The track record of the UDFA prospectus speaks for itself. Since launching in 2013, all but one edition featured at least one undrafted rookie who went on to secure a spot on the Packers' 53-man roster or practice squad. And that lone exception comes with caveats, as the team hoped to bring back two players -- quarterback Taysom Hill and offensive lineman Geoff Gray -- after final cuts. The New Orleans Saints snatched up Hill on a waiver claim, while Gray opted for a spot on the New York Jets' practice squad over an offer to join Green Bay's.

Some editions of the UDFA prospectus boast a nearly perfect record. In 2019, two of the four players included (Yosh Nijman and Randy Ramsey) earned jobs outright. A third rookie (Curtis Bolton) had secured a starting job at linebacker before an ACL tear landed him on injured reserve, and a fourth (Greg Roberts) spent the season on the physically unable to perform list before moving to the practice squad. Nijman subsequently became a primary starter along the offensive line in 2022.

With that out of the way, The Leap has collected every edition of the UDFA prospectus that remains available on the internet. A few have either fallen victim to link rot or never existed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, the web version of this newsletter will serve as a collection for the prospectus series.

• 2025 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2024 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2023 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2022 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2019 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2018 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2017 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2016 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2015 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 2013 Packers UDFA Prospectus

-- Jason B. Hirschhorn is an award-winning sports journalist and Pro Football Writers of America member. Follow him on social media: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

Over the past few days, the Green Bay Packers received their first look at the team’s 2026 draft class and undrafted rookies. But while that would normally dominate the headlines, an unexpected development stole the spotlight during rookie minicamp.

Today’s edition of The Leap unpacks the news from the minicamp roster and looks at other offseason situations that could soon matter to Green Bay.

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

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What do you make of Chase Claypool’s tryout opportunity at Packers rookie minicamp?

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Friday proved to be an important day in the Claypool Cinematic Universe. Not only did The Great Parrot-Ox And The Golden Egg Of Empathy drop, but Chase Claypool made a surprise appearance as a veteran tryout at Packers rookie minicamp.

(via @WesHod)

A 2020 second-round pick who burst onto the scene with 873 receiving yards and 11 total touchdowns as a rookie, Claypool’s star quickly fell off in the years that followed. Costly on-field decisions and declining production convinced the Pittsburgh Steelers to make him available before the 2022 trade deadline. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst offered a second-rounder, but after the Bears outbid him, he moved on to other business.

It didn’t take long before that decision looked sage. Directly following the trade deadline, rookie Christian Watson broke out, recording 362 yards and nine touchdowns from scrimmage over the next four games. Claypool managed just 191 scrimmage yards and a single touchdown over his entire Chicago tenure. Meanwhile, the Packers used the pick once tabbed for the trade on Jayden Reed, the team’s leading receiver during each of his first two seasons.

Claypool’s professional career didn’t last much longer. The Bears sent him to the Miami Dolphins as part of a late-round pick swap. He caught just four passes over nine games with his new team. In 2024, he signed a one-year contract with the Buffalo Bills but landed on injured reserve in August. They released him with an injury settlement soon after, marking the end of his last stint on an NFL roster.

Now, nearly two years removed from the injury, Claypool represents an intriguing proposition. The Packers risk nothing by giving him a tryout opportunity and would only need to pay the veteran minimum should they opt to sign him to the 90-man roster. If he has recovered from the ligament tear in his toe that ended his time in Buffalo, perhaps he can make a push for a job during camp.

Any discussion of Claypool’s prospects should involve setting reasonable expectations. The gap between the receiver who looked like a potential superstar in 2020 and the player currently in Green Bay looks as massive as the Grand Canyon. Claypool’s size and athleticism can and almost certainly will flash in practices, but his inability to so much as consistently catch the ball -- he dropped 12.5% of his targets since leaving Pittsburgh -- necessarily limits his upside.

At the same time, the Packers have reasons to consider Claypool. Currently, they have only one wideout who stands over 6-foot and has more than 10 career targets in the NFL: Watson. And for as well as he played in 2025, his injury history suggests that the team should have an insurance plan. Matthew Golden can replicate Watson’s speed but lacks his size. Savion Williams can replicate Watson’s size but has yet to demonstrate he can play receiver in the NFL. Claypool, for all his warts, could at least plausibly provide a vertical element to the passing game should Watson go down.

Even if the Packers ultimately sign Claypool, a lot has to happen before he can make a real case for the 53-man roster. The team wants to see whether Williams has taken a step in Year 2, and role players like Skyy Moore and Bo Melton also have the inside track at the moment. Claypool will see few reps with Jordan Love during practice and likely none during the preseason, meaning most of his passes will come from the likes of Desmond Ridder and Kyle McCord.

All of which underscores the reality of Claypool’s outlook. While he understandably garnered attention during rookie minicamp, he has a long, long, long way to go before he could possibly impact the season.

Does a QB trade remain on the table for Green Bay?

JBH: Speaking of backup quarterbacks, the Packers did not take one during the 2026 NFL Draft. Perhaps the decision to trade both of their seventh-round picks to move back into the sixth round took that option off the table, but no matter the cause, the team’s only recent addition under center came in the form of undrafted free agent Kyron Drones.

That doesn’t mean the Packers couldn’t make a more significant addition this offseason at quarterback, however.

At time of publication, several notable signal-callers remain available. The Indianapolis Colts have yet to move Anthony Richardson, though general manager Chris Ballard confirmed that the former No. 4 overall pick had requested a trade.

“Anthony’s not here. He’s also requested a trade,” Ballard said during his pre-draft press conference. “He’s down in Jacksonville training. I actually have talked to his trainer, and I talk to him often and his agent, but he’s in good spirits.

“I don’t know any question you’re going to ask other than, ‘Will he be here?’ Well, he could be. We’ll see. But as of right now, he’s down there in Jacksonville. We’ll kind of work through that as we go.”

