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The Green Bay Packers are set to sign Devonte Wyatt to a three-year, $57 million contract extension, locking up a key piece of their defensive line through the 2029 season.
Working out a shorter extension than the usual four-year deals Green Bay signs made sense, as Wyatt is an older player for someone only just receiving their second contract. Wyatt will be 29 before playing a single snap of the extension, since he was already under contract for 2026 via the fifth-year option in his rookie contract.
Finding the right number and terms for Wyatt’s extension looked like a tricky task due to his age and injury history. By paying him an average annual value (AAV) of $19 million, the Packers seem to have found a sweet spot.
On paper, the deal makes Wyatt the NFL’s 18th highest paid defensive tackle. When factoring in the increase in the salary cap and how much some older contracts would be worth if signed today, he drops to 20th, with Vita Vea and Ed Oliver, who signed in 2022 and 2023 respectively, leapfrogging him.
Accounting for inflation, the players on multi-year deals who are closest to Wyatt in AAV are Osa Odighizuwa of the 49ers ($21.58 million adjusted for inflation) and Tershawn Wharton of the Panthers ($16.20 million adjusted).
There is a pretty sizable gap between Wharton and Odighizuwa, with Wyatt slotting into that dead zone, just above Pittsburgh’s Cam Heyward, who signed a one-year, $18 million extension this offseason.
Heyward’s situation is different due to his advanced age, so it is more of an ‘apples to apples’ comparison to view Wyatt’s contract through the lens of other defensive tackles who signed for multiple years.
In 2025, Wyatt had a pass rush win rate of 12.9%, which ranked 13th among 121 eligible defensive tackles, and a run stop rate of 8.1%, which ranked 31st. In the season immediately before Odighizuwa signed his deal, he had a pass rush win rate of 15.1% and a run stop rate of 6.1%.
Balance the two numbers out and you get an average pass rush win/run stop rate of 10.6% for Odighizuwa, and 10.5% for Wyatt. Wharton had a pass rush win rate of 10.9% before getting paid by Carolina and a run stop rate of 6.1%, averaging out to 8.5%.
Similarly, Javon Kinlaw had an average pass rush win/run stop rate of 8.45% before signing his latest deal, Grady Jarrett was at 8.95%, Grover Stewart 9.05%, D.J. Jones 9.1% and Travis Jones 9.9%. Those players are all directly below Wyatt and Wharton in AAV.
Stewart and the Joneses getting slightly cheaper contracts despite better numbers is a good example of the benefits that come from re-signing homegrown players, as their teams got a slight discount compared to Wharton and Kinlaw who hit the open market.
The only problem with the Packers paying Wyatt for what he does on a ‘per snap’ basis, is that there have not been enough of those snaps throughout his four years with the team.
He has played only 1,613 career defensive snaps. There are defensive tackles who have been on the field for more snaps in just the last two seasons.
Wyatt has been regularly unfortunate with injuries, and the Packers are now heavily invested in that tide turning. When more details of the contract emerge, perhaps there will be incentives that mean the true contract is less lucrative than the initial announcement indicated.
At 28 years old, he is likely at his peak right now, so there is no time to lose, especially with Green Bay in a championship window.
Re-signing Wyatt is a calculated and worthwhile gamble on a very talented and impactful player when available, and it came at a logical and satisfactory price. Now they will cross their fingers and hope he rewards them with a healthy 2026 season.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers take calculated gamble with Devonte Wyatt contract extension
