Wyatt Gets Encouragement From Lunch Buddy Rodgers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – In a locker room filled with muscular alpha males, Aaron Rodgers shouldn’t be one of the most intimidating players on the Green Bay Packers’ roster.
But he is, especially in the Lambeau Field cafeteria.
“I like to pick a table with a guy that I might not have connected with yet and have lunch with him,” Rodgers said on Monday of connecting with his teammates. “Or, sometimes, sit by myself and see who comes and sits down, because that’s always fun, as well.”
One day, he found a taker in rookie defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt.
“One day I just seen him at the table by himself and I was like, ‘I ain’t gonna sit with him,’” Wyatt said on Tuesday. “But the head coach was like, ‘Nah, go sit with him. Don’t be scared.’ So, I was like, ‘Hey, Aaron, can I sit with you?’”
Wyatt apparently had Rodgers confused for the neighborhood bully.
“I thought it was going to be like, ‘Nah, you can’t sit here,’” Wyatt said.
Of course, Rodgers said yes.
“So, we just sat down, chopped it up,” Wyatt said, the intimidation factor melting away with every sentence. “He said, ‘A lot of guys said you were funny, but I don’t see it yet,’ so I started laughing.”
That icebreaker led to a more meaningful conversation between the four-time MVP and a rookie who’s struggling to find his way at arguably the team’s best position group.
One thing Rodgers has made a point of doing over the years is investing in his teammates. After coming off the bench at Dallas in 2019, Lucas Patrick shared a story of how Rodgers pulled him aside over lunch a couple months earlier at training camp.
“If you feel like ‘12’ has your back, it’s like the whole state of Wisconsin has your back,” Patrick said at the time.
Rodgers has Wyatt’s back, too. In this year’s NFL Draft, the Packers selected Georgia teammates Quay Walker and Wyatt in the first round. While Walker has run with the starters since the first day of training camp, Wyatt is buried on the depth chart behind Kenny Clark, Jarran Reed, Dean Lowry and T.J. Slaton. Noteworthy plays have been few and far between. Weighed down by the pressure and expectations of being a first-round pick, the struggles were eating at him.
Devonte Wyatt (Samantha Mader/USA Today Sports Images)
“He made me feel comfortable,” Wyatt said. “We talked, we sat, we ate. He just made me feel better about being in my predicament I’m in right now because I told him I’m a little stressed out about how things are going for me in camp. He was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. You got a long season.’ He said it took a minute for Kenny [Clark] to click in and Kenny told me himself, but he made me feel comfortable about sitting with him and just expressing myself to him.”
Rodgers didn’t need to spend lunch with a rookie who, at the moment, seemingly has no chance of having a significant role for the start of the season. But that’s not Rodgers’ way.
At the start of the season in 2019, the Packers didn’t need Patrick. But they did against Dallas, and they did the past two seasons, when he started 28 games. When the 2022 season kicks off, the Packers won’t need Wyatt. But, at some point, the Packers might need him. And the sharing of some jokes and meaningful conversation could be a turning point.
“What it does is that bond makes you start pulling for guys and, whether it’s conscious or not, that subconscious energy that you’re directing toward that individual person, it changes the perspective of how you look at him,” Rodgers said. “And, in turn, that could have a positive impact on them, so I really enjoy those opportunities.
“I’ve had a number of conversations with the younger guys and guys who are going to make the team, guys who are on the bubble and guys who are long shots. I just enjoy getting to know these guys. Wyatt has been a repeat lunch buddy, which has been fun.”
Rodgers and Wyatt are miles apart, figuratively and literally, in terms of experience (18 years vs. a few months), age (38 vs. 24), home states (California vs. Georgia) and NFL resumes (legend vs. rookie). But they both started their NFL paths at junior college. Once in Green Bay, Rodgers had to work his way into sure-fire Hall of Famer. Wyatt will have to work his way into the lineup.
The conversations with Rodgers have helped. Not that Wyatt is suddenly comfortable with his status, but it’s removed some of the burden of the pressure that comes with being a first-round pick.
“Mind-set wise, it’s not OK because I do want to develop fast and be on the field with the guys and experience that, but I’m not trying to rush it,” he said. “If I rush it, I’m going to keep [messing] up and [messing] up and [messing] up, you know what I’m saying? I’ve just got to take my time, be patient, take it step by step and just detail after detail. I could say right now, the predicament I’m in right now, I’m not mad because I got the guys in front of me, learning from them. And, when my time comes, I know I’m going to shine. My wings are going to open.”
