The Green Bay Packers have lofty expectations for their defensive front in 2025. After some dry spells throughout the 2024 season, the Packers have essentially decided to run it back with the same group.
Devonte Wyatt will be a key piece of the puzzle. After a huge first month in 2024, an ankle injury robbed him of much of his momentum. Entering 2025, there are multiple reasons to believe it will be a career-defining year for Wyatt.
Despite playing 1138 defensive snaps in his first three seasons, Wyatt has only started five contests since they drafted him in 2022.
That’s because the interior of the defensive line tabbed Kenny Clark and T.J. Slaton as the starters the last few years, and both proved to be incredibly durable. Now, Slaton is out of the picture after signing with the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency.
Throughout the 2024 season, there were some games where Wyatt would log more snaps, and others where Slaton was on the field more. With Slaton out of the picture, Wyatt undoubtedly will become a full-time starter for the first time in his career, and he’ll also see an increased workload as one of the guys up front.
We don’t know how Wyatt will respond to greater responsibility. Still, if it’s anything like what the Packers experienced in the first month of the season before an ankle injury sidelined him for three weeks, it should pay off handsomely.
Wyatt is also in line for a payday. Green Bay exercised his fifth-year option earlier in the offseason. By picking it up, the Packers have a cushion knowing Wyatt is under contract for the next two years. Still, general manager Brian Gutekunst has said he wants to ink Wyatt to a longer-term deal.
For both those guys, whatever mechanism we use, we’d like to keep those guys [Wyatt and Quay Walker] around for ’26 and beyond. So, whether that’s doing the fifth-year option or extending them, one way or another, we’re planning on doing that, we’d like to do that.
Of course, this was before the draft and before they picked up Wyatt’s option. Gutekunst noted the desire to keep Wyatt around beyond 2026. How Wyatt performs in 2025 will have a significant impact on what that dollar amount will be.
If Wyatt has a breakout year in his first season as a full-time starter, the cost of doing business will go up for the Packers. However, they wouldn’t mind that. A productive Wyatt, causing havoc, is great for Green Bay’s chances of having an improved defense with multiple playmakers.
On top of all of those factors, don’t forget that Wyatt is an older prospect. How’s this for a dose of perspective: Kenny Clark is 29 years old, and it feels like he’s been in Green Bay forever. That’s a compliment to how critical he’s been to the operation. Clark is 29 and is entering his 10th year in the NFL, all with the Packers.
Wyatt is entering his fourth year and is 27 years old.
That wasn’t a typo. You read it correctly. Wyatt is 27 and still on his rookie deal.
His one golden opportunity to cash in big time could be this year, heading into the next offseason. How he performs, if he’s able to stay healthy, will play a big part in what sort of deal Wyatt ends up receiving — and if it’s to stay in Green Bay.
Time flies, as they say, and head coach Matt LaFleur echoed that towards the end of minicamp when he was asked about Wyatt specifically and expectations for him this year.
It’s crazy how fast this goes. 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.
Wyatt needs to find consistency and stay healthy in 2025. Both will go a long way to determine how the Packers view him going forward. There are moments in an athlete’s career that can either set them up for the future or see it crumble.
Given his age and still being on a rookie deal, his role as a full-time starter for the first time, and what he showed in the first month of 2024, that career-defining spot in Wyatt’s career is 2025. This is his time to shine.