“I am grateful for the support from my family, my Tech coaching staff, teammates, the community, and so many others who have encouraged me to address and learn more about this important issue,” Sorsby said in a statement posted to social media. “As my journey continues, I remain fully committed to and focused on being the best I can be, both on and off the field.”

While Sorsby has closed the door on returning to college football, it remains uncertain whether the NFL will grant him entry to the supplemental draft. The league has not conducted one since 2019, and commissioner Roger Goodell has the option to deny Sorsby’s application. The nature of Sorsby’s scandal -- placing thousands of bets totaling at least $90,000, including some on the teams for which he played -- could give Goodell pause about allowing the embattled QB to jump to the pros through this process.

Even if Sorsby receives admission to the supplemental draft, Goodell could still suspend him. Under the original injunction, Sorsby would have sat for the opening two games of Texas Tech’s season, providing the league with cover should Goodell opt for a suspension. The NFL has suspended other players for actions taken before entering the league, most notably issuing Terrelle Pryor a five-game ban for receiving improper benefits while playing for Ohio State.

Still, it appears more likely than not that the NFL will grant Sorsby entry to the supplemental draft, and that means teams around the league must weigh his upside against the risks he poses. That includes the Green Bay Packers, who have compelling reasons to consider a bid.

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If, for example, they had to negotiate a regional sports contract, like the Milwaukee Bucks or Brewers, they would not stand to make that sort of money off of 17 games.

But that’s also the point being made by U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin, who is on a judiciary subcommittee investigating whether the 1961 law granting the NFL unique bargaining rights over its television product remains relevant today.

At the time, Congress allowed the NFL and other sports leagues to leverage their popularity to negotiate over-air rights deals without falling afoul of antitrust laws. They would then be allowed to share that revenue amongst their member teams.

Now, though, some, including Rep. Fitzgerald, believe the NFL is no longer compliant with the law that, at the time, only covered over-the-air broadcasts. Chord cutting and premium streaming services were, in the view of some lawmakers, never supposed to be a part of the deal.

“This law absolutely deserves a serious reexamination. It was written for a media landscape that no longer exists,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D - NY) said in his opening remarks to the subcommittee.

“American sports fans are paying more, getting less, and navigating a fragmented streaming environment that the 1961 Congress could not possibly have anticipated.”

Packers fans, for example, will need CBS, NBC, and Fox, as they have for years, to watch their team this season, but they will also need Amazon to watch Thursday night games, except in local markets. They’ll need Netflix to watch Packers-Rams and Packers-Bears.

NFL teams will tell you that in order to continue revenue sharing at scale, they have to explore these premium streaming markets, that preventing them from doing so would pose a risk to small-market teams like the Packers, who rely on the 32-team revenue sharing deals to survive.

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The Green Bay Packers’ Mandatory minicamp has concluded, and only rookies will take part in next week’s organized-team activities. Accordingly, the full 90-man roster won’t return to 1265 Lombardi Ave. until players report to training camp in late July.

Today’s edition of The Leap uses this period to evaluate where the Packers’ depth chart currently stands and look at which position groups appear the most fluid and settled at this point in the calendar.

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

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

Post-mandatory-minicamp depth chart

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Though the Packers’ personnel could change between now and training camp -- trades as well as outside roster churn could create opportunities for tweaks -- the team excused veterans from this week’s OTAs. Accordingly, the roster won’t fully reunite again until training camp.

With that in mind, it seems like the right time to take a step back and look at where Green Bay’s depth chart currently stands and what jobs appear up for grabs.

(Note: Unless otherwise specified, players within a tier are listed in alphabetical order.)

QUARTERBACK

Starter(s): Jordan Love

Primary backup(s): Tyrod Taylor

On the fringes: Kyron Drones, Kyle McCord

To no one’s surprise, Jordan Love will lead the quarterback room for the fourth season in a row. He’ll have a new backup this year, as Malik Willis departed in free agency this offseason for a starting opportunity with the Miami Dolphins. Tyrod Taylor, who turns 37 during training camp, will serve as Love’s primary backup in 2026.

Behind them, Kyron Drones and Kyle McCord will ostensibly compete for the No. 3 job and a spot on the practice squad. However, the Packers will keep an eye on the other signal-callers who become available during final cuts.

