Packers GM explains reasons behind trading away WR Dontayvion Wicks
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst admitted it was "tough" to trade wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks to the Philadelphia Eagles, but he went into detail explaining the thought process behind the decision on Tuesday, his first public appearance since the trade.Gutekunst pointed to the team's depth at wide receiver and the unlikelihood of re-signing Wicks, who is entering a contract year, as the major drivers of the trade -- which netted the Packers a fifth-round pick this year and a sixth-round pick next year in return from the Eagles."It's always tough to move off a player that you feel is as good as Dontayvion was for us. I think he's got a really bright career ahead of him," Gutekunst said. "The situation we were in with the amount of players we have in that room, and what we're probably going to do in the future and him being in the last year of his contract, it just made a little bit of sense." Wicks, a 2022 fifth-round pick, has been stuck behind Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed throughout his first three NFL seasons, and with 2025 first-round pick Matthew Golden and 2025 third-round pick Savion Williams growing into bigger roles, Wicks was not a part of the team's long-term plans at receiver. Now in Philadelphia, Wicks could get more snaps and targets in the Eagles passing game. "The ability to get two picks for a player that we weren't sure exactly how he was going to fit into our future plans, it just made a lot of sense," Gutekunst said. "It was good for us but it was good for Dontayvion, too, because I think his opportunities are going to increase there."Wicks will re-join former Packers assistant Sean Mannion, who is now the Eagles offensive coordinator, and Ryan Mahaffey, his receivers coach the last two seasons who joined Mannion in Philadelphia as run game coordinator and tight ends coach.Why the trade now? Gutekunst explained that while the Packers will get compensatory picks in 2027 for losing Doubs, Malik Willis, Quay Walker, Kingsley Enagbare and Rasheed Walker this offseason, he's not sure the same situation will play out next offseason, when the Packers will have more money to spend and fewer top-level players expected to hit free agency. In other words, the time to get compensation for losing Wicks was now, not next offseason, when any kind of signing could have negated the loss of Wicks as a free agent in the compensatory formula.The trade also cleared the pathway for others, notably Golden, who will now be an expected starter replacing Doubs in 2026."Excited about some of the opportunities that some of these guys are going to get," Gutekunst said. Golden, the 23rd overall pick in 2025, caught 29 of 44 targets for 361 yards across 14 games as a rookie. Over 46 career regular season games in Green Bay, Wicks caught 108 passes for 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns. He averaged under 500 snaps per season, and he never caught more than 40 passes in a season.This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers GM explains reasons behind trading away WR Dontayvion Wicks
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