Due to Richardson’s considerable athletic tools and the likelihood of a trade, many have already compared him to Malik Willis, another gifted reclamation project from an AFC South team who came to Green Bay to resurrect his career. Perhaps Richardson will indeed follow in Willis’ footsteps, but some significant differences exist between the two. Most importantly, Richardson would count more against the Packers’ salary cap in 2026 than Willis did over the past two seasons combined.

Gutekunst has other options worth considering, including one with a familiar trade partner. The Tennessee Titans have effectively waved the white flag on Will Levis’ time in Nashville, signing veterans Mitch Trubisky and Hendon hooker this offseason to back up Cam Ward. Barring an unforeseeable development, Levis will turn the page on the Titans by Week 1.

Levis has authored some of the most mindboggling mistakes of the 2023 and ‘24 seasons, and he missed all of last year while recovering from shoulder surgery. Still, he once outplayed Willis in training camp and can make plays with his legs. Levis might cost as little as a future conditional late-round selection. For a 26-year-old taken just 29 spots after Richardson in the 2023 draft, he offers some intrigue.

At least publicly, the Packers have stood behind their current backups. In March, Gutekunst said the team remained “very high on both those guys.” However, he also said, “If we have the opportunity to add to that room, we’ll certainly look at it,” hardly a strong vote of confidence.

Whether Richardson or Levis provides enough of an upgrade over Green Bay’s backups in Gutekunst’s estimation remains unclear. However, he will not have done his job if alternatives to Ridder and McCord don’t garner serious consideration.

There’s that dirty little world again. Consensus. A certain group of media and football people, including many in the league, reject the notion that such a thing exists, and at least in the NFL, they’re right. And the consensus board, such as they exist on the internet, consists of dorks like me with a keyboard who find film by hook or by crook, write our own reports, and grade players.

Already, this creates an inherent tension between the professionals and the amateurs. How could anyone deign to know the secret, nearly unknowable truths of collegiate prospects better than the teams that invest millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours in getting these picks right?

Well, because teams are bad at this.

Jason Fitzgerald at Over the Cap wrote about this phenomenon in 2023, and Pro Football Focus studied it several years earlier, based on their grades. What they found was that the league does not do a materially better job of identifying and ordering talent than the noobs. Fitzgerald’s analysis centered around second contracts and found the consensus board performs on par, and even better in some bands of the draft, compared to the NFL, outside of the first round, in terms of average money paid to players.

How can this possibly be?

And the answer can be found in the way someone like Lynch responded to questions about his draft misses after “reaching” relative to consensus. The only consensus he said he cares about is in his building.

This would not fly in any other part of life. The 49ers’ track record of drafting skill players on Day 2 has been horrendous under Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, while consistently picking players well above the range where consensus put them. If a hedge fund or a restaurant or a t-shirt company had this sort of discrepancy, they would not say, “Well, we trust our process.”

They would analyze that process, dig into the history of what they do, and try to identify trends. This lack of intellectual curiosity, mixed with the hubris of being stamped a “ball knower,” leads to poor outcomes.

Teams ignore the well-worn truths of draft history because they believe in their evaluations of players despite all evidence to the contrary. Teams make mistakes precisely because they are overconfident in their own ability to differentiate WR3 vs WR6, or QB1 vs. QB4.

There’s a reason teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Philadelphia Eagles consistently stack talent: they make normie picks that tend to follow consensus. And every year, when the draft grades come out — a stupid exercise in any case — they’re regularly among the highest-graded because they just did the basic thing and took the player most people agree is the best.

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However, for the 2026 Green Bay Packers, first-year contributions from their rookie class will matter in at least a few crucial spots. The defense will undergo a transformation with the arrival of DC Jonathan Gannon. That change will create opportunities, as will the multiple notable departures at the first two levels of the unit.

Accounting for all those factors -- though not for future injuries given the unpredictable nature of player health -- here’s a subjective ranking of the Packers’ newly minted draft picks in terms of likelihood to play a meaningful role this season.

6. Domani Jackson

Though not the Packers’ final selection, Domani Jackson faces the most obstacles when it comes to early contributions, at least on defense. The former five-star recruit offers great size (6-foot-1, 194 pounds) for a corner with impressive athleticism (9.01 Relative Athletic Score). However, injuries derailed his time at USC (patella tear and subsequent reinjury to the same knee), and he had an inconsistent run at Alabama (benched for a stretch of 2025).

“You can’t control what happens,” Jackson said last week of his benching last season. “You just got to go 100% in every situation, whether it’s special teams, if it’s supporting your team on the sidelines, if you’re on the field. You attack every single day like you’re playing. Yeah, I got benched, but it’s about perseverance and finding yourself again and just doing everything that coach asked you to do to win for the team.”

In Green Bay, Jackson will presumably open training camp behind Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine, Benjamin St-Juste, and the Packers’ other cornerback draft choice. That list doesn’t include Javon Bullard, who will handle slot duties and otherwise work at safety. Jackson still has a good shot to make the roster -- general manager Brian Gutekunst typically doesn’t cut his picks during their rookie seasons, and the team had far fewer selections than usual this year -- but a role on special teams seems like his calling in 2026.

5. Jager Burton

Before the draft, Gutekunst said he didn’t see the team drafting an offensive lineman who could only play center. That didn’t necessarily mean the Packers wouldn’t take a prospect who projects best at the pivot, but the player in question would have to offer positional versatility to land in Green Bay.

Jager Burton threads that needle. A former four-star recruit, Burton became a full-time starter at left guard as a redshirt freshman. The following season, he split his time between right guard and center before returning to left guard as a redshirt junior. Finally, in his final collegiate season, Burton got the chance to concentrate on center, taking all but two snaps there in 2025.

