Green Bay Packers Offseason Preview
No first round pick. A defensive superstar who might not be healthy for the start of the season. A franchise stuck in Wild Card purgatory may discover that the only way out is down.
This is the seventh installment of an ongoing series of offseason previews.
2025 Season in a Nutshell
The Packers dumped all their chips on red just before the wheel began spinning. The little marble landed on black.
Coaching Situation
Give Matt LaFleur a severely cap-strapped roster that just lost a Hall of Famer, an untested understudy of a quarterback and a roster full of eager mid-round picks, and he’ll give you nine wins and a close-call first-round playoff loss.
Give Matt LaFleur a veteran quarterback he’s been developing for six seasons, a Defensive Player of the Year shortlister, the fastest wide receiver in the draft and a roster studded with quality veterans, and he’ll give you nine wins and a close-call first-round playoff loss.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley left to become the Dolphins head coach. LaFleur replaced him with former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon. LaFleur’s brother Mike replaced Gannon as the head coach of the Cardinals. No NFL coach knows more than five other people. Family included.
Quarterback Situation
Packers fans like to pretend that they are not mildly disappointed with Jordan Love, whose development has flattened out as a second-quartile starter with a reputation for coming up short in high-leverage situations.
Whatever you do, don’t point out to a Cheesehead that Caleb Williams has zoomed past Love developmentally. Trust me: you don’t need that smoke.
State of the Roster
Micah Parsons suffered a December ACL injury that will likely linger into the 2026 season. Longtime offensive line tone-setter Elgton Jenkins is old and injured. Josh Jacobs’ odometer has reached 99,999. The vast phalanx of wide receivers and tight ends is starting to crash against the contract-extension shoreline. Little problems, like the decline of kicker Brandon McManus, are starting to look bigger.
There’s still plenty of talent in Green Bay, mind you. But everything looked much rosier before the team dithered through another 9-7-1 season.
Cap and Draft Stuff
As you may recall, the Packers traded their first-round picks in 2026 and 2027 for Parsons. They will select 52nd and 84th overall in this year’s first three rounds.
The Packers show a $1.4 million cap deficit, which is chump change. Clearing extra maneuvering room won’t be that easy, however. Many veteran contracts are already bonus-heavy, making it hard to restructure them. Jenkins’ contract isn’t, but extending a 30-year old lineman coming off a poor season may not be the shrewdest move.
Romeo Doubs, Quay Walker and Rasheed Walker headline a rather extensive list of in-house free agents. Doubs may be a victim of the numbers crunch at wide receiver and could earn a hefty raise elsewhere. A lot of oft-used role players, including backup quarterback Malik Willis, will likely move on in March.
One Thing the Packers Should Do
Play bang-marry-kill with the receivers and tight ends.
Maybe Doubs moves on. Maybe Matthew Golden becomes a for-real WR1. Maybe Tucker Kraft gets an extension and Luke Musgrave gets an opportunity elsewhere. Maybe Jayden Reed gets traded. Maybe Bo Melton re-signs, bulks up and moves to linebacker. Heck, maybe George Pickens arrives on the Parsons Express from Dallas like the wishcasters rumors claim he will.
Whatever the Packers do, they can’t enter another season with a dozen different inconsistent/injury-prone WR2-3 types and toolsy tight ends, but no sense of who should get the ball on third-and-4 in the red zone.
In Summary
Even if everything works out for the best – Parsons comes back early and close to 100%, Gannon proves to be more than the Brand X defensive coach, LaFleur stops calling dipsy-doodle plays in the red zone, Golden blossoms, Love takes a step forward, etc. – the Packers could still end up as a Wild Card team in the NFC North.
If LaFleur and the Packers want to change the conversation on a franchise that’s clearly spinning its wheels, they better dream up an offseason surprise or two. Unfortunately, last year’s surprise helped get them into this mess.
