Devonte Wyatt, the dogged run defender who clocked a 4.77 in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, is taking his talents to the Green Bay Packers.

Wyatt, who signed with Georgia’s 2018 class, was selected by the Green Bay Packers with the 28th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft. He joins teammate Quay Walker in Green Bay. The Packers also snatched him up with the No. 22 pick.

The Towers High School product returned to UGA for his senior season because he left something on the field in 2021.

He wanted to cut his weight, improve his film, upgrade his draft stock and bring home a national championship to the Georgia Bulldogs.

Wyatt had heard he was a second or a third-round pick had he come out in the 2021 NFL Draft. This worked out much better for an athletic DT that also played extensively at RB in high school at Towers.

He had a very strong showing at the Senior Bowl in Mobile and then added to his draft capital with very strong showings at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and also at his UGA Pro Day.

With Wyatt, there are three very cool things to know about the new Packer.

Devonte Wyatt: The things to know about the new Green Bay Packer

The 6-foot-3, 304-pound Wyatt now becomes the fourth Bulldog from the national championship squad selected in the 2022 NFL Draft.

There are a few unique stories to know that have shaped his career.

The “Let me have him” story: Wyatt was a prospect that might have been claimed by the streets growing up. But his high school head coach, Dr. Brian Montgomery, wouldn’t let that happen.

He was sought by peers that were beginning to operate on the wrong side of the law. Their hope was to lure Wyatt to a lifestyle where a young man with broad shoulders meant extra muscle on the street.

It was the most important tug-of-war in Wyatt’s life. Wyatt described Montgomery with many words back then. Coach. Friend. Older brother. Mentor.

“We were having a function in front of the school and they came and got him and was trying to pull him out and away from school,” Montgomery said back in 2016.

He felt he had to act.

“I jumped in my car and rode down the street,” he said. “Then I told those guys ‘Man, you all are not going to have him now. Go on about your business. If you really care about him, leave him be. If he listens to what we are saying and sticks in school he will go places. It will take him to college and in three years he’ll be in the NFL.’ I told them when he does that, he can take care of all of them then. Just not now. Let me have him.”

“So what do you need him for then?” Montgomery said in 2016. “Go on and make your own money then. What do you need with Devonte then? Let me have him and please let him be.”

Montgomery snatched him from that life.

“I was hanging around with the wrong people and he just took me away from them,” Wyatt said back in 2016. “He took me away from a lot of negative influences. He showed me a different way. The way I needed to see.”

Montgomery and Wyatt said back in 2016 that two of those peers were jailed that next school year. Wyatt said those neighborhood friends were into robbery and burglary.

“I think I might be locked up or have been locked up without that guy right there,” Wyatt said of Montgomery back in 2016.

The “Air Force Ones” story: Georgia flipped him from South Carolina and then held off a late charge by that SEC East rival for Wyatt.

How did he get noticed for his athleticism by college scouts?

“Devonte was a shot put and discus thrower in track,” he said. “Once they were finished at practice, they were doing the 100-meter dash. Devonte saw everybody running and he told the track coach ‘Man I can beat them running’ and ‘I want to enter in the 100-meter dash for us’ at the next meet.”

The Towers track coach told him to go for it. This was an actual track meet. Not at a practice.

“He got up there with some all-white Air Force 1s on,” Montgomery said. “Didn’t even get in the blocks. Just standing up, man. From a two-point stance. Man, when that gun went off, he took out. I mean he dusted those kids. It was amazing seeing that big fella get down that track like that.”

Kirby Smart had to have him: Well, the video of that effort got around. That 278-pound Wyatt was running the 100 meters in a pair of white Air Force 1s on.

“Kirby saw that and it was like an instant offer,” Montgomery said. “Everyone was amazed when they saw him getting down that track.”

When the Georgia Bulldogs saw that, well, they had to have Wyatt, too.

It was the first time that Smart, in all of his years recruiting the state of Georgia, had even been in Towers High School.

“This is one of those kids with one of those stories that you really could just talk about forever,” Montgomery said. “It can’t help but make you smile.”

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