At a minimum, Burton’s arrival presents a direct challenge to Jacob Monk. Monk, a fifth-rounder in 2024, has received praise from the coaching staff but has done little so far in the NFL. If Burton can demonstrate merely replacement-level play along the interior, he will swipe Monk’s job. Some will wonder if Burton can push Aaron Banks, Anthony Belton, or Sean Rhyan for a starting job, but that seems overly ambitious for a late-round rookie.

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The Green Bay Packers put together one of the smallest draft classes in recent history, just six picks, but still managed to hit every glaring need, while adhering to their “types.” It was the thinnest of needles to thread, but Brian Gutekunst proved to be a master tailor.

Today’s edition of The Leap looks at a unique draft class that followed a combination of need, the consensus board, and the team’s preferred athletic models.

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

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The Leap: @TheLeapGB on Twitter / @theleap.bsky.social on Bluesky / The Leap’s YouTube channel

If you appreciate thoughtful, independent coverage of the Packers and NFL, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support allows us to serve this community with the stories and reporting it deserves.

Subscribe now

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Rarely do the board and team needs align so cosmically. The Green Bay Packers picked off their needs one by one, in order of importance, in a rare blend of value and requirement. Brian Gutekunst filled crucial gaps in the roster with no-doubt Packers types, without having to shirk the wisdom of the consensus draft crowds. That’s not proof that the 2026 draft will yield a crop full of game-changing players, but the process was nearly unimpeachable.

He even managed to do it in order of importance, going cornerback, defensive tackle, pass rush, and interior offensive line depth before circling back to add at cornerback once again.

Oh, and he drafted a kicker, a position that cost the Packers a playoff game.

“He was one of those players that we didn’t see being available when we were picking at 52,” Gutekunst said Friday night after drafting South Carolina cornerback Brandon Cisse. Still, it was a sentiment that seemed to echo around seemingly every player the Packers drafted.

Gutekunst said the Pack considered picking third-round nose tackle Chris McClellan at 52, which is why the team traded up to 77 to get him. Penn State edge Dani Dennis-Sutton fell at 70 on the Wide Left consensus board, but the Packers got him at 120. Every team for nearly every pick says, “We didn’t think he’d be available to us,” or “He was the highest guy on our board.”

Most of the time, that’s just a thing teams say. Here, it was true based on the draft consensus. Packers executive Matt Malaspina said this, almost verbatim, about fifth-round pick Jager Burton as well.

In the draft, the Packers had the following picks

52

77

120

153

201

They got the following players ranked based on consensus

42

70

114

176

197

Now, we have to swap McClellan and DDS to make this work, but they netted out this way in the end, and the Packers desperately needed a nose tackle.

This is a good process. Not only that, they didn’t have to compromise their values on premium athletes. The last time the Packers had a need-heavy draft, in 2021, they drafted Josh Myers, who had no profile, and a small receiver with a mediocre athletic profile in Amari Rodgers. It didn’t work out.

Every position player the Packers took, who doesn’t play nose tackle, entered the draft with an RAS over 9. More on the nose tackle part later.

Cisse was such an obvious Packers type; he was one of the very first players we profiled on Locked on Packers for our Gutey’s Guys series. In that same series, I referred to Dennis-Sutton as “the most Packers-y defensive player in the draft.” And the only reason Jager Burton didn’t have a Gutey’s Guys profile (he was on the schedule for Friday afternoon) was that I caught a brutally timed cold and decided to save my voice for our Friday night live show.

“First of all, his production is really, really good. His size, his speed, and I just think he has so much in front of him as far as his best football goes. He's an elite athlete,” Gutekunst said of Dennis-Sutton, nearly the same thing that can be said about Cisse.

Gutekunst literally said almost the same thing about Cisse’s best football being in front of him, coming to the Packers not yet legally allowed to drink. The Packers GM quipped that the last time the team drafted a 20-year-old, Kenny Clark, it worked out pretty well.

Speaking of Clark, nose tackle is one of the few positions where athleticism has not been at the same premium. B.J. Raji had an RAS below four. Clarks checked in below eight. But McClellan notched six sacks last year, showing upside that other defensive tackles in this class simply didn’t have. For a team to justify a defensive tackle in the top-100, he has to be able to rush the passer.

“I think the combination of being able to play the nose, the three, and actually rush the passer — there's a lot of these guys that don't do that. He can,” Gutey said of McClellan.

Not everyone in the class is young, though. Burton will turn 24 in August, but checks every box for Packers types, from versatility to athleticism.

Burton played left guard, center, and right guard at Kentucky, and put together a very similar athletic profile to former Packers Pro Bowler Elgton Jenkins. Green Bay desperately needed depth along its offensive interior, and Burton could be the long-term answer at center if Sean Rhyan doesn’t live up to the contract the Packers gave him this offseason.

“I don't really have a preference (on where I play). Just whatever is going to help the Packers win games. At the end of the day, that's all I care about now,” Burton told local media following the selection.

Even sixth-round pick Domani Jackson comes to the Packers with elite athletic traits, a 6-foot cornerback with 4.4 speed who set records in high school for track. He went to USC as a five-star recruit, then transferred to Alabama, where he played the last two seasons. His 9.00 RAS was the worst of four position players drafted outside of McClellan.

Of course, hyper-athletic players aren’t assured to be great. Rashan Gary and Lukas Van Ness prove that point, though neither has been busts.

But veering closer to consensus mitigates risk, while adhering to a preference for elite athletes provides a path to upside. For example, DDS’s closest RAS comps are Danielle Hunter and Javon Kearse. He’s the only player in combine history to broad jump 10’11 and run a 6.9 or better 3-cone. The players even close to that vicinity are some of the best pass rushers of the last 15 years.

Contending teams are usually built through foundational drafts, a class that changes the paradigm for a franchise. It’s far too early to say the 2026 class will be that, but it’s easily the cleanest process the Packers have undertaken to date under Brian Gutekunst, whether that was intentional or the board simply happened to fall the right way.

The “why,” for the moment, is unimportant. It happened. Now it’s up to this class to perform. Over time, good processes lead to good outcomes.