RUNNING BACK

Starter(s): Josh Jacobs

Primary backup(s): Chris Brooks, MarShawn Lloyd

On the fringes: Damien Martinez, Jaden Nixon, Pierre Strong Jr.

As of yet, nothing new has developed on the Josh Jacobs front since the Brown County district attorney opted not to formally charge the star running back following his arrest. Unless and until that changes, he will remain on the Packers’ roster and will serve as the primary ball carrier when the season begins.

Even if Jacobs never receives charges or punishment from the NFL, the Packers have little proven depth behind him. MarShawn Lloyd remains a theoretical player until he demonstrates otherwise, and the offense cannot rely on Chris Brooks as a featured rusher. Can one of the other running backs handle a featured role? Will general manager Brian Gutekunst have to address the position again before Week 1? These questions will linger over the next month and change.

WIDE RECEIVER

Starter(s): Matthew Golden, Jayden Reed, Christian Watson

Primary backup(s): Bo Melton, Skyy Moore, Savion Williams

On the fringes: Jakobie Keeney-James, Isaiah Neyor, Brenden Rice, Will Sheppard, J. Michael Sturdivant

After quarterback, no position on offense features as much clarity as wide receiver. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden should open the season as the starting boundary wideouts -- they both saw most of the work with the No. 1 offense in two-receiver sets as well -- while Jayden Reed will again handle slot duties. Behind them, Savion Williams and Skyy Moore will provide depth, as will Bo Melton, a perennial favorite of the coaching staff.

The Packers would love another wideout to step up, especially among those who can play on the boundary. J. Michael Sturdivant, a 2026 UDFA Prospectus choice, flashed during the early stages of the offseason program, but Isaiah Neyor received the most praise from head coach Matt LaFleur following mandatory minicamp.

“I’d say it’s night and day for him,” LaFleur said of Neyor. “He’s really shown a lot, a lot of flashes of excellence. Another big, long guy that can run. You can never have enough of those guys, especially at that position. I’m excited about what’s to come for training camp for him.”

TIGHT END

Starter(s): Tucker Kraft

Primary backup(s): Luke Musgrave, Josh Whyle

On the fringes: Drake Dabney, RJ Maryland, Messiah Swinson

According to Tucker Kraft, he’ll open training camp on the physically unable to perform list. However, he seems adamant that he will both come off the PUP list prior to Week 1 and will begin the season without a snap restriction.

The Packers need Kraft to avoid a setback, as the depth behind him looks precarious at best. Luke Musgrave didn’t make it through minicamp without suffering an injury, and Josh Whyle spent a chunk of his reps at fullback rather than a traditional tight-end role. Of the rest of the position room, RJ Maryland probably offers the most upside, but Messiah Swinson continues to work ahead of him.

OFFENSIVE LINE

Starter(s): LT Jordan Morgan, LG Aaron Banks, C Sean Rhyan, RG Anthony Belton, RT Zach Tom

Primary backup(s): Jager Burton, Darian Kinnard

On the fringes: Brant Banks, Karsen Barnhart, Dylan Barrett, Dalton Cooper, Wade Dillon, Josh Gesky, Travis Glover, Donovan Jennings, Jacob Monk, John Williams

The complexion of the starting offensive line won’t surprise anyone who has paid attention, though it remains entirely unclear when those five players will actually take the field together. Zach Tom remains sidelined while rehabbing last season’s partially torn patellar tendon, and Aaron Banks spent part of minicamp in the rehab group.

On a positive note, rookie fifth-rounder Jager Burton appears to have already taken the reins as the team’s primary backup along the interior. He worked with the No. 1 offense at both guard spots during minicamp, and LaFleur declared that Burton has put himself “in the mix to compete for playing time this year.”

With Darian Kinnard likely holding down another backup spot, the Packers still need another offensive lineman or two to emerge as capable players. Travis Glover earned praise from the staff during training camp last year before suffering a season-ending injury. John Williams effectively redshirted in 2025 and could push for a role. Donovan Jennings and Jacob Monk each enter Year 3, and either need to demonstrate development or find a new job.

INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINE

Starter(s): Javon Hargrave, Chris McClellan, Devonte Wyatt

Primary backup(s): Warren Brinson, Karl Brooks

On the fringes: Anthony Campbell, Jaden Crumedy, Jonathan Ford, Jordon Riley, Nazir Stackhouse

While interior defensive linemen rarely contribute heavily as rookies, Chris McClellan will apparently receive every opportunity to become an exception. The third-round pick spent most of the past few weeks at nose tackle with the No. 1 defense, pushing second-year pro Warren Brinson to a de facto backup role. The situation could change quickly once the full pads come on, but McClellan has the early lead.

