DETROIT – In 2010, with Ryan Pickett and Cullen Jenkins injured, the Green Bay Packers bolstered their defensive line by signing Howard Green. Green had a surprise role in helping the Packers win the Super Bowl.
They’ll need history to repeat itself.
On Thursday, the Packers’ top defensive tackle, Devonte Wyatt, suffered what’s expected to be a season-ending ankle injury during the victory over the Detroit Lions. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein reported Wyatt suffered “significant ligament damage.”
“It doesn’t look good, guys,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “I’m sick for him, I’m sick for us. I mean, that’s a critical loss for our football team, for our defense, obviously.”
Wyatt was injured during a powerful bull rush on Micah Parsons’ third-and-goal sack in the fourth quarter.
Including two sacks last week against Minnesota, Wyatt in 10 games is third on the team with four sacks. Among 63 defensive tackles with at least 200 pass-rushing snaps, he is 14th in pass-rush win rate, according to Pro Football Focus.
According to league data, the Packers are allowing 4.68 yards per passing play with Wyatt on the field compared to 5.39 when he’s off the field.
“I can’t say enough great things about him in terms of watching him mature not only as a football player but as a person,” LaFleur continued. “I’ve got a lot of love for Devonte Wyatt, and I think the whole locker room does, too. So, it’s a little bittersweet, I would say, in regards to, yeah, we’re happy about the win but we’re sick about what happened to him.”
The Packers have only four defensive tackles on their roster.
Colby Wooden, a fourth-round pick in 2023, has been an anchor of the team’s surprisingly strong run defense. While he has six tackles for losses, he has zero sacks and is 50th in pass-rush win rate.
Karl Brooks, a sixth-round pick in 2023, was inactive with an ankle injury on Thursday after playing only four snaps against the Vikings. He has no tackles for losses, a half-sack and is 34th in pass-rush win rate.
Nazir Stackhouse, an undrafted rookie, has played in 12 of 13 games. He’s played 114 snaps, with only eight the last two games. He has 10 tackles.
Warren Brinson, a sixth-round pick this year, has played in six games and was a healthy scratch in the other seven. He’s played 122 snaps, including 32 vs. Detroit and 53 the last two games. Brinson led the team with five pressures and had a half-sack against the Vikings last week.
That’s not a lot of proven production and not a lot of depth.
Devonte Wyatt vs. Everybody
In 57 career games, Wyatt has 16 sacks, 21 tackles for losses and 30 quarterback hits. The others:
Wooden: one-half sack, nine TFLs, six hits in 42 games.
Brooks: eight sacks, 10 TFLs, 16 hits in 45 games.
Brinson: one-half sack, zero TFLs, one hit in six games.
Stackhouse: zero sacks, zero TFLs, zero hits in 12 games.
Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (95) tackles Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
That’s a total of nine sacks, 19 tackles for losses and 23 hits among four players in 105 games. Wyatt has across-the-board better numbers while playing about half the games.
“I didn’t realize what happened until I got to the locker room,” Parsons said. “I’m obviously praying for him. You guys see the difference he makes when he got back out on the field. He’s a player you can’t replace, and we’re going to have to ask a lot of young guys to step up.
“It’s going to be challenging but we’re going to have to really dial into our details, our fundamentals to try to replace someone that’s unreplaceable. That’s the reality and I’m going to pray for him and I still hope he gets everything he deserves this offseason.”
After the Packers lost premier tight end Tucker Kraft with a torn ACL, they’ll have to adapt on defense without their premier interior player.
And soon. The NFC North-leading Bears, who have a strong offensive line, will play the Packers in two of the next three games. Chicago is second in the NFL in rushing.
Compounding matters, 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, who is big enough and strong enough to help on the interior, missed five games with a foot injury, returned last week but played only six snaps, then was out again at Detroit.
Help Wanted
The Packers have only one defensive tackle on their practice squad. James Ester, an undrafted free agent in 2024, spent all of last season and the first 13 weeks of this season on the practice squad. The 24-year-old, who had four tackles in the preseason, has not played in a regular-season game.
At Northern Illinois, he started 43 games and was a four-year team captain. As a senior, he was a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy – aka the Academic Heisman.
While there is some veteran depth available who could provide depth, there are no magic additions waiting on the street. That’s where finding Howard Green 2.0 could be a necessity.
Among the free agents are Christian Wilkins, a first-round pick by the Dolphins in 2019 who started 77 games in five seasons with Miami, including all 51 from 2021 through 2023. He signed a huge free-agent contract with the Raiders in 2024 but was released in July due to a foot injury and a locker room incident.
Montravius Adams, 30, was a third-round bust by the Packers in 2017 but started 21 games for the Steelers from 2021 through 2023 and had one sack in 11 games for them last season.
Linval Joseph, 37, was a two-time Pro Bowler for the Vikings. He played in all 17 games last season for Dallas.
While Adams and Joseph could contribute against the run, Quinton Jefferson, 32, had a total of 16 sacks from 2021 through 2023. He played in one game for the Lions this season.
Khalil Davis, 29, had four tackles for losses in 12 games with the Texans and 49ers last season.
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