Alright, the Green Bay Packers finally filled one of the expected holes going into the offseason. At the combine, general manager Brian Gutekunst stated that the team needs to add competition at “inside linebacker” and the secondary. On Saturday, the Packers traded starting nose tackle Colby Wooden, going into the final year of his rookie contract, for Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin, who is now expected to be Green Bay’s starting middle linebacker and green dot on defense.
After that
move, how do the Packers’ biggest needs for this offseason stack? Below is my opinion, but go ahead and fire off thoughts of your own in the comment section below.
Nose Tackle
Between Wooden being traded, Quinton Bohanna not being held onto for the full 2025 season and Jonathan Ford’s contract expiring, only 48 percent of the team’s nose tackle snaps return for the 2026 season. The majority of those snaps come from Karl Brooks and Devonte Wyatt, who basically exclusively played the role in passing situations, like when Micah Parsons was the other “defensive tackle” on the field on third downs. If you exclude these pressure package snaps, it’s basically like the Packers return 30 percent of their nose tackle snaps on “normal” downs.
That’s a hole! A huge one!
On paper, the Packers’ starting nose tackle is probably Nazir Stackhouse (who struggled as an undrafted), though Warren Brinson is also in the mix and Jordon Riley (coming off an Achilles tear) is also in the mix. It’s not like Wooden was even built to play nose tackle, and he wore down in the second half of games because of his size, but this has certainly created an even larger need at the position that they already had to address.
Some good news? If the Packers are going to go the Jonathan Gannon route (Zaire Franklin’s time in Indianapolis overlapped with Gannon’s time there, too), four former Gannon nose tackles are expected to hit the free agency market this offseason: Javon Hargrave, Dalvin Tomlinson, Khyiris Tonga and Roy Lopez. Both Tonga and Lopez will be compensatory free agents, meaning that they have the potential to offset a Packers comp pick in 2027, while Hargrave and Tomlinson wouldn’t as released players.
Center
The Packers say they expect every player under contract for 2026 to be on the team next year, and they haven’t made a release yet. Green Bay converted safety Xavier McKinney’s money into a signing bonus for 2026, which allowed them to momentarily become cap compliant before the Franklin trade (he has a larger salary than Wooden) and the re-signing of fellow linebacker Nick Niemann.
This is important for two reasons. First, the Packers have to do something to get back under the cap by March 11th. That could be more salary conversions or cutting cap casualties. Second, Green Bay’s starting center, Elgton Jenkins, is a prime cap casualty candidate, as he’s regressed in two consecutive seasons, is coming off a major injury and carries a $20 million salary in 2026.
Jenkins won’t be making that $20 million in Green Bay this year. He’s either going to be traded, cut or have his deal reworked. Not just a simple restructure like McKinney’s deal. He’ll have to accept making less money than he originally signed up for.
The Packers’ number two center is Sean Rhyan, who is up to the third-ranked free agent center on the consensus free agent board now, following Connor McGovern’s re-signing with the Buffalo Bills and Tyler Biadasz’s signing with the Los Angeles Chargers. There’s a real chance that Green Bay, eventually, could lose its two-deep at the position this offseason.
It’s not as bad as nose tackle, where the team could be starting a second-year undrafted free agent, but third-year fifth-round pick Jacob Monk has only ever started one game in his NFL career, Week 18’s junior varsity game against the Minnesota Vikings, and has only played 57 career snaps on offense — 51 of 57 of which came in that same game.
Nose tackle and center are by far the biggest holes on the team right now.
Cornerback
Everyone wants new cornerbacks, and I’m sure the team will add at this position in some way this offseason. I do fully expect Keisean Nixon to play a starting role on this team, though, with the real competition being the spot opposite of him (right now, it’s probably Carrington Valentine).
The bigger issue for the Packers is really 2027, not 2026. Next year, Nixon and Valentine will both be free agents. The team should probably try to get ahead of this, even if it’s by drafting a 2026 backup in the draft. Maybe that backup can even compete with Valentine, Nate Hobbs (who could be moved this offseason), Bo Melton (still technically listed as a cornerback on the roster) and Kamal Hadden (coming off a season-ending ankle injury) for 2026 playing time.
There are a lot of different directions that this position can go, depending on what the team thinks they’ll get out of Hobbs, Melton or Hadden in 2026. The underlying motivation for the Packers to add volume at this position, though, will be the lack of contracts at the position for 2027.
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For the most part, I think these are the Packers’ three biggest needs. Nose tackle and center stack up over cornerback. Green Bay only has so many plugs that they’ll have access to this offseason, since the comp pick formula (and the team’s willingness to cash those picks) incentivizes the team not to spend on players whose contracts have expired. On top of that, they only have one selection in the top-80 picks in April’s draft.
If they show aggressiveness in free agency, I think it’ll show up at these three positions. Otherwise, I think they’ll sort of play the other positions by ear.
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