But even if McClellan wins that job, the Packers will need multiple players to rotate in for him, as well as starters Javon Hargrave and Devonte Wyatt. In addition to Brinson, veteran Karl Brooks provides quality depth with some pass-rush upside. Can Jonathan Ford or Jordon Riley emerge as another option at nose tackle?

EDGE DEFENDER

Starter(s): Micah Parsons, Lukas Van Ness

Primary backup(s): Brenton Cox Jr., Dani Dennis-Sutton, Barryn Sorrell

On the fringes: Dante Barnett (international), Nyjalik Kelly, Arron Mosby, Collin Oliver

Much of the Packers’ offseason has focused on when Micah Parsons will return from last year’s ACL tear, and that remains a highly important question. However, Parsons’ ability to tilt the field might not look quite the same when he suits up, at least not right away. The Leap studied the effects of torn ACLs on pass rushers, and Green Bay shouldn’t assume Parsons will look exactly the same whenever he does play again.

Regardless, the Packers still need to figure out who will see most of the action in Parsons’ absence. Lukas Van Ness will start at one of the edge positions, with at least three players entering their first or second seasons vying for the chance to start on the other side. No clear front-runner has yet emerged in that competition, and that competition could take all of training camp to settle.

OFF-BALL LINEBACKER

Starter(s): Edgerrin Cooper, Zaire Franklin

Primary backup(s): Isaiah McDuffie, Ty’Ron Hopper

On the fringes: Nick Niemann, TJ Quinn, Kristian Welch

At off-ball linebacker, the Packers seem to have settled every major question, including who will wear the green dot on game days (newly acquired Zaire Franklin, not third-year pro Edgerrin Cooper). That leaves all the guesswork for the backup roles behind the starters.

Isaiah McDuffie started 30 games over the past two seasons, including playoffs, and will likely serve as the first man up if Cooper or Franklin has to miss time. Ty’Ron Hopper, a 2024 third-round pick who has played fewer than 150 defensive snaps, will have to win a job this summer or risk missing final cuts. Behind Hopper, the Packers have two proven special teamers -- Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch -- as well as a potential special-teams ace in undrafted rookie TJ Quinn.

CORNERBACK

Starter(s): Javon Bullard (slot), Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine

Primary backup(s): Brandon Cisse, Benjamin St-Juste

On the fringes: Shemar Bartholomew, MJ Devonshire Jr., Kamal Hadden, Domani Jackson, Marlon Jones, Jaylin Simpson

Along the boundaries, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine still seem to have an edge over second-round pick Brandon Cisse and veteran newcomer Benjamin St-Juste, though that can quickly change during training camp. Javon Bullard’s grip on the slot role appears less likely to shift, barring an injury to one of the starting safeties for whom he could backfill.

In any event, the Packers will retain at least one more cornerback for the eventual 53-man roster. Sixth-round rookie Domani Jackson will receive the benefit of the doubt due to draft status, but the team liked what it saw from Kamal Hadden last year.

SAFETY

Starter(s): Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams

Primary backup(s): Javon Bullard

On the fringes: Johnathan Baldwin, Murvin Kenion, Kitan Oladapo, Mark Perry

For over a calendar year, the depth chart at safety has stacked a particular way in Green Bay. Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams have served as the primary starters, with Bullard backing up either spot and otherwise playing in the slot. McKinney leads the group, but the Packers have expressed faith in all three.

The outlook behind that trio features far less certainty. Kitan Oladapo has made the roster each of the past two seasons, though those decisions had far more to do with special teams than defense. Could Johnathan Baldwin or Mark Perry, two holdovers from last year’s practice squad, push for that spot? Might Murvin Kenion, an older and well-traveled undrafted rookie, make that competition interesting? Training camp looms large for all of them.

SPECIALIST

Starter(s): K Trey Smack, P Daniel Whelan, LS Matt Orzech

On the fringes: K Lucas Havrisik

The Packers gave Anders Carlson over a full calendar year to settle into the NFL before pivoting to another kicker. Trey Smack, a prospect for whom the team gave up multiple draft picks to acquire, will presumably receive at least as much runway. Barring an injury or a disastrous run during training camp and the preseason, he’ll serve as the kicker when Week 1 arrives, though Lucas Havrisik or another backup could land on the practice squad.