We’ll see.

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The move comes at a critical moment for the Packers. Prior to the deal, Reed had only one season remaining on his contract, putting his future in Green Bay in doubt. The same dynamic had applied to Dontayvion Wicks, a 2023 draft pick like Reed, whom the team traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for a fifth-round pick this year and another Day 3 selection in 2027. Meanwhile, Christian Watson also has an expiring contract, leaving Matthew Golden and Savion Williams as the only wideouts signed beyond 2026.

Securing Reed for the long term has several downstream effects for the Packers, some that will manifest over the next two days and others that will arise later in the year.

What the extension means for the Packers’ draft plans

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As a result, Green Bay’s brain trust had little to do Thursday except watch prospects come off the board.

“It was really not a lot different with the exception of the phones weren’t ringing,” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said following Day 1 of the draft. “We weren’t having a lot of conversations with other teams. A lot more discussions about the players.”

Yet, despite the lack of participation in Thursday’s festivities, the night still unfolded favorably for Green Bay. For a team with multiple areas of need on defense and highly specific requirements for those positions, more viable prospects made it out of the first round than previously expected. In particular, Colton Hood, Jermod McCoy, and Kayden McDonald -- all top-32 players on the consensus board -- remain available entering Friday.

“There’s always a couple of things. Maybe guys went a little higher or a little lower than we expected,” Gutekunst said. “But I didn’t really think there were any major surprises like there are at times. The board held up fairly well.”

The Packers have a rare opportunity to capitalize on the bounty of consensus first-round talent at key positions left on Day 2. However, to do that, they may need to take a proactive approach and make some compromises.

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There is no perfect draft because we’re dealing with imperfect information and imperfect people making decisions. On Tuesday, Brian Gutekunst admitted draft needs often get factored into how the board is stacked “subconsciously,” but he tries to fight against that urge and take the best player available.

Imperfect. Also, likely inefficient. Needs should matter in the draft. As should historical hit rates, positional value, and consensus boards, because they all affect the likelihood of any one pick hitting or missing.

With all that in mind, let’s go through a mock draft that most closely approaches perfection, which we could also consider reasonable. For the latter, we’ll use the Wide Left Consensus Board as a rubric from which to work. I’ve created a modified version accounting for Packers history and types to help us.

Let’s start with some context for the second round, where I don’t think the Packers are going to find the value they’re looking for. Gutekunst said Tuesday he expects to “add numbers” at cornerback, calling it the team’s biggest need, but all the cornerbacks expected to go in the mid-second round are slot corners. This is a problem we’ve discussed multiple times this offseason.

And the defensive tackles potentially available have either a bad athletic profile (Lee Hunter), or no athletic profile (Christen Miller).

Last week, I laid out the case for why using premium draft capital for a receiver made sense in Green Bay, and this positional context piece can’t be ignored. Moreover, I think the Packers have an appetite to do it, as evidenced by their meetings with Tennessee receiver Chris Brazzell II and Georgia State’s Ted Hurst.

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The long, seemingly interminable wait finally comes to an end this week. On Thursday, Roger Goodell will take the stage in Pittsburgh and formally open the 2026 NFL Draft. While the Green Bay Packers won’t pick until No. 52 overall barring a move, their draft plans could dramatically pivot depending on how the board shakes out near the end of the first round.

Today’s edition of The Leap looks at the draft and why the latest blockbuster trade reveals how the NFL feels about the incoming rookie class.

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

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The Leap: @TheLeapGB on Twitter / @theleap.bsky.social on Bluesky / The Leap's YouTube channel

If you appreciate thoughtful, independent coverage of the Packers and NFL, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support allows us to serve this community with the stories and reporting it deserves.

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As always, thanks for making The Leap a part of your day.

The NFL is telling you how it perceives the top of the 2026 draft

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Outside of the nixed Maxx Crosby trade, the biggest move of the NFL offseason went down over the weekend. The New York Giants, having failed to come to terms with Dexter Lawrence on a new contract, shipped the mammoth defensive tackle to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The trade became official on Sunday, as did the one-year extension Lawrence signed as part of the move.

On multiple levels, the Lawrence news should set off alarm bells. Except for deals involving quarterbacks, no team had traded a veteran player for a top-10 pick over the past two decades. Additionally, Cincinnati had never previously traded a top-10 pick for a player during the entirety of the common-draft era (1966 to present).

So why would the Bengals, who have posted a 24-27 record with zero playoff appearances over the past three seasons, punt on the top of the draft? Yes, Lawrence has an All-Pro pedigree -- he earned second-team honors in 2022 and 2023 -- but multiple years have passed since he last played at that level. In particular, his pass-rush production has declined dramatically over the past two seasons, as The Leap detailed last week:

Over the last four seasons, no player has generated more pressure from the nose-tackle position than Lawrence, and that ability makes him a rarity for the position. However, his 2022 and 2023 seasons account for the lion’s share of that pass-rush production. According to Pro Football Focus, he generated 128 total pressures during that stretch, including snaps elsewhere along the defensive front. From 2024 to 2025, he managed just 70 pressures, a decrease of 45.3%.

And even if the Bengals expect Lawrence to perform better in 2026, other factors come into play when assessing the trade. He enters his age-29 season and, following his extension, count $70 million against the salary cap over the next three years. Even if he doesn’t ultimately see all of that money -- and that would likely entail departing Cincinnati before 2028 -- Lawrence’s total cost will greatly exceed that of the whatever player the team would have drafted with the No. 10 overall pick over the same period of time.

Those data points hint at how the Bengals and many other teams feel about the incoming rookie class. While the group will undoubtedly produce some genuine field tilters, the top of the class doesn’t have a lot of fans among NFL decision-makers, at least relative to most years. While some grade Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese -- the betting favorites to go first and second overall on Thursday -- similarly to the players taken in those spots in 2025, the league perceives a significant drop-off after those prospects.

