Why Was Now Right Time for Packers’ Contract Extension With Devonte Wyatt?

The Green Bay Packers’ summer of contract extensions continued on Monday.

First, they signed Jayden Reed to a three-year contract extension shortly before the NFL Draft. After that, they gave a lucrative four-year extension to fellow receiver Christian Watson,

At some point, there presumably will be a market-setting contract extension for tight end Tucker Kraft.

Those three contracts put together will give the Packers and Jordon love an offense with its weaponry locked in to try and continue their assault on opposing defenses in the NFL.

On Monday, the Packers finalized a contract extension for defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt. According to NFL insider Jordan Schulz, Wyatt agreed to a three-year contract extension worth $57 million, including a $20 million signing bonus. The contract ties Wyatt to Green Bay through the 2029 season.

Sources: The #Packers and DT Devonte Wyatt have agreed to a 3-year, $57M contract extension with a $20M signing bonus.

The former Georgia star and first-round pick has improved year-over-year and Green Bay views him as a key part of its future with a deal negotiated by… pic.twitter.com/MT7na6wuSX
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) July 20, 2026

Wyatt was supposed to play this season under the fifth-year option of about $12.9 million.

Wyatt was a first-round pick in 2022, a draft that netted the Packers both Wyatt and his former Georgia teammate Quay Walker as first-round picks to become anchors of their defense.

To date, that has not really come to fruition, Walker was allowed to leave in free agency this offseason, signing a three-year contract with the Las Vegas Raiders. He never truly lived up to his potential in Green Bay, despite occasional flashes of the athleticism that made him a first round pick.

Wyatt has been a similar story thus far. His first full season as a starter came just last year, but he has grown into Green Bay ‘s best defensive tackle.

After a quiet rookie season, Wyatt had 5.5 sacks in 17 games in 2023, five sacks in 14 games in 2024 and four sacks in 10 games in 2025, the first season in which he was a full-time starter.

Of course, it’s not just the sack numbers, but almost any defensive coach will tell you that disruption is production when it comes to playing on the defensive front.

Devonte Wyatt Was Growing Force Before Injury

According to Pro Football Focus, Wyatt out of approximately 100 defensive tackles ranked sixth in 2023, 10th in 2024 and 12th in 2025 in their pass rush win rate stat.

Wyatt’s growth and ability is something that caught the eye of his newest and biggest teammate, Micah Parsons.

Apart from Lukas Van Ness, there may not be a player that Parsons has been more complimentary of during his short time in Green Bay.

“He makes my life easier,” Parsons said in October of Wyatt.

With a player that demands the attention that Parsons does, perhaps there’s no greater compliment he could give than one of his teammates lessens his burden.

Wyatt and Parsons were just starting to learn how to play off of each other, with Wyatt and Parsons taking turns wrecking drives against Minnesota, and their chemistry was starting to take off.

“I saw a look in practice and I said, ‘If they’re going to slide hard to me this way’ – because I understand if I’m to the side, they’re going to slide hard – ‘can I back-half it and work back to the center instead of crossing the center’s face on like a timed game or whatever?” Parsons said after the game.

“I told D-Wy, ‘Listen, when it comes to the game, I’m going to blow this center up. Like I’m going to back-half it,’ and I got into the game and I blew it up.”

Now, the Packers are betting Wyatt can pick up where he left off.

“Me personally, I know I got a lot more in the tank,” Wyatt said at the end of the 2025 season. “I feel like I got a lot more in the tank than what I put out there this year or the past three years I had. I know I have a lot more, and I feel like this injury right here really is going to help me get above this hump, just showing y’all what I have.”

Wyatt will need to remain on the field to be the productive player both he and the team think he can be.

Wyatt has missed 10 games in the last two seasons, and both seasons have kind of mirrored each other. He starts the season with a high level of production, misses time due to injury and takes some time getting back to form.

Last year, for example, Wyatt started the season with a sack in each of the first two games, before going quiet against Cleveland and Dallas. He left the Cowboys game in late September with an injury and missed a month before making his return against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He’d play in four games without registering a sack before breaking the drought on Nov. 23 against the Vikings.

Wyatt hoped that would be the start to another hot streak but the aforementioned ankle injury, sustained when fellow defensive tackle Warren Brinson fell on him at Detroit, ended his season.

One Big Question Regarding Extension

One question that could be surrounding the extension of Wyatt is why now?

One quick look at the defensive tackle room likely answers most of those questions.

Javon Hargrave was brought in to be Wyatt’s running-mate, but he is 33 years old and is not a long-term solution at the position.

Karl Brooks is entering a contract year and is best suited in a part-time role. Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse were on the roster last season but not consistently impactful.

Chris McClellan was a third-round pick in April’s draft, so his potential impact is nothing more than a mystery at this point.

The reality is the Packers were left without much of a choice whether to give Wyatt a long-term deal..

He is impactful enough when he has been on the field, and there are not a lot of impact players around him waiting in the wings.

The other reality is the Packers have a limited amount of salary-cap space and draft capital in order to find a potential replacement.

Wyatt‘s ability as a pass rusher is why he was selected in the first round, and there are not a lot of quality defensive lineman with the talent like that to be selected that early in the first round.

Sometimes rarity and scarcity are the biggest reasons that a player can find his way to becoming a core player. The Packers are now hoping that Wyatt produces enough to prove them right on both the draft selection. They made four years ago and the contract extension they gave him Monday.

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