Most fluid position group: Interior defensive line

JBH: One could look at the presumed base-defense starters in this group and see a clear separation from the backups in at least two spots. However, Hargrave and Wyatt each spent at least part of minicamp working with the rehab group, and McClellan needs to continue working with the No. 1 defense once the pads come on before anybody can lock him into a role.

And in pads, it remains entirely possible that second-year pros like Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse demonstrate polish that a rookie like McClellan doesn’t possess. And while Hargrave and Wyatt seem unlikely to lose their jobs once healthy, they still have to fully return to action. If one or both haven’t by the time training camp arrives, Brooks could capitalize with an increased role, as he has in the past.

Most settled position group (other than QB): Wide receiver

JBH: For the first time since Love took the reins under center, a clear hierarchy exists among the wide receivers. Barring injury, Watson and Golden will serve as the primary boundary wideouts with Reed handling the lion’s share of the slot duties. They form a clear lead trio, with Williams, Moore, Melton, and perhaps an undrafted or street free agent providing depth behind them.

One could make an argument for safety, and that position group does make a strong case. However, the scheme change under Jonathan Gannon introduces just enough uncertainty there -- might the new DC prefer Bullard to Williams in split-field coverages? -- to push wide receiver ahead for purposes of this discussion.

“I think the goal has always just been not right now but longevity with my career here,” Parsons said. “And I think they want that approach. We have a pretty strong nine-month rule. So, it’s just all about just do the research and the data. There’s no good outcomes with players coming back early from ACL, especially if you’re having all the other things that are getting fixed up. It’s just all about completing the rehab to the best of our ability, and seeing where we’re at from there.”

At one point late last season, reports suggested that Parsons could have a “good chance“ to recover in time for the 2026 opener. That optimistic timeline eventually dissipated as it grew clear that he would sit out at least some games to start the year. Now, between the various public statements made by him and the organization’s leadership, it looks like a fait accompli that Parsons will begin the season on the physically unable to perform list.

But while many have understandably focused on how soon Parsons can suit up again, a bigger question remains unanswered: What can the Packers expect from him when he returns, both in 2026 and beyond?

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The Green Bay Packers are one step closer to locking up their young pass-catching core long-term. First, Jayden Reed got a somewhat surprising extension, then the Packers paid Christian Watson a contract that left many NFL fans with sticker shock.

Tucker Kraft will be next, according to both recent reports and the words of Brian Gutekunst. But even if he gets paid at the top of the market, the way tight ends are valued in the NFL contract market, Green Bay will be getting a value.

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

Does it make sense to pay Tucker Kraft at the top of the tight end market?

Peter Bukowski: Based on Kraft’s production last season and the trajectory it reflects, the answer is yes. But paying Jayden Reed and Christian Watson this offseason muddies the waters.

The Cincinnati Bengals will pay over $80 million for their pass catchers in 2026 and they’re fringe AFC contenders. Becoming a top-heavy team at any position can be precarious. Paying tight ends does not create that same problem.

In fact, Reed and Watson combined earn only slightly more than Ja’Marr Chase alone on their extensions. Meanwhile, Kraft will cost less than Tee Higgins.

Whether Reed and Watson are as valuable to the Packers as Chase is to the Bengals would draw reasonable disagreements, but Kraft’s value specifically, assuming his health, would not. The only objections would be from bad-faith actors or people who don’t understand math.

Green Bay had a better passing game by EPA/dropback last season than the Bengals did in 2024 when Chase won the Triple Crown. And that was without Kraft, Watson, and Reed for half a season each.

“I would consider Tucker Kraft a big-time priority for the Green Bay Packers,” Ian Rapaport recently reported on NFL Network.

“You’re talking about a guy who will probably reset the TE market.”

That seems scary, right? The top of the tight end market would only be $20 million in average annual salary. There are 22 receivers in the league making north of $20 million, and two who make double that figure.

There is no world in which Jaxon Smith-Njigba can be worth twice as much as Kraft.

Last season, Kraft led tight ends in yards per catch, yards after catch per reception, and Pro Football Focus grade. In fact, Kraft averaged more yards per catch for the Packers than JSN did for the Seattle Seahawks.

