The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein has reported that former Green Bay Packers running back Emanuel Wilson will not be coming back to the team in 2026. The Packers elected to turn down his $3.5 million restricted free agent tender, and while Silverstein claims that Wilson hasn’t agreed to a deal with another club, “he is expected to sign with someone other than the Packers soon.”
This shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as Green Bay made a two-year, $4.85 million commitment to fellow restricted
free agent running back Chris Brooks last week. Brooks, a blocking back, will make about a million less per year than the minimum tender price, the other option that was on the table for the Packers if they wanted the back to come back in 2026.
Brooks wasn’t a high-carry player for Green Bay in 2025, but his yards per carry (3.9) matched up with Wilson’s 4.0 average, plus Brooks also contributes as a blocker and a special teams player, unlike Wilson. In today’s NFL, it’s tough to keep a backup running back on the roster who doesn’t contribute anything to the kicking game in any way, much less pay a veteran with those limitations.
As it stands now, the number two ball-carrier role for the Packers will likely come down to 2024 third-round pick MarShawn Lloyd, who has dealt with a series of minor injuries in his time with Green Bay, Pierre Strong Jr., a former fourth-round pick who was on the Packers’ practice squad throughout the 2025 season, and Damien Martinez, a second-year player who was projected to be a top-100 pick in the 2025 draft but ultimately was drafted in the seventh round.
Green Bay’s internal options should give the Packers the freedom to decide whether or not they’ll add more competition to the room on draft day, depending on the value on the board.
Green Bay will not receive a compensatory draft pick for Wilson leaving, as he will not count as a compensatory free agent. Restricted free agents who aren’t tendered are classified in the same way as cap casualties in the comp pick formula. Teams that lose these players don’t get rewarded for letting them walk, but teams that sign them aren’t punished for adding them, either.
Another restricted free agent running back who hit the market this offseason was former Baltimore Raven Keaton Mitchell, more of a change-of-pace back and returner. The Packers had a pre-draft workout with Mitchell back in 2023, so it would have made sense if they had kicked the tires on him, since paying him wouldn’t offset one of their compensatory picks.
Mitchell ended up signing a two-year, $9.25 million deal ($4.6 million per year, more than a million above the minimum tender cost) with the Los Angeles Chargers. Interestingly, he didn’t follow John Harbaugh, his former head coach, to the New York Giants, but instead joined Jim’s brother, John, in Los Angeles. Because of the price of this deal, you can assume that multiple teams were bidding on Mitchell’s services, even if the new coaching staff in Baltimore didn’t want to keep him at $3.5 million.