One could argue that the Giants, by trading Lawrence in order to double up on top-10 picks, hold a contrarian view. Perhaps they do, but the decision to move on from Lawrence doesn’t provide concrete evidence. The team just hired a new head coach and, according to the New York Daily News’ Pat Leonard, might soon have a new general manager as well. With such a massive reset ongoing, New York’s runway doesn’t really mesh with whatever remains of Lawrence’s prime. A trade probably made the most sense regardless of the quality of the draft class.

All of which provides important context to another blockbuster offseason move, albeit one from last year: the Packers’ acquisition of Micah Parsons. That trade saw the team relinquish its first-round picks in 2026 and 2027, along with defensive tackle Kenny Clark, in order to acquire the All-Pro pass rusher from the Dallas Cowboys. By consensus, Dallas already ended up on the lesser end of that bargain, but the leaguewide concerns about the top of the 2026 rookie class further tilt the trade in Green Bay’s favor.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean the Packers will have lesser options relative to normal when scheduled to come on the clock Friday. The Leap’s Peter Bukowski has detailed on the Locked On Packers podcast where the draft’s sweet spot lies: Day 2.

So, while the Packers might not have much to do on the first day of the 2026 draft, they don’t appear to have missed out on all that much. Considering they now have the best pass rusher this side of Myles Garrett on their roster, they can live with that outcome.

But he’s gone now, and Brian Gutekunst has a deep receiver draft to find his replacement. And to be clear, they need to find a replacement, not because Wicks was particularly vital to the team’s Super Bowl hopes in 2026, but because only Matthew Golden and Savion Williams have contracts in that receiver room beyond this season.

They traded Wicks precisely because with Wicks on the roster, the Packers had too many receivers to sufficiently plan for the future, and they simply weren’t going to pay everyone.

Frankly, they might not pay anyone depending on how the Christian Watson market shakes out.

Even if the team plans to pay Watson, we haven’t seen nearly enough from Golden or Williams to stamp them as core members of the team, and Jayden Reed’s contract will also be up at the end of the 2026 season.

Not only are there myriad questions about the composition of that room, but one receiver can be hugely impactful to an offense from a draft standpoint. In terms of premium positions, receiver is up there behind quarterback and pass rusher in terms of the singular impact a player can make. Offensive tackles and cornerbacks are cornerstone pieces, but they’re part of weak-link systems.

Ask Joe Thomas, a Hall of Fame player, about some mediocre lines he played on because one guy can’t elevate everyone.

The shape of this particular draft class and draft history overall points the Packers toward using an early pick on a receiver.

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On April 6, Lawrence first went public with his dissatisfaction over the lack of progress in contract talks. The All-Pro defensive tackle had long sought a new deal from the New York Giants and, unable to make sufficient progress, told the team that he would not participate in offseason workouts and formally requested a trade. The following day, a report estimated that Lawrence’s next contract would land between $30 million and $35 million annually.

Later the same week, members of the Giants’ leadership tried to cool off tensions. Head coach John Harbaugh said that while the trade did not come as a surprise, the team would “try to work through it.” The rumor mill largely slowed after that, with New York general manager Joe Schoen providing a non-update during his pre-draft press conference early on Tuesday.

“We’ve had good conversations with his representatives throughout the last five or six days,” Schoen said, adding, “We’d like for Dexter to be here, and at some point, we’ll come to a resolution here. Whatever that may be, we’ll see. Conversations have been really good. They’ve been productive. Again, we’ll see what happens here more down the road. I’m not going to say any more about it after that. That’s the update. That’s really all there is.”

Either Schoen undersold the extent of those “conversations” or the discussions took an unexpected turn in the hours that followed. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that contract negotiations with Lawrence “have reached an impasse,” and that the Giants have “engaged with teams on a potential trade.”

While Rapoport did not name any of Lawrence’s suitors, it stands to reason that the Green Bay Packers could rank among them. As currently constructed, they lack a nose tackle to anchor their defensive line, a void that Lawrence could fill as well as any available player.

But while the Giants might actually shop Lawrence, a potential trade presents just as many challenges now as it did when the All-Pro first requested out of New York.

Read more

Dontayvion Wicks is now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles thanks to a trade for a fifth-round pick this year and a sixth-round pick in 2027. The perpetual preseason breakout star will have to carry that moniker with him to the East Coast, while the Packers receiver room suddenly has a clear vision.

Today’s newsletter breaks down the fallout from Friday’s trade that those who were paying close attention saw from a mile away.

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Why did the Packers trade Dontayvion Wicks?

Peter Bukowski: Brian Gutekunst had a math problem: How would he plan for a receiver room in 2027 with just two players currently under contract, while also trying to field a team in 2026? Unless the Packers were willing to carry seven or even eight receivers, planning for the medium-term would be impossible.

The team added Skyy Moore in the offseason to be the team’s primary returner, but only Matthew Golden and Savion Williams would have contracts beyond this year, with Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, and Dontayvion Wicks all expected to not only make the team but be important parts of the offense.

Oh, and the Packers are obsessed with Bo Melton.

Even if Melton doesn’t make the final 53, which remains a possibility, that’s six receivers on the final roster before accounting for additions. But Green Bay needs to make additions while the contract status for Watson and Reed remains TBD.

For those wondering what this says about current Packers options, there’s not much to say. The roster numbers made this move inevitable, regardless of what the team thought of Golden and Williams, though it would be way too soon to make any sort of definitive decision on them either way.

But … that’s the point. The Packers can’t rely solely on Golden/ Williams to carry the torch for the team moving forward, regardless of their plans for Reed and Watson.

Still, Wicks’ ouster clarifies the boundary receiver hierarchy in Green Bay so the Packers can find out. Watson will be WR1, Golden steps in as WR2 on the outside, and Reed will be the primary slot, even if he out-targets Golden, and there’s a good chance he will.

