Paul Bretl | 7/26/2025
GREEN BAY, Wis. — From Year 1 to Year 2, for many NFL players, there is a jump. There’s a jump in what they put on tape and a jump in production. During the 2024 season, Dontayvion Wicks’ second in the NFL, while he continued to put on tape that he can create separation and get open, the production didn’t follow. In fact, it dipped in comparison to his rookie season.
Despite having 17 more regular-season targets in 2024, Wicks caught the same number of passes as he did during his rookie year. He finished with 165 fewer yards, averaging 4.3 fewer yards per catch.
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Whether it be a positive or negative in the game of football, there are almost always numerous factors that contribute to any outcome. But perhaps the biggest factor of them all for Wicks were the dropped passes.
“As a receiver, as a human being, at my position, you drop a few, it’s a confidence-breaker but it’s about you, for real,” Wicks said at his locker after Friday’s practice. “It’s about staying there and controlling what you can control. When the ball comes my way, I’ve got to make a play.
“That’s my job. Just being there, being around the ball more, when my opportunities do come, that leads to trust with 10 and also with the coaches. I know I can be there and make the plays like I’ve been in OTAs and today. It’s making those plays so they can trust me when we go out there on Sundays.”
Wicks finished the 2024 season with eight dropped passes, according to PFF’s metrics. He was also just 3-for-14 on hauling in any contested throws. Compared to his position group league-wide, Wicks’ eight drops were tied for the eighth most. His drop rate, which takes into account the number of targets, was the second-highest.
Those overall numbers aren’t where they need to be, but what gets lost when looking back at Wicks’ 2024 performance is that for much of the second half of the season, the drops weren’t an issue. Of the eight he was credited with on the year, only two came after Week 9. On contested catches during the second half of the year, Wicks was 3-for-5.
“I would say people really don’t see the mental aspect of it,” Wicks said of the drops. “I was going through a lot last year. Man, it was hard. It was hard getting through it mentally. Everything wasn’t going my way, how I expected it, but it cleaned up toward midseason and I started to have fun again. Once you have fun, like Vrabes says a lot, the ball finds energy. When you’re happy for each other, happy for the players that’s making plays – we’ve got a lot of playmakers, so you might not get a ball every now and then.
“So, just keeping that mental strong and going onto the next play. When you’ve got the energy, the ball comes your way, so just staying focused and not worrying about what’s coming your way, what’s not coming your way, controlling what you can control. When the opportunities do come, capitalize, and then that’ll make way for more opportunities. That’s really the focus this year is capitalizing when they do come my way.”
Although it’s early, through offseason programs and the first three practices of training camp, Wicks has been capitalizing on the opportunities that have come his way.
As mentioned, and as we’ve all seen, Wicks, with his releases at the line of scrimmage and suddenness as a route runner, is very good at creating space between himself and the defensive back.
ESPN’s advanced receiver score metric utilizes player tracking data from NFL Next Gen Stats and breaks down the receiver position into three key categories: getting open, making the catch, and picking up yards after the catch (YAC). That data then makes up an overall score for each pass catcher.
When it comes to Wicks’ ability to get open, among all receivers and tight ends last season, he ranked tied for fourth in that category. Trailing only Malik Nabers, Mike Evans, and AJ Brown.
“You could feel it was almost like the whole world’s weighing on him,” passing game coordinator Jason Vrable said. “And I just told him, ‘Man, just let your work take care of itself. And every day you show up, outwork everybody in this room.’ And you saw at the end of the year when the ball was coming his way there was a real confidence toward the end to get open and make the play. And just do one play at a time.”
The play of the day from Friday’s practice was made by Wicks. During a two-minute period in practice, Wicks was initially running a deep post, and as Jordan Love moved out of the pocket to buy time, Wicks adjusted his route, got behind Xavier McKinney, and hauled in the 40-ish yard touchdown reception.
“It was a 2-minute play,” Wicks recalled. “We had to get down the field to win the competition. We called a play and I knew I had the post. I had a man on me. I released, ran full speed. I knew X was over the top so I stemmed out a little bit and broke flat across. It was a runaway and J-Love gave me the ball, and I ran under it and that was all from there.”
Wicks again is a part of a crowded wide receiver room, perhaps even more so this season with the addition of Matthew Golden in the first round of the NFL draft. But even so, his ability to win at the line of scrimmage is going to put him in a position to get targets. There’s a reason that he was second on the team in targets–only behind Jayden Reed–last season: Wicks gets open.
Now, in Year 3, it’s about consistency, and as Wicks described, capitalizing on the opportunities that come his way. From there, the production will undoubtedly follow.
“It’s really just controlling what you can control,” Wicks said. “It’s up to the coaches to call what they call, so when the play’s called and it’s called to you, you’ve got to capitalize on those opportunities so they can trust you more to call it to you. It’s really capitalizing on the opportunities that you get. You might not get a lot in practice so the ones that do come your way, you want to capitalize on them so QB1 can trust you and the coaches can call the plays for you to get those opportunities.”