Heading into the off-season, the Green Bay Packers have two glaring needs that pop off the screen: center and nose tackle. Other positions need competition and depth added in, like linebacker and cornerback, but both center and nose tackle are screaming for starters with how the depth chart looks today. As of today, February 23rd, 2026, the Packers’ current starting center is Jacob Monk. Jacob Monk has played 57 regular-season offensive snaps in his two-year career. Nearly every single one of them
came in a dead rubber season finale this past year. The backup to Monk is current exclusive-rights free agent Lecitus Smith, who you only know exists if you’re the type of sicko that reads APC with a high level of regularity.
On the other side of the ball, the Packers have C0lby Wooden, who was drafted around 280 pounds, currently occupying the nose tackle position. Wooden has bulked up since then, but is still significantly undersized for a scheme that will ask the nose tackle to routinely gap-and-a-half or two-gap. Behind Wooden is the former Georgia Bulldog duo of Warren Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse. Brinson is the more undersized of the two, coming in at “only” 310 pounds, and put up a PFF grade of 44 last year in his 297 defensive snaps. Brinson posted all right pressure numbers, but his run defense left a ton to be desired. Stackhouse played significantly fewer snaps, and if I may editorialize significantly, he is one of the worst defensive tackles I have seen at the NFL level. His size doesn’t show up because he’s either playing too high or he’s far too slow-footed to not get beaten to the spot by NFL linemen.
With both of these spots crying out for legitimate starters, the markets of available talent look dramatically different for the two. Let’s start with the bad news. The center market looks really rough. It is headlined by Tyler Linderbaum, who was top five in pass block win-rate this past season, and has been a reliable stalwart for the Ravens since being drafted out of Iowa in 2022. But after Linderbaum, the class starts to thin out. Our own Justis Mosqueda compiled a composite free agent rankings list, and Linderbaum ranked third overall and first amongst offensive linemen. After Linderbaum, the next center doesn’t show up until Connor McGovern at 25. McGovern is another rock-solid starter. After McGovern, though, things fall off a cliff. Cade Mays shows up next at 79th. Ethan Pocic comes in at 107th and Andre James at 184th. Sean Rhyan narrowly misses the top 200 (which feels a little harsh, to be honest). With several teams desperately in need of offensive line help, having more cap space than God, including the Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans, it’s unlikely Green Bay is going to be able to find a deal for someone near the top of the market. In fact, it’s possible Green Bay may get priced out of a veteran starter altogether. Remember that Jon Runyan Jr. was a part-time player for Green Bay his final year and netted a contract with an average annual value of $10M. Rhyan’s projections are coming in materially lower than most, but good offensive linemen almost never hit free agency, and so anyone who can even be a semi-competent warm body tends to get paid high six or seven figures per year.
If Green Bay goes into the draft without a veteran answer at the position, things have the ability to get dark pretty quickly. This is a bad center class in the top 100. Center usually isn’t a position that tends to go in round one, but even day two is looking sparse. Only two centers are currently ranked in the consensus top 100 as of writing, and an additional one, Brian Parker out of Duke, I am counting as a center-convert given where he was practicing at the Shrine Bowl. After that, you’re likely looking at day 3 players, and possibly one having to start day one. This is a position where things could get really dark, really quickly if free agency turns into a bonanza for interior offensive linemen and the draft just doesn’t fall Green Bay’s way.
Now onto the good news. Nose tackle has a lot more options. In the draft, I wouldn’t call this a “good” nose tackle class, per se, but there are a pretty decent number of guys. The class may lack a star at the position, but four nose tackles are projected to go before Green Bay picks in Caleb Banks, Kayden McDonald, Peter Woods, and Lee Hunter. Both Darrell Jackson Jr and Domonique Orange are currently ranked in that late second/early third range, and Dontay Corleone is the wild card of the group, as his medicals and pre-draft process will probably dictate if he goes day 2 or well into day 3.
The better news is in free agency, where nose tackle should have a decent number of guys on the market. The current free agent crop includes DJ Reader and Roy Lopez, both of the Detroit Lions, as well as Khyris Tonga of the New England Patriots. Reader ranked 71st on the consensus board with Lopez down at 173rd. Tonga didn’t crack the top 200, which seems crazy to me. The 340-pound Tonga posted a solid 68 PFF grade this season for New England and also played for new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon in Arizona in 2024. Roy Lopez also spent two years with Gannon in Arizona in 2023 and 2024.
In addition to the guys already slated to hit free agency, two former Packers may very well be headed there as well. I wrote about TJ Slaton’s situation a few weeks ago, but his partner in the DT room in 2024, Kenny Clark, is also likely to land in free agency. The Cowboys are currently about $25M over the salary cap for 2026 and have to create a lot of room to franchise wide receiver George Pickens, which is what Adam Schefter reported they are going to do. That means Dallas will need to get to about $29M in cap space prior to the league year starting. The Cowboys can clear over $21M of that by releasing Kenny Clark. Because Clark was acquired via trade and his remaining prorated bonuses hit the Packers’ cap sheet, the Cowboys would carry zero dead cap from moving on from Clark. Whether or not Green Bay and Clark are interested in a lower-cost reunion is unknown, but he could provide a veteran option at the position rather than possibly throwing a rookie into the deep end. Worth noting that Clark’s 2025 looked a lot like his prior several years. He was a pretty good pass rusher for a nose tackle, but his run defense continues to deteriorate from his rookie contract peak, both in PFF run defense grade and run-stop rates.
The nose tackle position overall lacks high-end talent, but the type of specialist that Green Bay is going to want to target, given their schematic needs, is at least in solid supply. They will need run stuffers, not pass rushers, for those spots. Once the team gets to third down, they’ll likely send out two pass rush types on the interior, like Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks, or even kick Lukas Van Ness inside for six-to-eight snaps per game. With those types of specialized role players typically costing less and being more available this spring, it looks easier for Green Bay to fill that role outside of the organization than center, which has a chance to get very dark very fast.
