Green Bay Packers second-year interior defender Devonte Wyatt has been around the quarterback all season, but in the last few weeks, the pressure is turning into sack production.
Perhaps in somewhat of an under-the-radar season, Wyatt finished with 45 pressures, which is tied for the 19th most out of all interior defenders across the NFL. And he did this while playing under 50 percent of the Packers’ total defensive snaps this season.
To be that productive when part of a heavily rotated position requires the player to win their matchups consistently, something Wyatt did. According to PFF, Wyatt had a pass rush win rate of 15.4 percent, good for the sixth-best mark among his position group.
“I think it’s a testament to the kid,” said defensive coordinator Joe Barry on Thursday. “I talk about it all the time, just guys improving from Year 1 to Year 2. Daily improvement. He shows up every day, grinds, and works. It’s paid off for him with the numbers.”
However, despite frequently being around the quarterback, those pressures weren’t turning into sacks for Wyatt for a large portion of the season.
Through Week 14, Wyatt registered just three sacks, with 1.5 of them coming in the first game of the season against Chicago. Whether he was unable to bring the quarterback down or just a split second late, those high-pressure numbers weren’t being converted into sacks.
While sacks may be the ultimate goal for any pass rusher, pressures are incredibly valuable. In fact, within the Packers’ building, they measure pass rush success off of that aspect instead of sacks.
Pressure leads to disruption. It can force the quarterback to hurry, disrupt the timing and rhythm of the play, and get the passer off his spot. All this can then lead to mistakes.
But in the last two games, water has begun to find its level, as they say, for Wyatt. When a player is around the quarterback as consistently as Wyatt has been this season, eventually, the sacks will come. In the last two weeks, Wyatt has totaled 2.5 sacks–nearly matching his season total coming into those games.
“I think D-Wy finished with 5.5 (sacks), if I’m not mistaken,” added Barry. “I hate when coaches say he could have had three or four sacks, but when you look at it, D-Wy missed a legitimate five sacks this year. He was very close to having a 10-sack year. It was great to see the way he finished.”
Although there were two rookies on the Packers’ interior defensive line seeing significant playing time in 2023, Wyatt, in Year 2, was still going through a learning curve as a young player, especially when you consider that he played only 21 percent of the defensive snaps as a rookie. Being able to finish the play was likely a part of that.
We often hear about the Year 2 leap for second-year players, and Wyatt very much made that jump as a pass rusher. He has been a steady disruptor this season.
Right now, the interior defensive line unit as a whole is playing its best football of the season. Over the last month against the run, the Packers are allowing fewer than 4.0 yards per carry, while in the last two games in particular, they’ve done a great job generating push up the middle, contributing to higher quarterback pressure numbers as a team.
When the defensive front can control the line of scrimmage, the defense has a good chance of controlling the game.
“I just think guys are getting better,” said Kenny Clark after the win over Chicago. “We got two rookies, TJ’s in this third, D-Wy in his second year. All young guys that are going to continue to get better and they’ve been getting better each and every week.
“You got these guys that got a hell of an ability. TJ can stop the run with the best of them. D-Wy (Devonte Wyatt), Colby (Wooden), and KB (Karl Brooks), those guys can rush and rush they asses off and explosive in the run game and be disruptive. You’ve got a good combination of guys and when you put that work in the only thing you can do is get better.”
