It turns out the Packers will not have one of their wideouts when they play the Bears on Saturday night.
Green Bay announced Dontayvion Wicks has been downgraded to out as he continues to work through the concussion protocol.
Wicks has not played since the Week 17 loss to Baltimore. He was a limited participant in practice for all three days this week.
Wicks is now the only player on Green Bay’s 53-man roster who has been ruled out. Defensive lineman Warren Brinson (foot), safety Javon Bullard (knee), linebacker Nick Niemann (pectoral), offensive lineman Zach Tom (back/knee), and backup quarterback Malik Willis (right shoulder/hamstring) all remain questionable.
Packers cornerback Trevon Diggs has only been in Green Bay for 10 days, but he says he’s already confident in his role in the Packers’ defense and ready to contribute Saturday night against the Bears.
“I’m very comfortable,” Diggs said, via the Associated Press. “I’m ready for whatever.”
Diggs started for the Packers against the Vikings on Sunday, just four days after he was claimed on waivers from the Cowboys. He played 33 snaps on defense and two snaps on special teams, and he said he’s glad to still be playing, which he wouldn’t be if he were still a Cowboy.
“It’s a blessing,” Diggs said. “It’s hard to win in this league and it’s hard to go to the playoffs, so just being here, being able to go to the playoffs, it’s been truly a blessing and I’m truly thankful.”
Diggs says Green Bay feels like the right place for him.
“It feels natural,” Diggs said. “It feels normal. It just feels like a great fit. It’s been great. I’m just happy to be here.”
Now he’ll get to work on helping the Packers beat the Bears, and ensure he gets at least one more game as a Packer.
It’s been 21 years.
Twenty-one years today. January 9, 2005. Vikings at Packers. Wild-card round.
The sixth-seeded Vikings, who qualified for the playoffs with an 8-8 record, visited the third-seeded Packers at Lambeau Field. The Packers had swept the regular-season series, winning both games by the score of 34-31.
The Vikings built a 17-3 lead in the first half. By the fourth quarter, Minnesota still led by fourteen, 24-10.
After the Packers scored with 13:37 to play, cutting the margin to seven points, the Vikings were in danger of blowing it. They moved the ensuing kickoff to the Packers’ 34. On first and 10, receiver Randy Moss did a stutter step within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Cornerback Al Harris bit. Moss took off, throwing his hand in the air.
Quarterback Daunte Culpepper rolled a few more steps to the right before firing the ball toward Moss. Harris closed the gap as the underthrown pass approached. Moss caught it at the five and carried Harris into the end zone.
And then Moss went to the goal post. He pretended to moon the crowd. He capped the gesture by rubbing his rump on the padding.
Enter Fox’s Joe Buck: “That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss. And it’s unfortunate that we had it on our air live. That is disgusting by Randy Moss.”
Moss later explained that the fake moon was inspired by the collection of real moons that the Vikings saw on their way to the stadium that day.
“There’s probably like 10 white asses sitting over there over the hill, they’ve got all their pants down,” Moss said in 2021. “Nothing but white moons all lined up.”
Moss was fined $10,000 for the celebration. Which prompted one of the best NFL sound bites of all time.
Heading to his truck at the team’s facility, someone with a camera asked Moss whether he wrote a check for the fine.
“When you’re rich, you don’t write checks,” Moss said.
“If you don’t write checks,” he was asked, “how do you pay these guys?”
Replied Moss: “Straight cash, homey.”
There was more, which rarely gets mentioned. Moss then was asked if he was upset by the fine.
“No,” Moss said. “It ain’t shit. It ain’t nothing by ten grand. What’s ten grand to me? It ain’t shit. Next time, I might shake my dick.”
Now that would have been a disgusting act.
Saturday night’s Packers-Bears game will be the third time the two teams have met in 34 days. It’ll also be only the third time they’ve ever met in the postseason.
Overall, it’ll be the 213th game between Green Bay and Chicago. The Packers lead the series, 109-97-6. The teams have split their prior playoff games.
The first happened in 1941, in a Western Division playoff. The Bears won, 33-14. In 2010, they met in the NFC Championship. The Packers won, 21-14. With the victory, Green Bay advanced to (and won) its most recent Super Bowl.
This year, they’ve split the regular-season series, with the Bears staging a fourth-quarter comeback (down 16-6 with 5:03 to play) to win in overtime. It’s one of four straight losses by the Packers to end the regular season.
Green Bay hasn’t won a game since beating the Bears at Lambeau Field in Week 14. The next week at Denver, linebacker Micah Parsons suffered a torn ACL. The Packers lost that game and the next three.
Via NBC Sports research, the Packers are only the fourth team in NFL history to enter the playoffs on a four-game losing streak. The 1986 Jets lost five in a row, and the 1999 Lions and 2024 Steelers lost four in a row. (The Jets won their wild-card game against the Chiefs; the Lions and Steelers lost in the opening round of the postseason.)
The Packers are nevertheless favored by 1.5-points, despite being the No. 7 seed. Since the playoffs expanded to seven teams per conference, the Packers are the only seventh seed to win a playoff game, beating the Cowboys in Dallas two years ago.
The Dolphins have found their new General Manager.
According to multiple reports, the Dolphins will hire Jon-Eric Sullivan to fill the role. Sullivan was one of four finalists for the job and had his second interview with the team on Thursday.
Sullivan has worked for the Packers since 2004 in a variety of scouting and personnel roles. He spent the last four seasons as the team’s vice president of player personnel.
The first big task that Sullivan will be involved with in his new job will be the selection of the team’s next head coach. The Dolphins fired Mike McDaniel on Thursday, so Sullivan and the eventual hire will both be in their first season with the Dolphins in 2026.
