Jordan Love, Dontayvion Wicks Form Historically Bad Combination

The Packers’ Dontayvion Wicks was targeted three times by Jordan Love on Sunday against the Lions. The results remain historically terrible.

Bill Huber | Nov 4, 2024

Green Bay Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks (13) is unable to make a catch inbounds against Lions cornerback Carlton Davis III on Sunday at Lambeau Field. / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers quarterbacks have thrown 43 passes to Dontayvion Wicks. They’ve resulted in 16 completions and 27 incompletions.

Dating to Week 3, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff has thrown 30 passes to Amon-Ra St. Brown. They resulted in 30 completions.

Yes, while Jordan Love and Wicks have formed the worst quarterback-receiver duo in the NFL at the midpoint season, Goff and St. Brown have formed quite literally an unstoppable duo.

St. Brown caught all seven targets against the Packers, including the opening touchdown, in the Lions’ 24-10 victory at Lambeau Field.

“That’s pretty crazy,” Goff said after the game. “He’s the friendliest target I've ever thrown to.”

If Goff and St. Brown are friendly, Love and Wicks are frenemies.

Over the last decade, exactly 1,050 receivers have been targeted at least 40 times in a season, according to Stathead. Wicks’ catch rate of 37.2 percent ranks 1,045th.

With the bye week having arrived, the Packers face a decision. Do they give his playing time and opportunities to Bo Melton or Malik Heath, or do they keep rolling Wicks out there as if he were St. Brown?

Coach Matt LaFleur isn’t ready to give up on his talented second-year player.

“We see him do it in practice. I think that’s where it starts,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Obviously, you want those results to correlate to the game. And I’m a big believer in ‘Practice preparation equals game reality.’ But I think it just comes back to the fundamentals.”

Against the Lions, Wicks was targeted three times. He had zero catches and two drops, including one on a catchable but off-target pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter.

“Hey, listen, I get it. It was a wet day, and that’s never an excuse,” LaFleur said. “I do think that when you look at some of the drops, our fundamentals weren’t necessarily right (with) the way we coach it and the way we drill it in terms of being aggressive with your hands, and we were letting that ball get into our body too much.

“That happened on that one kind of slant play on the third-and-3 [in the fourth quarter], and then there was another one, obviously, in the end zone. The ball was certainly behind him; I just think that’s a play that he’s got to be able to make and that he is certainly capable of making. And I’ve seen him make it.”

The weather might explain the problems on Sunday, but what about the rest of the season?

Among the 72 receivers who have been targeted 30 times this season, Wicks has the lowest catch percentage and the highest drop percentage.

“Well, we’ve got something to work on, I guess,” LaFleur replied.

According to PFF, Wicks has dropped six passes this season; only teammate Jayden Reed and veteran star Amari Cooper (seven apiece) have more.

The Lions have one drop as a team this season. Over the last 40 games since Week 1 of the 2022 season, St. Brown has six drops but 265 receptions.

As a rookie last year, Wicks’ route-running ability drew comparisons to that of Davante Adams. In 2015, Adams’ second season in the NFL, he caught 53.2 percent of his passes and averaged 9.7 yards per reception and 5.1 yards per target.

Adams battled through an ankle injury that season. He bounced back in 2016 and started a string of six consecutive Pro Bowl seasons in 2017.

Wicks played through a shoulder injury earlier in the season but is no longer on the injury report. Of those aforementioned 1,050 receivers, Wicks is tied for 1,045th with 4.5 yards per target.

All the other Packers receivers have caught 91-of-131 passes, or 69.4 percent.

The season hasn’t been a total lost cause, though. Against Houston two weeks ago, Wicks caught a 30-yard touchdown pass and added a critical third-and-2 conversion on the game-winning drive. He’s got four touchdown catches this season.

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Here are this week's #Packers Overreactions. Call it the "Talk Is Cheap" edition. ⬇️https://t.co/rTMHEq3e8k
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 4, 2024

Published Nov 4, 2024

BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.