Devonte Wyatt just needs to be a little bit better

Devonte Wyatt had a weird year rushing the passer in 2023.

Overall, he did a very solid job taking steps toward aligning his on-field game with the off-field characterizations to which he was subjected in the lead up to the 2022 NFL Draft. Namely, he started to look like the explosive pass rusher that he is.

Only Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark had a better year creating pressures than Devonte Wyatt, and Wyatt actually produced pressures at a higher rate than Clark (as you can see on our pass rush stats tracking page). But, as we often point out, not all pressures are created equal. And by one measure, at least, Wyatt had one of the team’s worst pass rushing outputs last year.

Pressures, as tracked by Pro Football Focus, incorporate hurries, hits, and sacks, and of the 10 pass rushers we tracked in 2023, Devonte Wyatt produced hits and sacks — the pressures that involve contact with the quarterback —  at the third-lowest rate. Only Justin Hollins and TJ Slaton hit the quarterback less frequently than Wyatt did; Hollins barely played for the Packers at all, and Slaton is never going to be confused for someone whose main job is to get after the quarterback.

Of his 48 pressures last season, only about 23% resulted in a hit on the quarterback. Wyatt’s closest comparison was Colby Wooden, the undersized rookie from Auburn who seemed to be playing out of position last year. Frankly, Wyatt isn’t making contact with the quarterback enough. 

Now, lest you think this is doom and gloom directed toward Wyatt, let me clarify that it isn’t intended to be. More accurately, this is pointing out that Wyatt’s 2023 was just what I said in the opening sentence: weird. This is a weird little outlier, and I think it’s actually encouraging when we look at other pass rushers on the Packers.

I recently looked back through some of my data on Rashan Gary and Kenny Clark, and found that both of them also saw significant variation in their rates of contact with the quarterback. Clark, in particular, was encouraging. His career average contact rate is 23%, and in three of the Packers last four seasons, he was significantly higher than that. In 2020, 2022, and 2023, he posted a contact rate at or above 27%.

This is only a small difference; another reps where he made contact with the quarterback (through a hit or a sack) and Wyatt would have been at a whopping 29% for his contact rate. That seems like a big swing, and it is, but I think it’s right in line with the impact of such a play. Think of how big of a difference a well-timed hit on the quarterback can make, or how many drives can turn on a sack. Wyatt is just that close to making the leap from still-developing youngster to true impact player. And in a new defense, one that prioritizes penetration and playmaking from the defensive line, that leap may be tantalizingly close indeed.