Fifth Round: Packers Grab Virginia WR Dontayvion Wicks

Virginia receiver Dontayvion Wicks, who had a superb 2021 season, joins Michigan State's Jayden Reed as receivers drafted this weekend.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
Apr 29, 2023 3:11 PM EDT
Original:
Apr 29, 2023

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers picked Virginia receiver Dontayvion Wicks with the second of their fifth-round draft picks on Saturday.

Wicks had a predraft visit with the Packers. He’s the second receiver selected following Michigan State’s Jayden Reed in the second round on Friday. Green Bay entered the weekend with only five receivers under contract, so adding multiple receivers was vital.

“I had a feeling it was going to be Green Bay and had some great conversations with (receivers) coach (Jason) Vrabel,” he said during his Zoom call. “It’s great news. I’m ready to get to work.”

Here’s more on Wicks, who played like a potential early-round draft pick in 2021 but struggled through a new offense in 2022.

Measureables: 6-1 3/8, 206 pounds, 10-inch hands. 4.62 40, 4.20 shuttle, 9.16 Relative Athletic score (0-to-10 scale).

Stats and accolades: Turn on the 2021 film and Wicks looks like a potential first-round pick with his 57 receptions for 1,203 yards (21.1 average) and nine touchdowns to earn first-team all-ACC. However, 2022 was a different story with 30 catches, 430 yards and two touchdowns. The end of the season canceled following a school shooting that killed three members of the football team.

Analytical stats: Of 104 receivers in the 2023 draft class to be targeted at least 50 times in the passing game, he ranked 88th with 1.45 yards per route run and last with a drop rate of 23.1 percent. He was 3-of-14 in contested-catch opportunities and caught 5-of-21 passes thrown 20-plus yards downfield. He forced a missed tackle on 27 percent of his catches and averaged 4.1 yards after the catch. He ran 12 unique routes and went deep 47 percent of the time, which ranked 28th and seventh, respectively, among SIS’s top 48 receiver prospects.

How he fits: Wicks took a predraft visit to Green Bay. No doubt his tale of two seasons was a topic of conversation. He went from 3.25 yards per route with 15-of-29 success on contested catches to 1.45 yards per route with 3-of-14 on contested catches. He’s got nice size, above-average quickness and giant hands, which make that appalling drop rate seem unfathomable. He’s an asset as a blocker.

“He needs to improve his hands and work on his strength at the catch point to be a viable threat in an offense,” The 33rd Team wrote. “He did show good toughness in contested catch situations and going over the middle. He also showed good effort in the run game as a blocker when he knew the ball was coming his way.”

Personal touch: What happened last year?

“What I tell them is that I feel like I learned a lot from last year,” Wicks said at the Senior Bowl, where he was voted a player of the week by the opposing defensive backs, “and that I’m using it as a motivation to show that you can always be at your lowest but it’s about how you react and respond. I also tell them that 2021 was the real me and 2022 was a year of thinking, learning a new scheme and new systems.”

Wicks grew up with dreams of being a basketball player. Virginia delivered his only Power-5 scholarship offer late during his senior season. “I didn’t get an ACC scholarship until a month before Signing Day,” he told NBC 29. “So, I didn’t really imagine this. I really thought I was going to go play basketball in college.”

This touchdown was incredible.

Wicks joins returning receivers Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure, Bo Melton and Jeff Cotton, plus the second-round pick Reed. Watson, Doubs, Toure and Melton were drafted in 2022; only Watson, Doubs and Toure have caught a pass in a regular-season game.

Like Reed and Musgrave, Wicks participated in the Senior Bowl, the top predraft all-star game.

"The Senior Bowl going out there and perform at my best against some of the best. It showed me a lot with the interview process being able to talk to a lot of coaches," he said at pro day.

"It was a bad season for the team and how I've overcome that, overcoming adversity," Wicks continued, "It was a great experience talking to the coaches letting them know about me, more about me and not just what they've seen in 2022."

The Packers have six more picks to wrap up Day 3, with two choices in the sixth round and four more in the seventh.

Sixth round (No. 179): Pick acquired from Buccaneers

Sixth round (No. 207): Pick acquired from Jets for Aaron Rodgers.

Seventh round (No. 232):

Seventh round (No. 235): Pick acquired from Rams as part of Corey Bojorquez trade

Seventh round (No. 242): Pick acquired from Jaguars for Cole Van Lanen

Seventh round (No. 256: Compensatory for Chandon Sullivan