There’s a volume gap, to be sure. Kraft won’t see 163 targets in the Packers offense, but even accounting for that difference, Kraft averaged over 61 yards per game last year. That’s more than DeVonta Smith, Jaylen Waddle, DK Metcalf, Courtland Sutton, Davante Adams, and Tee Higgins, all of whom make more money than Kraft would even if he tops the market.

Paying Kraft like a middle-class WR2 provides incredible value for the Packers. And that’s before accounting for what Kraft brings as a blocker, his ability to create explosive plays without having to win one-on-one down the field, and everything the Packers do to create easy pitch-and-catch opportunities for him in high-leverage situations.

Sports Info Solutions created a metric called Total Points that attempts to account for the value generated by the player on his own. It’s a cousin of EPA in that it uses historical production data to assign value to things like drops, blown blocks, and value generated specific to the situation and place on the field.

Last year, Kraft finished 12th in Total Points among pass catchers, despite playing just eight games.

Annually, tight ends lead or are among leaders in this metric specifically because they provide considerably more value as blockers than receivers, and the best ones tend to generate important plays like third-down conversions and touchdowns, at a rate commensurate with the top receivers in the NFL.

They also tend to generate more of their own value because of where they’re getting the ball. Kraft is not the same vertical threat as someone like JSN, but if he gets the ball five yards from the line of scrimmage, he’s even more dangerous with the ball in his hands. There’s incredible value in taking a layup throw for a first down, even if it’s not a 50-yard touchdown.

When the offense was struggling with the Cleveland Browns’ defense, it was a play-action dump off to a wide-open Kraft that he rumbled with to set up what should have been the game-winning field goal.

It’s nearly impossible to set up receivers so easily to generate those same opportunities.

Yet the tight end market has long reflected this inefficiency. Jimmy Graham’s insistence that he be franchise tagged as a receiver — because he basically was one and certainly provided value like one — came back in 2014, and the NFL still hasn’t caught up.

The Packers are slated to spend the 17th-most money on their offense in 2026. They were a top-five group last year by EPA/play. They’re getting luxury efficiency at Target prices. Even if they have to pay Kraft like the best tight end in football, if that’s what he is, or something close to it, he’s worth every penny and more.

While neither move should come as a surprise -- the Patriots made no secret of their interest in Brown, and The Leap forecasted Garrett’s departure from Cleveland before the trade -- the significant action from multiple Super Bowl LXI contenders suggested that even more transactions could soon follow. One such possibility involves Josh Sweat, the Arizona Cardinals’ star pass rusher.

Teams typically do not pursue opportunities to trade away their best players, but both sides have ample motivation to pursue a separation. For Sweat, a recent Super Bowl champion who just completed his most productive individual season, extending his stay in the desert would likely do little to enhance his résumé. As for the Cardinals, who began a rebuild in earnest this offseason by jettisoning their head coach and longtime starting quarterback, swapping a 29-year-old veteran for draft picks and/or younger assets would better fit their timeline.

And if Sweat does become available, it doesn’t take much effort to connect the dots between him and the Green Bay Packers. Sweat broke out in 2021 as a member of the Eagles, who employed Jonathan Gannon as their defensive coordinator. When Sweat hit the open market in 2025, he signed in Arizona to reunite with Gannon. Gannon, of course, now serves as the DC in Green Bay.

Peter laid out the case for the Packers pursuing Sweat earlier this week, including what a trade might cost. However, the discussion only matters if the Cardinals actually make the veteran pass rusher available, and the various reports on that matter so far point in wildly different directions.

So, why don’t we have a clearer indication of the Sweat situation? Today’s edition of The Leap attempts to untangle the web of conflicting accounts.

Reporter versus reporter

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Enter Josh Sweat.

Sure, the Packers are strapped for draft capital thanks to that Parsons trade, but they can follow the model set forth by the very team that traded for Garrett, even if it means potentially damaging their flexibility in the future.

It’s time to really go all-in.

Usually, the phrase “going all-in” doesn’t actually apply. In poker, when a player goes all in, he risks busting out of the game entirely, depending on the stacks at the table. But Les Snead and the “F*** them picks” mantra nearly managed it in a football sense.

