Can Packers’ Wideout Dontayvion Wicks Stop Dropping His Golden Opportunity?

Back in the 2015 season, Packer Nation was ready to buy wideout Davante Adams a one-way ticket out of town.

Adams, thrust into a starting role due to season-ending knee injury to Jordy Nelson, wasn’t ready to shine in his second NFL season.

Adams caught just 50 of his 96 targets (52.1%), dropped 12 passes and averaged a pedestrian 9.7 yards per catch.

Nearly a decade later, the Packers are having similar problems with another second-year wideout — Dontayvion Wicks.

The question is can Wicks turn his career around like Adams once did?

Wicks had a solid rookie year and might be as talented as anyone in Green Bay’s wide receiver room. The problem is throwing the ball to him has largely been an exercise in futility.

Wicks has caught just 10 of his 29 targets, a catch rate of just 34.5% which ranks dead last among players with at least 25 targets. Wicks is also second in the NFL with five drops and his drop rate of 17.2% is second-worst in the NFL behind Cleveland’s Amari Cooper (19.2%).

“I know he’ll bounce back from it, and he’s proven what he can do it, for sure,” Packers quarterback Jordan Love said of Wicks. “The ball’s going to keep coming his way. We’ve got to just get back to the drawing board, work throughout the week, and it comes down to making those plays.”

Wicks also had issues with drops during his collegiate days at Virginia.

Wicks had a tremendous junior year with the Cavaliers, when his 1,203 receiving yards broke Herman Moore’s school record that had stood for more than three decades. Wicks then struggled mightily as a senior when he had nine drops and finished with just 430 receiving yards.

“It was a lot of lack of focus,” Wicks said after the Packers selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 draft. “Just too much thinking. I just work on it every day. I know I can catch the ball. Catching the ball is not a problem for me. I make catches every day, working every day on the little things so … it’s no problem.”

After a solid rookie season where Wicks had 39 receptions, 581 yards and four TDs, throwing the ball his way has largely become a waste of time and energy.

There are 65 wide receivers/tight ends with at least 25 targets this season. Wicks has the lowest reception rate in that group — by far — of just 34.5% (10 of 29).

The only other wideouts under 50% are Denver’s Courtland Sutton (41.5%), Cleveland’s Amari Cooper (42.5%), Jacksonville’s Gabe Davis (48.0%) and Arizona’s Marvin Harrison Jr. (48.6%).

Among Green Bay’s pass catchers with at least 10 targets, Jayden Reed ranks first with a reception rate of 75.0% (21-of-28). He’s followed by Tucker Kraft (72.7%, 16-of-22), Josh Jacobs (72.7%, 8-of-11) and Romeo Doubs (60.0%, 12-of-20).

Amazingly, Wicks has more targets than anyone on the team (29), yet ranks just fourth in catches (10).

“I’ll tell you what, there’s not one guy that has better hands than Wicks,” Packers offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich insisted. “It’s just something he’s got to work through and I have all the confidence in the world that he’ll make those plays when they come up again, because he has usually got some pretty good hands.”

Well, he hasn’t on Sundays, which is slowing Green Bay’s offense.

And suddenly, Wicks is at a crossroads in his young career.

The light went on for Adams after his dreadful 2015 campaign and he blossomed into one of the NFL’s top wide receivers.

Right now, the Packers would settle for competence from Wicks.

“Really all it is is cleaning up those little details,” Wicks said. “Keeping my eyes on the ball, ‘10’ (Jordan Love) giving me a chance. It’s up to me to make the play. That’s all.

“I critique myself as hard as anybody. So when people do critique me, I already know. I already got the feeling.”

Unfortunately for Wicks and the Packers, those feelings have been ones of disappointment and despair in 2024.