For years, Matt LaFleur has taken an egalitarian style to his passing game, and it’s led to top 10 passing games for the Packers in the Jordan Love era. But Golden getting RPO screens and jet sweeps wasn’t serving the offense. That’s not how he wins, something Golden proved when asked to actually play receiver.

Just for good measure, he scored what should have been the game-sealing touchdown against the Bears on a receiver screen, but without Wicks, Golden has to assume the route-runner role on the team, hitting the money routes on core concepts for the Packers. For the last few years, that was often Wicks when he was healthy.

Last year, Golden settled for secondary routes, clearouts, and the occasional deep shot or the aforementioned RPO screen.

Love, LaFleur, and teammates raved about Golden in training camp, but his usage never reflected the love. Now, he’ll get his chance to prove them, or the fantasy football fan boys, right in their assessment of his future. Regardless, it’s fair to wonder if simplifying the receiver room, shortening the rotation, is the best thing for the Packers offense and will finally force them to play their best guys most of the time, rather than relying on such a deep rotation.

How does the Wicks trade affect draft plans?

PB: This is built into the trade.

Gutekunst and Russ Ball could want to re-sign Reed and Watson, but until the ink is dry, the team can’t count on their presence long-term. And they’re unlikely to get done before the draft, which means the need remains.

Only the Packers know the degree to which they trust deals will get done from one or both of those players, but that certainty will drive their willingness to push for a receiver in the draft. If Watson is the only guy they plan to sign, receiver belongs up near the top of the list of needs with cornerback and defensive tackle.

If Watson and Reed are part of the preferred future, then receiver can wait until Day 3, where there will still be plenty of talent in a deep, if not top-heavy, class.

There are top-100 receivers who fit the Packers’ very specific specifications, like Bryce Lance, Ted Hurst, Germie Bernard, and De’Zhaun Stribling, among others. They could also wait until Day 3, prioritizing cornerback and defensive tackle, particularly if the team plans to offer multiple receiver contracts in the next ~10 months.

Day 2 could offer a hint into how the team feels about its current roster, with some potential future slot options like UConn’s Skyler Bell also on offer in this draft. If they don’t take a receiver in the first four rounds, we can safely say they’re comfortable with this group.

Remember, even in 2020, in one of the deepest receiver drafts on record, Gutekunst said the team didn’t take anyone after the first round because they felt like anyone they could take wouldn’t be better than the guys already on the roster. In this case, though, the guys in question aren’t under contract beyond this season. Green Bay can’t afford to take the same laissez-faire approach.

That is, unless they’re planning to re-sign Reed and Watson. The Packers know how they want to handle those two contracts. We don’t. The draft will tell telegraph it for us. All we have to do is let it play out.

The Green Bay Packers made plenty of impactful personnel decisions over the years. Future Hall of Fame general manager Ron Wolf set the stage for multiple Super Bowl teams by trading for Brett Favre and luring Reggie White in free agency. Ted Thompson, a Wolf understudy who took the reins in 2005, followed suit with the selection of Aaron Rodgers in his first draft as GM and signing Charles Woodson the following offseason, helping the franchise return to the Super Bowl a few years later.

But not all consequential personnel decisions involve superstar players, and not all produce positive results. One such error from about a decade ago recently surfaced when former Packers executive Jon-Eric Sullivan, now general manager of the Miami Dolphins, spoke about his time in Green Bay on ESPN’s This Is Football program.

“I think anybody who was involved with this would tell you, we screwed it up with Micah Hyde,” Sullivan said. “We never should have let Micah Hyde out the door. Micah Hyde was a really good football player, could line up in a bunch of different spots, could return punts, and we let him go in free agency.”

Hyde had a solid career in Green Bay. Despite initially joining the team as a fifth-round pick in 2013, he almost immediately earned a major role on the defense, playing both in the slot and at safety. That turned into a starting role by Year 2, with Hyde’s usage increasing each subsequent season.

But by the time his rookie contract expired after 2016, the Packers had used premium draft capital on defensive backs Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (2014 first-rounder), Damarious Randall (2015 first-rounder), and Quinten Rollins (2015 second-rounder). Especially with Clinton-Dix coming off his best season to date, the secondary didn’t appear to have enough room to justify an extension for Hyde. Instead, he went on to sign a multiyear deal with the Buffalo Bills.

Hyde would quickly make the Packers regret letting him walk. In his first season with the Bills, he earned second-team All-Pro honors. He would make the list again in 2021 while forming one of the league’s best safety duos with Jordan Poyer.

Meanwhile, the Packers wound up dealing away Clinton-Dix for a Day 3 pick before the 2018 trade deadline, and neither Randall nor Rollins would earn a second contract with the team. Even if Green Bay’s reasons for not re-signing Hyde seemed reasonable in the moment, the decision looks regrettable in retrospect, as Sullivan acknowledged.

“I don’t think I’m saying anything that anybody else that was involved with that wouldn’t say. We probably screwed that up,” Sullivan added. Micah’s a good ball player.”

Every team has made mistakes like the Packers’ letting Hyde leave, and the list of such blunders would extend longer than a CVS receipt. Still, clubs need to learn from those situations to help avoid repeating them in the future.

With that in mind, could the Packers see another player depart at the conclusion of his rookie contract and then blossom in a new location? A few such candidates exist.

Read more

By the time the third round ends, Green Bay may only have had the chance to draft two or three cornerbacks they’d actually want to have.

Bob McGinn’s venerable NFL draft scouting survey series focused on cornerbacks, a primary position of need for the Packers this offseason. A handful of names jumped out in the top 100 that were not top-100 players by media consensus.

We went through this exercise a few weeks ago and coincidentally landed on this group of names for the Packers (with their consensus rank at the time)

95. Julian Neal

102. Devin Moore

105. Daylen Everette

118. Will Lee III

124. Tacario Davis

Of this group, everyone except Julian Neal made the NFL scouting survey list, and the bottom three all landed squarely inside the top 100 according to McGinn’s scouts.