The Los Angeles traded multiple first-round picks for Jalen Ramsey, then two more for Matthew Stafford, before swinging their second and third-round picks for Von Miller. After the Rams won the Super Bowl in the 2021 season, they didn’t pick in the 2022 NFL draft until pick 104, a compensatory selection for the Detroit Lions hiring of Brad Holmes. Not having a top-100 pick because a team traded away all their selections is about as close to actually risking going bust as a team can get.

And if not for a terrific 2023 draft class (also without a first-round pick because of the Stafford trade), they would not be in a position to once again be f***ing them picks with Garrett as Super Bowl favorites.

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This decision has garnered considerable attention, as does seemingly every attempt by tech companies to impose AI on people. This move has the potential to have a greater impact on web publishers like us at The Leap than the previous, mistake-riddled AI incursions. Google has determined that the best path forward involves effectively preventing users from encountering a webpage owned by another company, all while siphoning off the content from those pages without providing any compensation.

This has tremendous ramifications for not just those of us who make a living by producing content on the internet, but you as a reader. For the better part of the past two decades, Google provided traffic to websites in exchange for listing them on its searches, an exchange that benefited both sides. Still, that deal tilted heavily toward Google, with the company taking such a controlling grip on search and search advertising that it eventually landed in court on antitrust grounds. In that case, the court found Google maintained an unlawful monopoly.

That loss didn’t curtail Google’s efforts to hurt the rest of the internet ecosystem. Its latest move will virtually guarantee that referral traffic will reach near zero for the very sites from which it steals information. If Google succeeds, many of the places you frequent on the internet will disappear, as they will not have the means to sustain themselves. And no matter how “advanced” the chatbots become, they can only regurgitate what they take from outside sources. When those sources leave for good, those seeking reliable information will find themselves left in the dark.

This scenario seemed possible if not probable when Peter and I first discussed launching The Leap back in 2021. Accordingly, we designed our approach so that we didn’t need to rely on Google the way so many other publishers do. Indeed, very little of our traffic now comes from search engines. We have instead built our audience by word of mouth and winning subscribers one at a time.

That means we succeed only because you -- yes, literally you, the person reading this right now -- chose to spend a portion of your day reading The Leap. It also means that we need your support now more than ever. If you value the thoughtful, original, independent coverage of the Green Bay Packers that we’ve delivered for years, please consider a paid subscription. Your support goes directly to Peter and me and allows us to continue pushing The Leap forward.

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Peter and I cannot thank you enough for helping build The Leap into an important place for Packers coverage. At a time when so many of our contemporaries have faded away, we continue to grow, and that only happens because of the support of this community.

With that, let’s dive into today’s edition of The Leap, which previews the post-June 1 action that will arrive later this week.

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

Post-June 1 preview

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Before diving into the potential moves that could come after June 1, let’s briefly dive into why this date matters in the NFL calendar.

In the most basic terms, the league’s salary-cap rules make an accounting distinction between players released earlier in the offseason without a June 1 designation and those moved after that date or designated as post-June 1 cuts. A team releasing a player with multiple seasons left on his deal will accelerate all of the dead money -- funds already paid but prorated over future years for cap purposes -- into the current year if making that move before June 1 (and without a designation). Conversely, if that same player receives a June 1 designation or the team waits until that date to process the release, that dead money will instead apply to next year’s books.

Green Bay recently did this with Nate Hobbs. When he originally arrived in 2025, he received a $16 million signing bonus, which the team spread evenly over the four years of his contract. That meant the Packers had to deal with $12 million in prorated bonus money when releasing Hobbs earlier this offseason. Because they designated him as a post-June 1 cut, they will only take $4 million in dead money for him in 2026. The other $8 million will hit their books in 2027.

A June 1 designation also includes an important stipulation: The team in question must carry the player’s original contract on its books until after that date has passed. Accordingly, the Packers will officially see Hobbs’ cap number move off their 2026 books this week, netting roughly $8.8 million in cap space as a result.

The Packers could utilize that additional cap space in a variety of ways. At least some of it will likely go toward extending one or more of their veteran players with expiring contracts. That group includes Tucker Kraft and Christian Watson, two of the offense’s most important players. Kraft could plausibly land a new deal that resets the tight-end market (currently paced by George Kittle’s four-year, $76.4 million extension signed in 2025). Watson’s financial outlook might parallel that of Alec Pierce, who signed a four-year, $114 million pact in March.

