Acme Packing Company
Alright, let’s dip a toe into the 2026 NFL Draft waters, now that the Green Bay Packers’ season is officially over. As a reminder, the Packers are out their first-round pick because of the Micah Parsons trade, but the team will have two extra draft choices because of compensatory picks for free agents they lost last offseason.
Generally, Green Bay really does act as if they’re drafting off of “best player available,” rather than to fill immediate needs. Over the 20-plus years after the front office seized back power from head coach Mike Sherman (the Packers’ last outside hire at general manager was 1992 with Ron Wolf), even rookie first-round picks have only started an average of six games in Green Bay. Immediate impact simply is not the driving force for the Packers on draft day.
With that in mind, though, let’s look at the holes on the roster, at least on the first line of the depth chart, if they were to go in that direction (and sometimes, the shoe just fits for an immediate impact rookie).
With offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins expected to be a cap casualty, the biggest question on offense right now is whether the team brings back center Sean Rhyan, who is set to be a 2026 free agent. The Packers don’t have a ton of cap space (effectively, they’ll have somewhere in the ballpark of $15 million after some expected moves, and they’ll also probably want to extend receiver Christian Watson and tight end Tucker Kraft this offseason, too), but they could bring Rhyan back if they really wanted to.
Outside of that, it’s hard to imagine that Green Bay will draft a Week 1 starter, barring injury, on offense this year. It’s sort of center or bust on offense.
(No, the team is not getting rid of Banks until at least 2027.)
This assumes that linebacker Quay Walker is gone (and defensive end Rashan Gary is a cap casualty), which is seeming more and more likely by the day. If the coaching staff returns, his end-of-year comments almost certainly hurt his chances at returning to the locker room.
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