To try and figure out who could likely be available with Pick 52, here is the list of cornerbacks without solid first-round grades, but with higher-than-third-round-grade averages according to the survey.

Read more

Less than three weeks remain before Roger Goodell formally kicks off the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh. While The Leap will have extensive draft coverage through April and beyond, the Green Bay Packers have other ways to bolster the roster that haven’t received as much attention.

Today’s newsletter examines some of those personnel opportunities.

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

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Who are the contract-year players on other teams who could interest the Packers?

The question of which Packers players with expiring contracts might land extensions and which ones will depart within a year has loomed since the start of the offseason. However, that discussion gained momentum this past week. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein reported that the team “will try to sign receiver Christian Watson and tight end Tucker Kraft to long-term extensions and may consider extending receiver Jayden Reed and defensive tackle Karl Brooks later in the year.”

These personnel choices hold obvious significance for Green Bay’s future. However, every other NFL team has similar decisions to make between now and next offseason as well. In some cases, the players involved might not reach the open market until next March. However, some could shake loose much sooner, perhaps even before Week 1 of the upcoming season.

Will Levis

After the success of the Malik Willis trade, it seems too convenient for the Packers to go back to the same well. Will Levis had his chance to lock down the Tennessee Titans’ starting job, and his shortcomings directly contributed to the team landing the No. 1 overall pick a year ago. Levis also missed all of last season with an injury to his throwing shoulder, adding yet another complication.

However, if the Packers want to emulate some of what made Willis so effective early in his Green Bay tenure, Levis does make some sense. He doesn’t accelerate quite as quickly as Willis, but they both consistently turn out runs of 15-plus miles per hour, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Levis’ accuracy remains an issue, but the Titans never put him in position to succeed either. He faced pressure on well over 40% of his dropbacks during his time in Tennessee.

With a new coaching staff in place and Cam Ward a year removed from becoming the top pick in the draft, Levis obviously has no future with the Titans and won’t receive an extension. He also might not cost more to acquire than Willis did in 2024.

Harrison Phillips

Peter made the case for Harrison Phillips on Locked On Packers last week, but we’ll provide the CliffsNotes here. After the New York Jets traded for T’Vondre Sweat to anchor their defensive interior, they might not have much use for Phillips, a perfectly cromulent veteran who played over 60% of defensive snaps last season.

Phillips, who has one year left on his contract, probably doesn’t offer $7.5 million of value to the Jets. However, he could make plenty of sense for the Packers, who remain without a proven nose tackle as they transition to an odd front. Phillips could handle most of those snaps in 2026 while allowing a yet-to-be-drafted rookie to develop this season.

T.J. Slaton

The Packers had their reasons for letting T.J. Slaton walk last offseason. The mammoth defensive tackle played better in the odd front the team played prior to the arrival of DC Jeff Hafley, and with Kenny Clark expected to move back to nose tackle full time in 2025, Slaton’s role on the defense seems less clear than in the past. Rather than re-sign in Green Bay, he ultimately left for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Fast forward to the present day, and the outlook for the Packers has changed. Not only have they returned to an odd front with the arrival of Hafley’s success, Jonathan Gannon, but Clark also left Green Bay as part of the Micah Parsons trade. While the team has made additions to the defensive line to accommodate Gannon’s system, the front still lacks a true nose tackle to anchor the run defense.

Slaton could help in that regard, and the Bengals don’t have a major commitment to him. They added Jonathan Allen earlier this offseason and still have B.J. Hill and Kris Jenkins Jr. on the roster. That doesn’t leave a ton of snaps for Slaton, especially if the team adds another interior defensive lineman in the draft.

The Packers don’t often reacquire players they allowed to leave, but Slaton could make for a cost-effective exception. He would account for around $6 million against the cap, a reasonable price for a proven two-gapper. His presence would also allow Green Bay to wait on adding a defensive tackle if none of their preferred options remain on the board come Day 2.

Garrett Williams

Two seasons ago, Garrett Williams looked like a potential long-term fixture in the Arizona Cardinals’ secondary. The former third-round pick appeared in all but one game that year, limiting opposing passers to a rating of 73.9 on 62 targets. He also provided solid tackling for a cornerback, missing just 9.4% of his attempts. For context, Carrington Valentine missed over 20% of his tackles last season.

But like the rest of the team, Williams’ 2025 season unfolded very differently. He suffered a knee injury in Week 2 that landed him on injured reserve. When he returned, he hardly looked the same, allowing five touchdowns on roughly half the number of targets while giving up completions 80% of the time. Then, in late December, Williams suffered a torn Achilles that placed him on the shelf for good.

Williams continues to rehab from his Achilles injury and will presumably start the year on the PUP list. However, the Packers could monitor the situation and see if he makes sense as an in-season addition. Williams, of course, played for Gannon and has familiarity with his system, making such a move easier to manage.

But beyond Kraft, the 2023 draft class for the Green Bay Packers still has something to prove. None of the other players firmly established themselves as members of the core, and while Brian Gutekunst and Russ Ball don’t have to make a decision on them until this time next year, their plan will directly impact how they approach this month’s draft.

The Packers always plan ahead with their draft picks, readying the team for impending departures. The way the draft goes will signal how they feel about this crop of players, and the fact that it’s not obvious who will get an extension already tells us this group is on shaky ground.

Lukas Van Ness

Green Bay has until later this spring to decide on its former first-round pick’s fifth-year option that will come in between $13 and $15 million. For a starting edge defender, that’s a modest figure, and that’s how Van Ness enters the 2026 season opposite Micah Parsons.

Van Ness showed clear signs of improvement in training camp last season, and Micah Parsons immediately bonded with the hulking former Iowa standout.

Tom Silverstein from The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel recently reported that if the Packers don’t pick up Van Ness’ option, the team could work toward an extension instead — fifth-year options are fully guaranteed, and Green Bay may want to keep his cap number down in 2027.

Picking up the option would provide the Packers framework for a deal, though, as Kingsley Enagbare recently got $10 million annually from the New York Jets and unless Van Ness develops into a high-impact player this season, he couldn’t command much more than his option number on the open market even as pass rusher salaries explode, thanks, in part, to Parsons.

Luke Musgrave

It feels over in Green Bay for Musgrave. The Packers couldn’t rely on him consistently with Tucker Kraft injured, and while Musgrave has value as a vertical tight end, his inability to offer much of anything in the run game undercuts his value to the team. He’s not quite good enough as a receiver to fulfil a Mike Gesicki-type role in the offense, but not sturdy enough in-line to provide a facsimile of Kraft’s blocking.

Read more

And we have more! The Leap’s Jason B. Hirschhorn and Peter Bukowski dive into the incoming quarterback class, breaking down the methodology the Packers use to evaluate prospects at the position and highlighting players from this year’s edition of Hunting for Hasselbecks. Check it out here:

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

Jason B. Hirschhorn: @by_JBH on Twitter / @byjbh@bsky.social on Bluesky / @by_jbh on Threads

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This year’s spring meeting features some significant changes for the Green Bay Packers. For the first time since 2007, a team president other than Mark Murphy will represent them. Ed Policy, who officially took the reins from Murphy last July, will navigate the often-knotty league politics and owner backroom dealings for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Packers’ head coach and general manager each spoke for the first time since the NFL Scouting Combine. Both discussed how 2025 ended for the team, the decisions they’ve made in the time since, and their expectations for the upcoming season.

They also sat for a photograph.

All of which underscores that some parts of the meeting hold more importance than others.

So, between it all, what from Monday actually matters for the Packers?

Read more

Matt LaFleur will speak to the media for the first time since the end-of-season press conferences, which means it’ll be the first time we’ve heard from the Green Bay Packers head coach about losing Jeff Hafley, hiring Jonathan Gannon, Rich Bisaccia’s abrupt departure, and the hiring of Cam Achord.

None of that will get to the heart of the biggest question facing the coach, though: How will he prevent 2026 from ending the same way as 2025? And no answer he gives now will prove anything. Today’s Free Monday newsletter digs in.

Thank you for reading and supporting our coverage. You can also support our work by following us on social media:

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Nothing Matt LaFleur says right now matters all that much

Peter Bukowski: There will no doubt be breathless coverage of whatever Matt LaFleur says next. His thoughts on what Cam Achord brings to the Packers’ special teams. How Green Bay’s defense manages the loss of Jeff Hafley and adjusts to Jonathan Gannon’s scheme. Javon Hargrave and Benjamin St-Juste surely bring something needed to the team, and the Packers head coach will have illuminating things to say about that.

But none of it matters. Not really, anyway.

Because the only thing that matters is how LaFleur plans to ensure his team never blows a 21-3 halftime lead in the playoffs ever again. In fact, in eight games in which the Packers did not win (remember, they had a tie), this team had a fourth-quarter lead or tie in every game except against the Denver Broncos when Denver took the lead as the third quarter clock expired. The Packers immediately answered to make it a one-point game.

That means every single loss involved Green Bay blowing it somehow.

Special teams biffed it against the Cleveland Browns after the offense had no answers for Cleveland’s defensive front, a fitting harbinger for how the season would end when special teams biffed it after the offense had no answers for Chicago’s defensive front (and blitzes).

Changing the special teams coach will likely help some of the issues, as the kicking game also cost the Packers a win in Dallas, thanks to a blocked extra point returned for two.

If the Packers never have a kick blocked, they probably win two more games, end up playing their starters in the final week of the season, and host the Wild Card game instead of going on the road. That’s even with injuries to Tucker Kraft, Micah Parsons, and Zach Tom. And that doesn’t even account for the botched onside kick by Romeo Doubs, which clearly should have been another win, a potential signature victory for LaFleur with Malik Willis filling in for Jordan Love.

Instead, special teams gakked it again.

But the flailing special teams doesn’t account for the busted coverages against the Broncos or the Bears. It doesn’t help a team that has too often looked more worried about losing than it was intent on winning.

And nothing LaFleur can say right now will fix it. Or, at least, nothing he can say will convince us he’s fixed it. Because there aren’t words for it. He can’t talk his way through this one. The team played down to its reputation with the most cynical fanbase, that this team is a reflection of its head coach’s well-manicured facial hair: soft.

It’s possible LaFleur believes hiring Gannon and Achord will upgrade the Packers team, allowing them to avoid the same inglorious fate. Hafley has, notably, escaped much criticism for his defense utterly imploding in the second half of a playoff game against the team’s oldest rival with the chirpiest fanbase.

Whether he does or doesn’t won’t matter, though. All that matters is whether it happens. LaFleur needs some luck, needs his best players to be healthy in the playoffs when it matters. The two teams playing in the Super Bowl most years are the teams that stay the healthiest at their key spots. Those pointing to the 2010 Packers always elide that the myriad players on IR were linebackers and safeties, not star pass rushers or Pro Bowl tackles in their primes.

Of course, LaFleur can’t use that excuse. They had enough to beat the Bears and couldn’t do it. Twice.

They choked. Twice.

As Chicago’s preening new head coach daydreamed about shirtless celebrations and taking shots at the Packers.

And the worst part? Now, LaFleur can’t even fire back. It would look like sour grapes and sore loser behavior. If he had something slick to say before the playoff game, that would have been the time, but now that Johnson stuffed him in a locker twice, it’s over until the pads come on again in 2026.

Use it. Remind the guys constantly, or never bring it up again, however you think it’ll best motivate your team. But you have to know that going in. Hopefully, that was a question Ed Policy asked before deciding on an extension for LaFleur in the offseason.

Oh yeah, there’s nothing LaFleur can say that will prove he’s worth that either. Just add it to the list of things he and the Packers can’t prove until next season. We’ll be waiting.