The Green Bay Packers have a few more weeks to determine whether to pick up the fifth-year options of 2022 first-round draft picks Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt. Both players are entering the fourth and final year of their enter-level contracts. While the team still may want to retain the services of both players beyond the 2025 season, the Packers should not pick up the fifth-year options of Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt.
The Packers Should Not Pick Up the Fifth-Year Options of Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt: Walker’s Situation
Walker has been a starter at linebacker for the Packers from the start of his rookie campaign. The Georgia alum led the team in tackles in each of his first three seasons. Walker possesses good speed, but he has struggled to make impact plays over the course of his career. Many of his tackles came downfield after opposing players already gained substantial yardage.
In his rookie season, Walker struggled with his temper. He was ejected from two games for those incidents, but he has since stayed out of trouble over the past two seasons.
Walker has also worn the green dot on his helmet, communicating with coaches and calling the signals in the huddle.
Walker played better late in the 2024 season. The key for him in 2025 will be to prove that this was not a hot streak lasting a few games and is really his new standard of play.
In order to keep Walker using the fifth-year option, the Packers would have to pay him $14.7 million guaranteed for one year.
Devonte Wyatt
The Packers selected Wyatt six spots after Walker in 2022. The duo were teammates at Georgia and have been again in Green Bay.
Unlike Walker, Wyatt has not been a starter for most of his career. In three seasons with the Packers, he has started only five games with all of them coming in 2023.
Wyatt has never played more than 50 percent of the Packers defensive snaps in any given season of his career. Last season, he played just 41 percent of their snaps, a disappointing number for a former first-round pick.
Wyatt doesn’t play the run well, but he has done a good job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. He has a career-high of 5.5 sacks in 2023. He followed that up with five sacks last season after the Packers changed to a four-man front under new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley.
To keep Wyatt on the fifth-year option, GM Brian Gutekunst would have to give him a one-year, guaranteed contract for roughly $13.9 million.
The Packers Should Not Pick Up the Fifth-Year Options of Quay Walker and Devonte Wyatt: Alternatives
The Packers may choose to pick up the fifth-year option for one or both of these players, but the cost outweighs the production Walker and Wyatt have provided for the team thus far. Both are useful players, but the Pack would be overpaying both of them and would have to absorb the entire cost of their salary on the 2026 salary cap.
The ideal solution would be for Gutekunst to sign both players to contract extensions, that would be for longer than the one-year deals they would sign utilizing the fifth-year options. This way, the Packers could give both players signing bonuses. That would allow the players to get guaranteed money up front and would allow the team to spread the cost of the signing bonuses over the length of the contract.
The players would also receive additional years on their deals while costing the team less per season than the estimated value of picking up the options. This is similar to what the Packers did with Jordan Love before his rookie contract expired.
With the deadline for signing a fifth-year option just a few weeks away, the Packers are running out of time to negotiate a new deal with Walker and Wyatt or to make a decision on their fifth-year options. It would be better for the team to make a decision before the draft so they have a clearer picture of whether these two players will be on the roster in 2026.
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