The plan to replace Devonte Wyatt will look different this time

The Packers defense will again have to play without Devonte Wyatt anchoring the interior. The plan for filling his void will look different this time, however.

Thanksgiving unfolded in a nearly perfect fashion for the Green Bay Packers.

As underdogs, they stomped out the Detroit Lions, completing the season sweep and effectively eliminating their division rivals from the NFC North race. Jordan Love delivered one of his finest performances of 2025, throwing four touchdowns for the first time in over a calendar year. Micah Parsons took over the game in the fourth quarter, and Dontayvion Wicks helped seal the victory with one of several incredible catches he made throughout the day.

But for everything that went right for the Packers in Detroit, they saw one of their starters suffer a serious injury. Devonte Wyatt, the best defensive tackle on the roster, left the game on a cart after a teammate fell on his leg.

“It doesn’t look good, guys,” LaFleur said of Wyatt’s injury following the game. “I’m sick for him. I’m sick for us. I mean, that’s a critical loss for our football team, for our defense, obviously. I can’t say enough great things about him in terms of just watching him mature, not only as a football player, but as a person.

“I’ve got a lot of love for Devonte Wyatt. I think the locker room does too.”

LaFleur’s concern foreshadowed the final diagnosis. On Monday, he confirmed that Wyatt’s ankle injury would sideline him for the remainder of the season.

“Yeah, it’s tough, but that’s the nature of our game,” LaFleur said of Wyatt’s loss. “Certainly, he’s a guy that is going to be pretty tough to replace, and I think it just falls on everybody else raising the level of their game.”

This marks the second time in 2025 that the defense will have to play without Wyatt. He also missed most of October while recovering from a knee injury suffered against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 4. Wyatt’s absence coincided with one of the worst stretches for the interior this season, as The Leap documented at the time.

In fairness to the rest of Green Bay’s defense, Wyatt’s injury didn’t just remove the interior’s best player, it also left the front with only three available full-time defensive tackles. Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden suddenly had to shoulder most of the load while undrafted rookie Nazir Stackhouse played more snaps in Dallas alone than he had in the previous three games combined. Fifth-round pick Warren Brinson couldn’t assist as the Packers made him a healthy scratch.

However, coming out of the bye two weeks later, the Wyatt-less interior still had issues. According to Pro Football Focus, the rookie defensive linemen combined for just two pressures over the past two games, a far cry from what Wyatt produced. And while Brooks and Wooden each flashed high-level play, the Packers already had them working near maximum capacity in terms of snaps before Wyatt’s injury. Neither could take much more on their plates.

The lack of available manpower became most evident late in the fourth quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals. Despite facing one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, the fatigued Packers couldn’t get to the slow-footed Joe Flacco, who guided the offense to a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive that included a successful two-point conversion. That series cut a 14-point lead to six, putting the outcome very much in doubt.

Unlike Wyatt’s previous absence, he won’t have the opportunity to return this season. Accordingly, the plan for filling his void will look different this time around.