Eagles 2026 Most Important List: Dontayvion Wicks

Eagles 2026 most important list: Dontayvion Wicks originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Over the next few weeks leading up to training camp, we’ll be counting down the top 25 most important Eagles for the 2024 season.

25. Eli Stowers
24. Marcus Epps
23. Dontayvion Wicks

During the first three years of his career, Dontayvion Wicks was a solid player for the Green Bay Packers.

The Eagles see some untapped potential.

That became obvious when they sent a couple of picks to the Packers this offseason for Wicks and then signed him to a one-year extension worth $12.5 million, $9 million of which was fully guaranteed. 

“Tay’s a player that we’ve followed,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said this offseason. “Obviously, we’ve played Green Bay a bunch of times. You see his skillset. He is a physical, explosive player a the top of routes. He can play inside or out. He’s a guy we had our eye on here. And bringing in some of these Green Bay guys, some of the hardest parts of our job is the [cohabitation] part, not understanding who the person is. And when you get a chance to bring in some of these new coaches and then talk about some of the players and the skillset and then know how they are in the building, it makes you even more confident when you make that acquisition.

“I think when you look at our receiver room over the last couple of years, obviously we lost Jahan (Dotson), we probably have been fortunate about the depth that we haven’t really had to dive into. Just studying the league and how many teams can go pretty deep in their receiver room, that was one of the priorities going into this offseason, increasing the depth, the quality of talent in the receiver room throughout the room. That really fit.”

The Eagles are seemingly all-in on Sean Mannion after hiring the young offensive coordinator this offseason. And Wicks is a player who has familiarity with Mannion and the staples of the offensive system he’s going to run in Philadelphia.

While the Eagles have since drafted first-round receiver Makai Lemon, Wicks still figures to be an important piece of the puzzle in 2026 as one of the Eagles’ top three receivers. It’ll be DeVonta Smith, Lemon and Wicks, who is one of the players who was brought in to soften the blow of the A.J. Brown trade.

Wicks, 25, was a fifth-round pick out of Virginia in 2023 and spent his first three seasons in Green Bay. In those three years, Wicks has 108 catches, 1,328 yards and 11 touchdowns. His most productive season came as a rookie in 2023, when he had 39 catches for 581 yards and 4 touchdowns. Drops have been an issue with 14 in three years but he had just 2 in 2025.

The hope is that Wicks (6-1, 206) will be able to take on a bigger role with the Eagles than he had with the Packers, who were a tad deeper at receiver. Wicks never played more than 54% of the Packers’ offensive snaps in any season over the last three years.

Wicks is a solid player who can play both inside and outside. He has been somewhat productive and is also known for being able to do some of the dirty work required by a receiver in this offense.

“Tay Wicks, I think he has a very unique skillset of being able to get in and out of breaks and be really efficient at the line of scrimmage,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “For a guy that I’ve coached, he has some Keenan Allen to him and to his game.”

Last week, Wicks heard about that Allen comparison and appreciated the compliment.