Dontayvion Wicks‘ final season at Virginia in 2022 could easily be described as a nightmare. In terms of his stat line, it looked like Wicks regressed from 2021 to 2022.
Here’s a quick look:
- 2021: 12 games, 57 catches, 1,203 yards, and nine touchdowns
- 2022: 8 games, 30 catches, 430 yards, and two touchdowns
But the statistics don’t tell the human side of the story. Virginia changed coaching from Bronco Mendenhall to Tony Elliott. Additionally, the team experienced a major traumatic event where three members of Virginia’s football team, D’Sean Perry, Lavel Davis, and Devin Chandler, were killed in a shooting and Virginia ultimately canceled the final game of their 2022 season. While this may not have significantly impacted Wicks’s stat line, it’s important to highlight this is a young man who went through a lot of adversity.
Wicks faced that adversity in stride during the pre-draft process. At the Reese’s Senior Bowl, Wicks wore his fallen teammate Davis’ No. 1 jersey and performed at an elite level. Wicks showed off impressive releases and ability to get separation leading him to be voted a “player of the week” by his peers in the defensive back group that had to defend against him.
Between Wicks’ breakout 2021 season, his performance in the Senior Bowl, and I’m guessing some stellar marks he received as someone who can go through and overcome adversity, the Packers selected him in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL draft. And, thus far in his NFL career, he has outperformed his draft stock and shown he may be well beyond the rookie learning curve.
To date, Wicks has seen his opportunities grow week-to-week in the NFL going from two targets in Week 1 to four targets in Week 2 to six targets in Week 3. Part of the reason for the increased opportunity is what Wicks has put on tape against NFL competition.
Wicks is more often getting open and creating consistent separation. Last week against the Atlanta Falcons, he had a number of plays where he created separation through his releases off of defensive backs. In the below play, he runs a corner route but violently stutters steps faking a post, causing the defensive back to hesitate, and, poof, Wicks is wide open, but Love has already passed the ball to another receiver.
While Wicks didn’t get the ball on this play, the more he shows this type of separation the more opportunities that will come his way, and that’s what happened against the New Orleans Saints. One of Wicks’ best plays against the Saints came when he did a jab step at the line of scrimmage against fellow rookie Alontae Taylor and immediately created five yards of separation, giving Jordan Love an easy completion on a play-action fake.
The coolest aspect of this play is it shows his deceptively convincing body movements that Wicks showed at the Reeses Senior Bowl and at Vigina.
Matt LaFleur has also started to take notice, highlighting what he likes about Wicks. “I think he competes,” the head coach said. “His body movement. He’s very good at press releases. He can make contested catches. He can run through balls. He’s strong. He loves the game. He has picked it up quickly.”
While Wicks had a sub-par 40-yard dash at 4.62 seconds, that really doesn’t matter for his game. Wicks just consistently gets separation through releases, route running, and being physical at contested catches and shooting for yards after the catch. And, ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you win, it just matters that you win. For Wicks, he’s showing that his game has easily translated to the NFL and he may already be beyond the rookie learning curve and ready for a larger role on offense.
More must-reads: