The Green Bay Packers\u2019 offseason is finally rolling after the team has brought back two players and made a trade for a new addition. Let\u2019s go through these moves, give some quick thoughts on what the team is trying to do with these actions and assign them all a letter grade. You guys know the drill at this point.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s me, the Chris Brooks stan. Brooks not only out-snapped Emanuel Wilson as the RB2 from Week 13 on (excluding the JV game against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 18), but he\u2019s also Pro Football Focus\u2019 highest-graded pass blocker and run blocker.<\/p>\n
Is he a ball-carrier? Not really, but there was little difference between his 3.9 YPC and Wilson\u2019s 4.0 in 2025. He\u2019s here to be a top-tier blocker (be it as the sixth-man in pass protection or in the run game in multiple-back looks). On top of that, he\u2019s basically the only offensive skill player whom head coach Matt LaFleur actually allows to play on teams consistently. His 230 snaps on special teams rank 3rd on the team overall. The next highest offensive skill player is Savion Williams (ranked 31st with 52 special teams snaps on the year, out of just 48 eligible players on gamedays).<\/p>\n
If the Packers want to continue to be dead last in WR\/TE snaps played on special teams, which allows LaFleur to stash pass-catchers instead of special teams contributors in backup roles, Brooks had to come back. He\u2019s a very unique player (again, 1st in both pass blocking and run blocking) and is quietly a reason why their current roster construction works. That\u2019s well worth the $2.43 million per year they\u2019re paying him over two years, after they elected not to tender him as a restricted free agent at his minimum $3.5 million tender cost. I\u2019m glad they got this one done.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t done a deep dive into Zaire Franklin\u2019s film, so I\u2019m having to rely on people who are either film-watchers in the media or with clubs for this one, but the consensus I\u2019ve received early on is that Franklin wasn\u2019t close to as bad as his PFF numbers in 2025 (ranked 87th of 88 qualifying linebackers). What I have been told is that he\u2019s a plugger who is an athletic run defender but can\u2019t contribute much as a coverage player.<\/p>\n
This is sort of the mold I figured the Packers would go with to pair next to Edgerrin Cooper in their new 3-4 defense. Coverage matters, yes, but I think the primary driver was always going to be to pair Cooper with a plugger to keep him clean and allow him to be a little more versatile.<\/p>\n
This trade helped the Packers get a linebacker, one that they can technically move off of as early as this summer with a $0 cap charge<\/a> if it\u2019s not looking good in camp, without it impacting Green Bay\u2019s expected compensatory picks<\/a>. Franklin also has a background with Jonathan Gannon, as they were both with the Colts from 2018-2020. Yes, Gannon was part of the staff that drafted Franklin.<\/p>\n On the Colby Wooden end, he was part of the Packers\u2019 issues last season. It\u2019s not his fault that the team started him at nose tackle after Kenny Clark was sent to the Dallas Cowboys in the Micah Parsons trade, but he wasn\u2019t able to fill in as an efficient starting nose tackle.<\/p>\n The most telling stat of the Packers\u2019 2025 defense is that they were essentially the best team in football for two drives and then were arguably the worst defense in the league after that.<\/p>\n In short, they wore down because they couldn\u2019t stop the run in the 2nd through 4th quarters. It sure didn\u2019t help that the team started Wooden, who came into the league at 273 pounds (and has added weight since), at nose tackle full-time.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how Green Bay\u2019s nose tackle reps were split in 2025:<\/p>\n Colby Wooden: 312 snaps (now a Colt)Karl Brooks: 97 (mostly in pressure packages)Nazir Stackhouse: 88Devonte Wyatt: 47 (mostly in pressure packages)Warren Brinson: 37Jordon Riley: 36Quinton Bohanna: 34 (no longer on roster)Jonathan Ford: 30 (2026 free agent)<\/p>\n The Packers were always going to have to add a nose tackle in 2026. The trading of Wooden didn\u2019t change that. The hole is even bigger now, though. At the moment, the current starter is probably Nazir Stackhouse, a 2025 undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n I get the swap of Wooden for Franklin in isolation. Wooden is in the last year of his contract and probably wasn\u2019t going to be a priority for re-signing. It\u2019s better to get something for him than nothing. The Packers also needed a Quay Walker replacement, and they apparently didn\u2019t feel the need to offset a comp pick for it (which isn\u2019t a surprise).<\/p>\n My big worry now is how the team fills the nose tackle void (I\u2019ve heard that Javon Hargrave is a name to watch here, a cap casualty who has previously played under Jonathan Gannon and would not impact Green Bay\u2019s comp picks). I feel the least committed to this grade out of this bunch. Depending on how I feel about Franklin\u2019s film (once I can finally sit down and watch it thoroughly) and how the Packers address nose tackle, I could see my opinion being swayed about this one.<\/p>\n This one was surprising to me, because the Packers haven\u2019t typically kept five off-ball linebackers on their roster when they\u2019ve played a 3-4 defense. With Zaire Franklin, Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie, Ty\u2019Ron Hopper and now Nick Niemann, they have five rosterable off-ball linebackers, even if Quay Walker walks in free agency, which is now fully expected.<\/p>\n Niemann was a true special teams ace, contributing on everything but the field goal team and field goal rush units. He was one of the best, if not the best, special teams players on the roster in 2025. (Other candidates include Bo Melton, Zayne Anderson and Arron Mosby.)<\/p>\n I\u2019m happy to see him back on a one-year contract, even if he\u2019s basically a special-teams-only player. That fifth linebacker spot under Jeff Hafley was really the only slot that the team has dedicated to a true special-teams-only guy. Mosby was a player in this mold, too, but was only activated to the 53-man roster in Week 10, and I don\u2019t think the team is going to bring him back now that he\u2019s vested and his salary will be fully guaranteed if he makes the team in Week 1.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have contract details yet, but I doubt Niemann got more than something like the minimum salary plus a $500,000 roster bonus\/per-game signing bonuses, which is typically what the Packers give to special teams contributors who are also backups on offense or defense.<\/p>\n Brought back a special teamer. The care level on special teams didn\u2019t drop to 0 immediately after Rich Bisaccia left, which was the case before Bisaccia. That\u2019s a big plus to me.<\/p>\n Grade: A (but surprised the team did it)<\/p>\n So the starting offensive line is locked up for the foreseeable future. Jordan Morgan is under contract until 2028 (with the potential of 2029 if his fifth-year option is picked up). Aaron Banks, Anthony Belton and Sean Rhyan are now under contract until 2029, and Zach Tom is under contract until 2030. Outside of Banks potentially being a cap casualty in 2027, if his 2026 season doesn\u2019t go great, this is your starting five moving forward.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a big proponent of re-signing Rhyan for a while now. I thought there was a chance to sign Rhyan at a little lower of a figure, but the baseline comparison I had for Rhyan was Jon Runyan Jr.\u2019s three-year, $10 million per contract he signed in 2024 after being a part-time starter. Two years later, Rhyan got one million more per than Runyan. That seems about right.<\/p>\n My optimism for getting Rhyan for cheaper sort of went out of the window this week because of the overall center market. There were three retirements from starting centers, and a bunch of teams that had poor starters at the position pulled the trigger on making them cap casualties. That\u2019s one reason why Tyler Biadasz was snatched up almost immediately after being released by the Washington Commanders, and Connor McGovern was re-signed by the Buffalo Bills. It\u2019s also why we\u2019ve seen the Chicago Bears trade for Garrett Bradbury and the Detroit Lions trade for Juice Scruggs, too. There\u2019s simply going to be way more demand for center than there is supply.<\/p>\n Here are all of the top-200 ranked centers<\/a>, on consensus, who are left after Rhyan, Biadasz and McGovern were taken off the market heading into free agency:<\/p>\n #2: Tyler Linderbaum#63: Cade Mays#139: Ethan Pocic<\/p>\n Seven teams still need a new starting center for 2026 and only three real plugs are available in free agency. In the draft, there\u2019s currently only one center prospect who is ranked as a top-80 player on the consensus draft board<\/a>, Auburn\u2019s Connor Lew \u2014 who is coming off a torn ACL.<\/p>\n On top of that, it\u2019s smart to get a deal done with a center before Linderbaum comes in and resets the top of the market, which could have a trickle-down effect for the rest of the position. As crazy as it sounds, it\u2019s cheaper right now to grab a starting center, a full-time player, than a starting nickel defender, a part-time player. Slot defenders are getting in the $13 million per year range<\/a>, at least leading into this year\u2019s free agency cycle.<\/p>\n McGovern just just $13 million per this offseason. The only other centers to crack north of that were Creed Humphrey and Cam Jurgens, if you\u2019re not including Elgton Jenkins, who originally signed his deal as a guard before converting to center. Center is due for a salary explosion on the market. Mays, who was released from the Carolina Panthers at the 2024 cutdown deadline, might be the biggest benefactor of this next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Bay Packers\u2019 offseason is finally rolling after the team has brought back two players and made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[139733,18813,18811,18815,349,99],"class_list":["post-512019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-green-bay-packers-free-agency","tag-green-bay-packers-depth-chart","tag-green-bay-packers-news","tag-green-bay-packers-roster","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}