Few rooms in the NFL are as crowded as the Green Bay Packers’ wide receiver room is right now. The Packers came into the season with a battle royal to determine the No. 1 target for quarterback Jordan Love, and even with Christian Watson and Jayden Reed sidelined, there’s just one football to satisfy all the talent Green Bay has on its depth chart, and not every mouth can be fed.
That process has begun to thin out as WR Dontayvion Wicks’s snap count has decreased over the past couple of weeks. While rookie Matthew Golden has already benefitted from the shift, fellow rookie Savion Williams could be the next to get an opportunity after head coach Matt LaFleur announced on Thursday, via The Athletic’s Matthew Schneidman, that he does not anticipate Wicks practicing this week as he works through a calf injury.
Dontayvion Wicks Injury Could Open the Door for Savion Williams in Packers Offense
The news that Wicks won’t practice likely means he will not play in Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It also continues a slow decline he’s experienced since the Packers’ bye in Week 5. According to Pro Football Focus, Wicks played 169 offensive snaps and 42.3 snaps per game over the first four weeks, but those numbers dropped to 36 offensive snaps and 18 per game in the last two games.
Part of this has been due to an ankle injury that Wicks was playing through in a Week 6 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, but the calf injury has forced him off the field altogether. This is a bad development with Watson returning sometime within the next two weeks and Reed coming back sometime next month. It also opens the door for Williams to make an impact.
Williams hasn’t done much in his rookie season, catching four passes for 23 yards and running six times for 27 yards. The 24-year-old has also contributed on kick returns with an average of 26.1 yards on 13 returns. But his path to playing time on offense has been blocked with just an 11% snap rate over the first six games.
While Golden, Tucker Kraft, and potentially Watson could handle the bulk of the targets on Sunday night, there’s still production that needs to be replaced with Wicks sidelined. Wicks was averaging 3.3 offensive snaps per game before getting hurt, and with 33.8% of offensive snaps, it’s unlikely that Golden will handle that entire workload.
Malik Heath is also a threat to Williams, but Love hasn’t looked his way much with just two targets over the first six games (both catches for a total of 46 yards).
Put everything together, and Sunday could be the best chance for Williams to show he deserves more work. Wicks’ injury could be enough to present that opportunity and perhaps get the rookie WR more involved in the second half, which could lead to a trade that thins out the Packers’ receiver room in the offseason.