Packers have a tricky contract decision to make on former first-round pick with upside and uncertainty
Devonte Wyatt is set to play on his fifth-year option.
Nine months ago, it was a certainty by any means that the Green Bay Packers would exercise Devonte Wyatt’s fifth-year option. With the benefit of hindsight, general manager Brian Gutekunst should be extremely glad that he did.
After that decision, the Packers traded Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys in the Micah Parsons deal, and the defensive tackle position became an even bigger need on the roster. Now, Wyatt is set to make $12.938 million in 2026 — a reasonable price tag for a disruptive yet incomplete interior defensive lineman.
However, it’s also a contract year for Wyatt, and the Packers have to analyze the future of the position. Based on that and the salary cap situation, a long-term extension shouldn’t be off the table.
Contract situation
Because Wyatt is on his fifth-year option, the entire salary hits at once in 2026. That’s a problem, and a reason for incentivizing an extension. There are material differences from projection to projection out there (Spotrac has him at $12 million, and Stick to the Model has him at $28 million). Let’s say it’s an average of both at $20 million a year, it’s still viable to structure the contract in a way to open up significant cap space this season.
“I feel really good,” Gutekunst said about the Packers’ cap situation. “A lot of that will be dependent on the decisions we make with the roster right now and what we do. But I believe we have all the flexibility to do what we need to do. We also have a bunch of young players, really good players, that we would like to keep around here for a while. So we’ll work through that. I feel good about our flexibility.”
Wyatt, in addition to tight end Tucker Kraft and wide receiver Christian Watson, are prime examples of those players the Packers may want to keep.
A challenging factor for Green Bay, though, is that Wyatt is a little bit older than the usual player reaching his second NFL contract. He was an older prospect when the Packers took him back in 2022, so he’ll already be 28 years old by Week 1. The front office usually prefers to hand players four-year extensions, but this can be a case where a shorter contract could make more sense for both sides.
Performance and health
Wyatt is excellent at generating disruption from the interior, with 107 pressures throughout his first four seasons. And that’s playing less than half of the snaps in each of his years in the league.
Devonte Wyatt defensive snap counts:
- 2025: 33.84%
- 2024: 33.24%
- 2023: 49.68%
- 2022: 21.68%
But that’s also a problem. Be it for his situational limitations early on or multiple injuries, Wyatt hasn’t been able to be a full-time player. Inevitably, his inability to stay on the field limits his value to the team and affects the contract negotiations.
If the Packers can extend Wyatt for the price of a good role player, that’s a smart approach. But if Wyatt and his representation want the full value of a strong interior rusher, it will be hard for the Packers to pull the trigger — and that scenario would add even more pressure on the front office to find long-term solutions for the defensive front.
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