Two years into his NFL career, former fourth round pick Colby Wooden has not made too much of an impact on the Green Bay Packers defense, and the team appears to still be searching to find his best role.

Entering 2025, here’s what the numbers say about Wooden’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the areas he has shown growth or regressed:

Strengths

There are only a couple of statistical categories in which Wooden grades out particularly well.

Compared to the other qualified interior defenders since 2023, he ranks in the 76th percentile in quarterback hits per pass rush opportunity (HIT/OPP), with two QB hits in each season despite pretty limited playing time.

He has shown good discipline when on the field through two seasons, ranking in the 67th percentile in penalties committed per snap, with only one flag thrown on Wooden in his NFL career so far.

Weaknesses

The most notable issue with Wooden so far is that he has simply not been on the field much. He ranks in just the 6th percentile in snaps against the pass and the 8th percentile against the run since entering the league. This speaks to his inability to carve out a true role so far.

It should be easier to create havoc when facing true pass sets, but Wooden has been less impactful in these situations, ranking in the 17th percentile in hurries (HUR/OPP), the 32nd in sacks (SK/OPP), the 27th in pass rush win rate (WIN%) and the 20th in PFF’s pass rush productivity (PRP) metric.

He has not been much of a factor in the run game, sitting in the 30th percentile in missed tackle rate against the run and the 17th in average depth of tackle (AVDT), which indicates a lack of plays being made around the line of scrimmage.

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Fortunately, Wooden did make some progress in certain aspects in both the pass and run game between his first and second season.

As a pass rusher, he improved from the 46th percentile to the 66th in SK/OPP, picking up two sacks in 2024 compared to just one as a rookie, despite playing only nine more snaps versus the pass.

His overall WIN% ranking went from the 40th percentile to the 52nd, while against true pass sets it improved from the 19th to the 35th percentile.

Wooden put on weight before the 2024 campaign and was a better run defender in most statistical categories. He went from the 33rd percentile to the 93rd in tackles per snap, making two more tackles last year despite playing 49 fewer snaps against the run.

After ranking in the 17th percentile in missed tackles in the run game as a rookie, he jumped to the 44th percentile, still below average, but a solid improvement. Similarly, he went from the 21st percentile to the 47th in run stop percentage, which are tackles which mean a failure for the offense.

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While the extra weight may have helped him hold up against the run, it may have had an adverse effect on his play in the passing game, as Wooden was generally a worse pass rusher in Year 2.

In terms of hurries, he dropped from the 64th percentile in HUR/OPP to just the 10th, as well as declining from the 56th percentile in PRP to the 25th.

Based on Kenny Clark’s comments to the media during OTAs, it sounds like Wooden has put on even more weight this offseason and has been learning more nose tackle techniques.

It may be that after seeing how a heavier Wooden improved against the run, but was less effective versus the pass, the Packers are trying to send him completely the other way, bulking up to become primarily a run stopper.

Overall, Wooden has not been a bad football player during his short NFL career so far, but he has been a fairly decidedly below average defensive tackle in both phases of the position.

Year 3 looms large as a pivotal year for Wooden as he tries to solidify a role on the team, with sixth round pick Warren Brinson and UDFA Nazir Stackhouse now nipping at his heels.