GREEN BAY – Outside of Xavier McKinney, there may not have been a hotter player on the Packers' roster through the first month of the 2024 season than Devonte Wyatt.
The third-year defensive tackle shot out of the gate with seven tackles (five for a loss), five quarterback hits and three sacks in his first three games before suffering an ankle injury against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4 that sidelined him for the past three weeks.
With a wide smile on his face, Wyatt made his highly anticipated return to the practice field Wednesday as a limited participant. While his three sacks remain a team high, the 6-foot-3, 304-pound defensive lineman is excited to rejoin a surging Green Bay defense featuring 11 players with at least one sack this season.
"Humbling, I would say," said Wyatt when asked about his injury. "Because I saw my guys out there. I wanted to get back out there so bad, but I supported them, just from where I was, and just being patient (to) get back on that field, really."
A first-round pick out of Georgia in 2022, Wyatt has shown steady improvement during his brief time in Green Bay. He set career marks for tackles (36), solo tackles (18), tackles for a loss (six), sacks (5½) and QB hits (11) in 2023 and even more was expected in Year 3 with the switch to Jeff Hafley's defense.
Wyatt has always felt his style fits into any scheme but enjoys getting vertical and causing disruption within Hafley's system. The 26-year-old defensive lineman was more than hitting the target early on, too.
Thinking less and attacking more, Wyatt became the only Green Bay defensive lineman since 2008 to register three-plus sacks and six-plus tackles for a loss in the first four games of a season. A week before injuring his ankle against the Vikings, Wyatt recorded his first two-sack game in a 30-14 rout of the Tennessee Titans.
While the pass-rush production came as advertised, Wyatt has made significant signs of progress in terms of becoming an every-down defensive lineman.
"You see what he does in the pass game and how effective he is, but I don't know if you quite dive into how good he's been in the run game," said Hafley when asked about Wyatt last month. "The TFLs, the movement, the speed, the athleticism, the get-off, the penetration. He makes it hard for the O-line. Really hard.
"All those different bodies we have in the middle, you've got some really big guys and then you've got some quick guys, and he's kind of a combination of both. I'm a big fan of him."
After not having an interior defensive lineman miss a game due to injury last year, the Packers have been a little banged up this year. In addition to Wyatt, Kenny Clark has been limited in practice by a toe injury for most of the season while second-year defensive lineman Colby Wooden was questionable for last Sunday's game against Houston due to a knee injury.
Getting Wyatt back in the mix would be a major boon for a Packers defense coming off a dominant 24-22 win over the Texans in which it allowed just 55 net passing yards. Green Bay also held Houston to 4-of-13 on third downs and 2-of-4 in the red zone.
"To be honest, I just feel support from my teammates, coaches, just the confidence I gained throughout the year just going playing football," said Wyatt when asked about his fast start. "I feel like I started off good, but I just gotta come back, keep that momentum going, really."
Wyatt said the ankle was "a little worse" than he first thought, but the main thing was just staying patient. The past month has given Wyatt a chance to step back and learn from a different perspective.
He was locked in on how his fellow defensive linemen attack up front, taking notes on where he can improve once back on the field. Asked about his availability for Sunday's game in Jacksonville, Wyatt said, "I should be able to go."
Either way, he's happy to be back and eager to pick up where he left off.
"Keep that momentum going. Really, that's it," Wyatt said. "Just keep that momentum going."
