Rookie Dontayvion Wicks Named Packers’ ‘Secret Superstar’

The Green Bay Packers have a bunch of young playmakers. Which one was named the team’s “Secret Superstar” by Pro Football Focus?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When it came to surrounding Jordan Love with a bunch of young playmakers, Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst might have gone 4-for-4 in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Second-round receiver Jayden Reed, who led the team in receptions, receiving yards and total touchdowns during a record-breaking debut season, tied for sixth in NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting.

Even with second-round tight end Luke Musgrave missing a big chunk of the stretch run with a lacerated kidney, rookie tight ends Musgrave and Tucker Kraft combined for 65 receptions for 707 yards.

However, it was fifth-round receiver Dontayvion Wicks who was named the Packers’ “Secret Superstar” by Pro Football Focus.

Wicks seemingly got better with every week. He finished the season with 39 receptions for 581 yards (14.9 average) and four touchdowns. He flourished down the stretch. In a four-game period, he caught six passes for 97 yards against Tampa Bay, two passes for 29 yards and one touchdown against Carolina, six passes for 61 yards and two touchdowns against Chicago after missing the Minnesota game, and two passes for 25 yards and another touchdown in the playoff win at Dallas.

Overall, the man they call “Tay” finished 11th in the draft class in receptions and ninth in yards because he routinely got open to earn some comparisons to someone else nicknamed “Tae.”

“Never comparing a guy to a great one who was here and probably a Hall of Famer as this thing goes, but I remember when I was watching Wicks coming out of college,” receivers coach and passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable said late in the season. “I Google a guy to get a better feel and we have our profile from the scouting department, but I saw a basketball highlight of him and I was like, ‘Oh, man.’ This kid’s dunking and alley-oops and crossing guys over, and I started to see he was being recruited for basketball.

“So, previously, 17 I think was a two- or three-star [recruit] in basketball. Some of those guys who have the basketball player background first, that’s the crossover ability that you see. To win on a release, at 5 yards to be going out and then going in, I think their backgrounds of what they’ve trained their body their whole life might give them a step up on people when they come into the league. That’s probably what you’re seeing in him within those short-area spaces and quickness.”

Among rookie receivers who were targeted at least 20 times, Wicks was fifth with 14.9 yards per receptions, 2.04 yards per route and nine missed tackles and sixth with 5.6 yards after the catch per catch, according to PFF.

His ability to create after the catch is what made him a “Secret Superstar” to PFF.

“He has a great mind-set,” Vrable said. “You saw it in college, if you really watched the tape. He has a great mindset but, if you really watch him on contact, he kind of has a running back lower half where his whole foot gets in the ground on contact and his lower half is strong. He does a good job when the first guy touches him, that his pad level is low and he runs through it. He’s done a tremendous job … just because of his YAC mindset.”

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