“I’m just ready to work and show what I can do,” Wyatt said.
The Packers are ready to see more of it. While they finished in the top 10 in sacks and sack percentage, they were in the bottom half of the NFL in terms of pressures. It’s perhaps too big an ask for the Day 3 draft picks – defensive ends Barryn Sorrell and Colin Oliver and defensive tackle Warren Brinson – to be immediate difference-makers.
So, it will be up to the holdovers – Wyatt perhaps at the top of the list – to step up their game.
“Man, just staying healthy and just staying hungry and keep building on what he’s been building on,” fellow defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “I think if he didn’t get hurt, I think just what he was going to do was going to be huge. He was making a lot of plays and all that kind of stuff, so just keeping that same mentality, keep working, keep grinding and just keep on improving and he’ll be all right.”
Wyatt will be asked to play a larger role this season. TJ Slaton, who started all 17 games the past two seasons, signed with the Bengals in free agency. Wyatt, who’s started five games in his career, including zero in 2024, ran with the No. 1 defense alongside Clark throughout the offseason.
Everyone knows Wyatt can rush the passer. Now, he’ll have to prove he can be a three-down player.
“Very excited, man,” Wyatt said. “Just to see what I can do this year, what I can bring, and what I improved in during the offseason through all the training I’ve been doing.”
