Pro Football Focus recently put together their list of the top-32 interior defensive linemen ahead of the 2024 season. Coming in at No. 29 on the list was the Green Bay Packers’ Devonte Wyatt.
At the top of the list was Chris Jones, followed by Dexter Lawrence, Quinnen Williams, Derrick Brown, and Cameron Heyward. Just ahead of Wyatt at Nos. 27 and 28 were Kenny Clark and Grady Jarrett.
Here is what PFF had to say about Wyatt and his ranking:
After barely featuring in his rookie season, Wyatt was far better in Year 2, particularly at rushing the passer. He racked up 48 quarterback pressures, including the playoffs, adding 26 defensive stops and playing almost 650 total snaps. Wyatt has the juice to be a very disruptive interior pass-rusher.
As mentioned, Wyatt was featured much more heavily in his second NFL season. Wyatt’s 48 pressures were the fourth-most on the team and 20th among all interior defenders. He would rank 12th in PFF’s pass rush win rate metric as well.
Wyatt would total 5.5 sacks, but that figure realistically could have been closer to double-digits had Wyatt been able to finish off some of those pressure opportunities.
A real jump in production is again possible for Wyatt. In part because of the experience gained last season, but also, this new one-gap system under defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley better suits Wyatt’s skill set and is very similar to what he was asked to do at Georgia.
Under Joe Barry, the defensive front was asked to occupy two-gaps, which consisted of reading what the offensive line and backfield were doing, and then defending the gap that appeared to be the most vulnerable.
In Hafley’s defense, however, this is an attacking front, where it is the defenders’ job to get north or south and into the backfield as quickly as possible. The end result is hopefully a more proactive and disruptive defensive front.
“Devonte Wyatt, I think he’s going to thrive in this defense,” said Packers VP of Player Personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan. “Where you can kind of just pin your ears back, get off the ball. That’s what he was at Georgia — quick, work edges, penetrate, disrupt. I think there’s a bunch of guys who are going to benefit from what we’re doing.”
Improved play from the Packers’ defense as a whole starts with the play up front. More consistency is needed from a pass rush perspective after the Packers ran very hot and cold last season when it came to getting after the quarterback. This was also a run defense unit that surrendered four games of 200-plus rushing yards and ranked 23rd in yards per carry.