‘The General’ Has Been Four-Star Leader of Packers’ Run Defense

“To me, it’s like opportunity and preparation met,” Wooden said. “I’ve been practicing, been preparing for this. I didn’t know it would be this soon. None of us know God’s plan. For me, it’d be a shame to just spit on this opportunity that I have and not do my best and not give it my best at this moment in time. I just to keep going. I know I’m doing all right, cool. But we got so much more football to play and so much more to keep going.”

The four highest snap counts of Wooden’s career have come this season. Just seven games into the season, he’s set career highs for tackles (23) and solo tackles (11). His four tackles for losses are one more than he had in 30 games his first two seasons.

“It’s everything,” Hafley said. “It’s his opportunity, right? He’s playing a lot more. It’s his fundamentals. It’s technique. I think V.O. and DeMarcus (Covington) and Wendel (Davis) have done a great job with him. And just hard how he’s worked. He’s gotten bigger, he’s gotten stronger, he’s getting really good in the run game, and he’s got confidence, and I think that’s so important for all of our players, which is hard nowadays.

“Everybody seems to ride these rollercoasters, and he’s just a confident guy now, and his teammates believe in him, he believes in himself, we believe in him and I think that’s huge. I think he’s like an energy giver. I think that’s the best way that I can explain the guy. Like I said, I’m just proud of him, I think he’s going to get better and better as he goes because he’s still a young player who doesn’t have a whole lot of experience, but I’m excited to see what he can do.”

The losses of Slaton and Clark seemed like major blows. Yes, Parsons would obviously add much-needed juice to the pass rush. But, as Parsons said on Thursday, “We’ve got to earn the right to rush the passer.” Without Slaton and Clark, who were central figures in Green Bay’s run defense finally becoming a strength last year, could the Packers get opponents into passing situations?

“My mindset wasn’t to prove people wrong. It was to prove the guys upstairs right,” Wooden said. “Like they made the right call. Prove myself right that I can do this (and) it’s my time. God didn’t leave me here. This is his plan, you feel me? So, I just got to go out, execute, and so far I’ve been doing that.”

With Wooden being the four-star general in the middle, the Packers will enter Sunday’s home game against the Carolina Panthers ranked fourth in the NFL with 3.73 yards allowed per carry. If that were to hold up, it would be Green Bay’s 13th-best season of the Super Bowl era and its best since 2009.

“You just do your job. It’s that simple,” Wooden said. “The coaches do a great job putting together a great game plan. You got to stop the run.”

Stopping the run requires equal parts strength, know-how and desire. He’s bigger. After weighing 273 pounds at the 2023 Scouting Combine, he’s up to about 300 pounds after playing between 280 or 290 last season. He’s smarter. He watched and learned behind Clark for two years and called Clark on Wednesday, “Just to make sure I’m still on point.” 

And he’s filled with desire to help the team and prove his worth.

“To me, (playing) inside is all about mentality,” he said. “You got to love physicality. You got to love just the whole thing. I love being gritty. It’s not a pretty job. We know my name ain’t going to be in the paper. Yeah, I got run stops, cool. You know it’s not going to be in the paper. But let them run for 200 yards and I guarantee they come, ‘Uh, where is he at?’ You know you got to do your job and take pride in that and I definitely do.”

Military generals don’t become generals the day they enlist. So, in that sense, it’s a fitting nickname for Wooden. He wasn’t a starter the day he was drafted. Now, he’s an indispensable player when it comes to winning football’s version of trench warfare.

“It’s just surreal,” he said. “You never know when your time is. You never know, bro. Just practice like you’re the starter, honestly. That’s how I’ve looked at it. Kenny taught me that. You never know when your number’s going to be called.”