Packers DL Devonte Wyatt expected to miss rest of season with ankle injury

Green Bay’s win in Detroit on Thanksgiving came at a cost, with the team suffering a major injury loss that will hamper their defense for the rest of the 2025 season.

The Packers got the news they were fearing on Friday, as defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt was confirmed to have suffered a fractured ankle in the second half of the Packers’ 31-24 victory over the Lions.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the unfortunate news and said Wyatt’s season is “expected to be over."

Wyatt was carted off the field after getting rolled up on, as rookie defensive tackle Warren Brinson went to ground after a rep against Lions guard Tate Ratledge on a play in which Micah Parsons sacked Jared Goff to force a field goal attempt near the end zone late in the game.

The fourth-year defender was quickly ruled out by the Packers. The injury initially looked serious and was all but confirmed by Matt LaFleur post-game to be a season-ender, which has now been made official.

After the game, LaFleur said of Wyatt’s injury: “It doesn’t look good, guys. I’m sick for him, I’m sick for us, that’s a critical loss for our football, for our defense obviously.

“I can’t say enough great things about him in terms of watching him mature, not only as a football player, as a person, I’ve got a lot of love for Devonte Wyatt and I think the whole locker room does, too, so (the victory is) a little bittersweet”.

With Kenny Clark traded to the Dallas Cowboys in August as part of the Parsons trade, Wyatt was by far Green Bay’s most experienced interior defender and had been their most productive on the season before the injury.

Wyatt had 22 pressures on the year, tied for the most among their defensive tackles with Karl Brooks, but in 64 fewer pass rush snaps. He was third on the team in sacks with four, and was on course to eclipse his previous career high of 5.5.

He started the 2025 campaign on a tear, making the most of the increased rate of single coverage he was seeing due to Parsons’ arrival. Wyatt racked up 13 pressures and a pair of sacks in the first three games before suffering a knee injury in Week 4 in Dallas.

The former first-round pick was not quite as productive after returning to the lineup in Week 8, but his absence will still be sorely felt within Green Bay’s defense, which has excelled against both the run and pass so far this season.

Left to fill the void are Brooks, Colby Wooden, Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse, with James Ester an option to call up from the practice squad.

Brooks has been a reliable contributor for the Packers in his three years with the team, but missed the Lions game with an ankle injury of his own. Green Bay will be hoping the ‘mini-bye’ will give him time to get healthy before an important showdown with Chicago next Sunday.

Wooden has taken an unlikely leap from the forgotten man in the defensive line room to a player the Packers have leaned on heavily this year. Expect more to be put on his plate moving forward.

Rookies Brinson and Stackhouse, one sixth-round pick and one UDFA, both out of Georgia, have steadily seen an increase in workload as the year has gone on, but neither has pulled up any trees as of yet, with the pair ranked as the worst defenders for Green Bay by PFF in 2025.

Ester could be added to the mix, but he has never played a regular-season NFL snap. The Packers may look for external help to try to somewhat make up for the loss of Wyatt, but there are no sure-fire solutions at this late stage of the season.

Defensive coordinator may have to adapt his defense without Wyatt in the coming weeks and months, and he has proven his ability to produce an effective defense even while dealing with a swathe of injuries in the past, but missing Wyatt for the rest of the year is definitely a blow.

This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers' Devonte Wyatt expected to miss rest of 2025 season