The Green Bay Packers are heading into the 2026 season looking much different than they did last year. After parting ways during the offseason with players like receivers Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks, as well as kicker Brandon McManus and cornerback Nate Hobbs, plenty of doors have opened for younger and fresher faces to take on more prominent roles. Who’s set up to make the most immediate impact?
WR Matthew Golden
I think this one is the most obvious. The Packers drafted Matthew Golden in the first round for a reason.
He was always going to be a playmaker for the team; it was just a matter of when they’d unleash him. His rookie season left a lot to be desired, mostly due to a lack of opportunity in a very crowded WR room, something I did find puzzling at times. After this offseason’s moves, the team has shown that they’re committed to making Golden a huge part of their offense this year, and it looks like we’re starting to see it already in training camp.
In 15 regular season and playoff games, Golden caught 33 of 49 targets (67%) for 445 yards (13.5 ypr) and 1 TD. Expect every single number in that last sentence to go up this season. If you took Golden’s stats from the team’s Wild Card game and stretched them over a 17-game season, he’d have 68 catches for 1,428 yards and 17 TDs. Sounds very realistic to me! I kid, I kid (no).
CB Brandon Cisse
Once upon a time, the phrase was actually “death, taxes, and the Green Bay Packers using a high draft pick on a defensive back”. The days of Josh Jackson, Damarious Randall, and Quentin Rollins, or as I like to call it: my personal Bubonic Plague. If Brandon Cisse plays his cards right (wrong?), he could be added to this list! So far, however, it’s looking like we may have gotten a good one. With the secondary dealing with a ton of injuries at the moment, Cisse has seen more first-team reps than I think we’d usually expect to see from a rookie at his position. The early reviews are…great!
The rookie has been glued to whichever receiver he’s covered on any given day, he’s created a ton of PBUs, and he might just be the biggest lock to start Week 1 of all the CBs on the roster. What’s even better? He doesn’t have a history of major or long-term leg injuries. Almost seems like the Packers seek those out sometimes. With Week 1 coming against the Vikings, it’s very possible a matchup with Justin Jefferson will be Cisse’s “welcome to the NFL” moment, but if we can get that out of the way early, who’s to say he can’t play the rest of his career like the hall of famer he was destined to be?
K Trey Smack
This last one could go very right. It could go very wrong too, but this article literally has “success” in the title, so let’s focus on that. In somewhat of a surprise move, the Packers traded up during the sixth round of the 2026 draft to select Trey Smack out of Florida. A short while after, they released veteran Brandon McManus, who was coming off of a brutal 2025 season in which he missed 6 FGs and 1 XP, and left another 7 points on the field in the team’s 4-point playoff loss.
Training camp for Smack thus far has been hot and cold, which isn’t what anyone wants to hear, but it’s clear that he’s got a leg on him. In his first preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Smack was a perfect 3/3, including a 58-yarder (plus another 58-yarder that didn’t count due to a penalty on the Steelers). This is great news for the Packers, who had nightmares every time they had to send Brandon McManus out to attempt anything over 40 last year. If Smack can get his leg under control, we could see things go in the Packers’ favor a bit more this year.
The team sees their next preseason action on Friday, August 21st, as they head to Denver to face off against the Broncos. Be there or be square.
