The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein is reporting that the Green Bay Packers’ working belief about defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt’s ankle injury is that he “suffered significant ligament damage
in his left ankle.” As bad as a broken ankle would have been for Wyatt, ligament damage is much worse, considering how much quicker and successful broken bone returns are.
According to Silverstein, Wyatt is going to fly back with the Packers to Green Bay and then have an MRI to assess the damage to his ligaments. Unless there’s some miracle, it feels like Wyatt will have played his last game in 2025 for the Packers.
Wyatt, a starting under tackle, had his 2026 fifth-year option picked up this offseason. He’ll be under contract next year, likely as a starter, but will leave a void behind in 2025, after the team already traded away projected starting nose tackle Kenny Clark to the Dallas Cowboys in the Micah Parsons trade.
Without Wyatt, the starting under tackle will likely be Karl Brooks, who missed the Detroit Lions game with an injury, backed up by sixth-round rookie Warren Brinson. Colby Wooden is starting at the nose tackle position for the Packers right now. This would leave Nazir Stackhouse as Wooden’s backup in that spot, too.
With Wyatt off the field, assume that the team will ramp up their Cheetah packages on passing downs. That’s what Green Bay calls their personnel when they have three defensive ends on the field at the same time. Usually, either Parsons or Lukas Van Ness is the defensive ends who kick inside. This is the team’s way to steal away a couple of snaps from defensive tackles, to keep them fresh, and to improve the team’s pass-rushing potential.
Van Ness wasn’t able to play against the Lions, but he did suit up last week against the New York Giants after missing a month with a foot injury. Hopefully, this “mini bye” will allow Van Ness to be healthy enough to start making a dent on the team’s defensive line rotation.
