Do you like to pull for an underdog?  Of course you do.  You’re a Packers fan.  Your team is America’s favorite underdog.  Green Bay is not just the smallest NFL city, it is the smallest by a mile.  It’s population of around 104,000 is roughly one-third of the next smallest host city, which is Buffalo.  The odds of such a modest town in a cold weather climate retaining a franchise in the world’s biggest and most profitable professional sports league are nearly impossible.   


Without a wealthy owner, owned by ordinary fans throughout the world, competing against mega cities like New York and Chicago and Los Angeles, makes the Packers the ultimate underdog.  Yet not only have they competed, they are the NFL’s all time winningest franchise.  It is the most unlikely story in all of sports. 


What better team then, for an underdog player like Dontayvion Wicks?  The fifth round draft pick is trying to break into a receiver rotation that includes projected starters Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, second year veteran Samori Toure, who is already being tabbed as one of the most improved players on the team, and this year’s second round pick Jayden Reed, whom many have penciled in as the starter in the slot. 


Then there is seventh round selection Grant DuBose, plus free agents Bo Melton, Jeff Cotton, Malik Heath, Duece Watts, and the recently signed Jadakis Bonds.  The odds of Wicks breaking through that logjam to garner significant playing time are stacked against him. 


So what else is new?  The University of Virginia product has been successfully beating the odds all of his life, starting with growing up in a small Louisiana bayou town of about six thousand residents, 27 percent of whom lived at or below the poverty line.  The crime rate in that town was 54 percent above the national average. 


Yet Wicks excelled as a three sport athlete at the local high school.  He thought of himself mainly as a basketball player, and imagined that would be his ticket to a college scholarship.  But once he began playing football in his sophomore year, as both a quarterback and a receiver, he quickly realized the gridiron would be his forte. 


Wicks’ hometown is an outlying community of Baton Rouge, in the shadow of college powerhouse LSU, but Wicks did not get much attention from them.  As a three star recruit, he had offers from smaller programs such as New Mexico and Louisiana Lafayette.  Finally, a power five conference school took notice.  The University of Virginia football progam had been working the state of Louisiana hard, and wound up signing the eighteen year old prospect.  This was the ACC, his best chance to get widespread attention.   


After playing sparingly his freshman year, Wicks was in line to be a major contributor as a sophomore.  But adversity struck.  The 6-1 pass catcher suffered a serious foot injury in August preseason workouts.  He would miss the entire 2020 season, during which the team would post a 5-5 record.  Rather than sulk and get down on himself, Wicks worked even harder to come back, and when he took the field at the start of the 2021 campaign, he was a revelation. 


He set a school record for receiving yards with 1,203.  He was first team all ACC after 57 catches and 9 touchdowns.  His average of 21.1 yards per reception led the conference and was fourth nationwide. Just as he was bursting on to the national consciousness, another tough break.  Because of a severe Covid outbreak on the team, Virginia canceled the final two games of the season, plus a berth in the Fenway Bowl, which would have been a chance for the Cavaliers star to display his talent across the country on ESPN.  Still, Wicks was among the most highly regarded college receiving prospects in the country coming into 2022. 


Then another challenge arrived.  Brock Mendenhall, under whose system Wicks thrived, unexpectedly resigned as head coach, citing burnout.  He was replaced by Tony Elliott, who had been offensive coordinator at Clemson.  Elliott brought a completely new offense to Virginia, one which required, among other things, a change in the way receivers were to run their routes.  Wicks struggled with the transition.  Then injury struck again.  He missed two games.  When he was finally able to get back on the field, his productivity had slipped.  In six games, he had 30 catches for 430 yards and two scores.  Not terrible, but not up to the lofty expectations observers had set for him.   


However, the worst was yet to come. 


On November 13, 2022, Christopher Darnell Jones, a former member of the Virginia football team, produced a gun and opened fire on students on a chartered bus, which was returning from a field trip to Washington DC.  Several current team members were on board.  Three of them were killed.  Two of the victims, Lavel Davis and Devin Chandler, were receivers, close friends and position teammates with Wicks.  The third fatality was linebacker D’Sean Parry.  Two other students, including one player, were injured.  A stunned and grieving campus canceled the rest of the season, and football faded into the tragic cloud of the incident. 


It was with that backdrop of adversity that Wicks learned he had been selected in round five of the NFL draft by the Packers.  He has dedicated his career to his fallen teammates.  "Knowing that they wanted to be in this position I'm in” he said, “I’m doing this for them, knowing that was their biggest goal, being able to be in this position, I thank God. I know they're watching over me every day." 


Wicks also hasn’t forgotten where he came from.  He beat the odds again by finishing his degree in American Studies at UVA.  “A lot of people thought I wouldn’t graduate from there, coming from where I came from” he told media gathered around his locker at Lambeau Field.  He says it was hard work, but he did it for his mother.  “That (getting his degree) was a bigger goal for her, than it was for me getting into the league.  She was more happy with that than for me getting drafted.” 


His goal is to use his degree to start his own business, one that might allow him to mentor kids who need to see a path out of poverty and crime.  “I want to help kids because I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was young....give them resources to develop faster.” 


Now there’s an underdog to pull for. 


Dontayvion faces a tough battle for playing time on this Packers team, but the staff thought enough of him to bring him in for a pre-draft interview.  Not particularly fast with a 4.62 forty yard dash, scouts say he needs work on precision route running and a propensity for drops.  But the Packers also noticed the ease with which he seems to be able to separate down the field and track the ball.  His raw athletic ability jumps off the screen.  The Packers are betting that his junior year performance is a more accurate example of his skill set.  “When you watch the ’21 tape,” Packers director of football operations Milt Hendrickson said about Wicks, “there’s a significant difference.  And at this point in the draft, when you’re taking a player like that, that’s what we’re hanging our hat on.” 


Long shot or not, I wouldn’t count him out.  He’s not afraid of a challenge.  He has overcome a lot to get here.  Wicks is my pick to be the surprise jewel of the 2023 rookie class. 


 





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Ken Lass is a former Green Bay television sports anchor and 43 year media veteran, a lifelong Packers fan, and a shareholder.


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