The Green Bay Packers’ offense, which faced the Carolina Panthers in Week 16, was terribly deficient in players. The offense scored 33 points, and quarterback Jordan Love recorded his eighth game of the season with multiple touchdown passes and no interceptions, so one would never have assumed that to be the case. Conversely, the defense did not appear nearly as strong.
The offense has refused to accept its youth, inexperience, or injury as an excuse while the defense has suffered and calls to fire Joe Barry have grown. Their camaraderie has improved every week as they genuinely embraced the idea of being the “next man up.”
Unfortunately, the Packers were without tight end Luke Musgrave, wide receiver Christian Watson, and quarterback Jayden Reed. While Watson is still healing from a serious hamstring ailment, Reed, who leads the team in receptions and ranks second in receiving yards, lost time due to an ankle issue. In order to heal from a lacerated kidney, Musgrave was recently cleared to return from injured reserve.
Love and the Packers needed other players to step up to keep the offense going because they were without three of their best pass catchers. Bo Melton and Tucker Kraft put up excellent supporting performances, but Dontayvion Wicks was the one who found the end zone.
Wicks had two receptions for 29 yards and a touchdown on Sunday against the Panthers. On the season, he now has 33 receptions for 520 yards and two touchdowns. Love also has a 103.4 passer rating when targeting him. He now more receiving yards than the following Packers wide receivers had in their rookie seasons:
- Davante Adams
- Allen Lazard
- Randall Cobb
- Romeo Doubs
- Jordy Nelson
- Donald Driver
- Antonio Freeman
Of course, there are many others; but these are some of more recent and bigger names that Wicks has already surpassed.
Sadly, Sunday dealt more damage to the Packers’ already injured receiving core. Wicks’ 21-yard touchdown reception was marred by a hard hit to the chest. After being brought to the testing area in the locker room, he made an unsuccessful attempt to reenter.
Many people were afraid he might have fractured ribs. But according to Tom Silverstein of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wicks escaped grave injury:
Discussed the chest injury that kept #Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks out of the #Panthers game with him. He said that X-rays revealed he had not broken any ribs. He indicated he will wait and see how things work out in the next days when asked if he would be ready for the #Vikings next week.
According to Silverstein, Wicks’ condition remains unknown going into the Packers’ crucial Sunday night New Year’s Eve game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Of course, head coach Matt LaFleur gave the Packers off on Tuesday as well as Monday.
