The last time the Green Bay Packers were faced with a decision regarding picking up a former first round pick’s fifth-year option, the declined to do so. That, of course, was in the case of Eric Stokes who a little over half of his tenure in Green Bay injured. Instead of playing with the Packers in 2025 on his fifth-year option, Stokes was not retained and has since signed with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Prior to Stokes, the Packers decided to buy out Jordan Love‘s fifth-year option and gave him a two-year contract extension. This, of course, was before he signed his massive $55 million a year deal last offseason. And prior to that, they gave Rashan Gary a contract extension while picking up the fifth-year option for Darnell Savage, a move they very clearly regretted.
Now, Green Bay is faced with the fifth-year option decision on two other players, 2022 first round picks Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt.
Green Bay Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst Wants to Keep Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt Around for a While
In a pre-draft press conference on Monday, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was asked about a wide variety of topics. One of these was the upcoming fifth-year option decisions the organization needs to make regarding Walker and Wyatt, both of whom were drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.
In response, Gutekunst said, “We won’t deal with that until after the draft, but whatever mechanism we use, we’d like to keep those guys around for ’26 and beyond. So whether that’s through doing the fifth-year option on these guys or extending them one way or the other, we’re planning to do that. We’d like to do that.”
In other words, both Walker and Wyatt will either have their fifth-year options picked up, or will sign multi-year contract extensions.
Green Bay Packers Fans Are Not Thrilled About the Decisions on Devonte Wyatt and Quay Walker
Though Walker has over 100 tackles in each of his first three seasons, many fans are critical of his mental mistakes and poor run defense. Wyatt, meanwhile, has yet to play more than 50% of the defense’s snaps in a season despite the fact that he is a former first round pick.
Because of these reasons, many fans were not thrilled to hear that they will have their options picked up:
Regardless of how fans feel, the Packers certainly seem to think both Walker and Wyatt are going to be important pieces on their defense for the foreseeable future. To that end, it is a good thing that they are trying to lock them up sooner rather than later.