Kraft continues to work his way back from last season’s ACL tear, though both general manager Brian Gutekunst and head coach Matt LaFleur have expressed optimism that the star tight end will return well in advance of Week 1’s matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Watson doesn’t have an injury complication, but he cannot officially sign a new deal with Green Bay until 12 months have passed since the one-year extension he inked last September. Still, the receiver and the team can negotiate the terms before then.

Of course, the Packers will monitor post-June 1 developments occurring elsewhere. A report from Jordan Schultz made a thinly veiled reference to the team’s interest in Josh Sweat, the Arizona Cardinals pass rusher who played for new Green Bay defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon in multiple locations. Sweat recorded a career-best 12 sacks in 2025, but he enters his age-29 season and might have a degenerative knee issue stemming from an injury he suffered in high school. As a result, the Cardinals might not demand more than a mid-round pick for his services.

Another well-known veteran has seen his name connected to the Packers as a potential post-June 1 target. Alvin Kamara, the veteran running back who has spent his entire career with the New Orleans Saints, might no longer factor into his team’s plans. The Saints considered moving him before last season’s trade deadline, but Kamara reportedly told general manager Mickey Loomis that he preferred to remain with the franchise for the remainder of his career.

Perhaps Kamara still prefers to stay in New Orleans. However, he expressed those sentiments before the team signed Travis Etienne to a four-year, $47 million contract to essentially take his role in the offense. If that move has forced Kamara to reconsider his NFL future, a market should exist for his services.

With Kamara, June 1 matters more for the Saints than a team interested in acquiring him. Once that date passes, the dead money that would hit New Orleans’ books in 2026 drops from roughly $21.4 million to a hair over $7 million, a tremendous difference for a club that has just over $8 million in cap space as of this writing, according to Over the Cap.

Whether the Packers make sense as a suitor for Kamara remains entirely unclear. The notion first arose in the direct aftermath of Josh Jacobs’ arrest on domestic-abuse allegations last week. While the Brown County district attorney opted against filing charges, the investigation into Jacobs will continue. Accordingly, he could still face charges at some point in the future. Even if he doesn’t, the NFL could still suspend him.

If the Packers ultimately determine that they’ll need to make other arrangements at running back, Kamara offers a mixed bag as a possible replacement. A telling underlying metric like rush attempts per broken tackle show that he actually performed better over the past two seasons (17.5 and 18.7) than he did from 2022 to 2023 (31.9 and 25.7). At the same time, Kamara averaged a career-worst 1.4 yards after contact -- the yards not blocked by the offensive line that the ball carrier produced -- this past year.

Kamara has never served as a bell cow, and that won’t change in his age-31 season. Still, he would offer experience to a backfield that, sans-Jacobs, would feature MarShawn Lloyd, Chris Brooks, and a handful of other guys who combine for less than 100 career carries in the NFL. Kamara can also factor into the passing game, providing utility that not even Jacobs offers.

Elsewhere, a notable linebacker might shake loose from his current team. Patrick Queen, the former second-team All-Pro, enters the final season of his three-year, $41 million contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Given the organization’s regime change this offseason -- longtime head coach Mike Tomlin resigned, with Mike McCarthy replacing him -- Queen’s future in Pittsburgh hangs in the balance.

“I saw the whole charade that went on all this offseason, but I mean, it’s talks,” Queen told the Pittsburgh media this past week of the negotiations between his representatives and the Steelers. “Obviously, no movement either way.

“So, at the end of the day, they have business to handle. I’ve got business handled at home, and my business is to go out there and play the best football I can and put myself in a good position and put our team in a good position so that we both get successful.”

Though the Packers might have had interest in adding Queen at an earlier point in the offseason, they addressed the position by trading for Indianapolis Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin. Still, Queen could plausibly land in the NFC North. Chicago Bears senior defensive assistant Bill Johnson worked on the LSU coaching staff when Queen played in Baton Rouge. The Detroit Lions have multiple staffers with ties to LSU, including two who coached during Queen’s time there (Caleb Collins and August Mangin). Minnesota Vikings assistant Gerald Alexander served on the Steelers’ staff last season, giving him personal familiarity with Queen.

Another name worth monitoring currently plays for the Cleveland Browns: Denzel Ward

Though Ward has not surfaced as a trade candidate, that could change if/when the Browns make Myles Garrett available. They have resisted those calls since Garrett publicly demanded a trade early in the 2025 offseason, instead signing the future Hall of Famer to a record-setting contract. Still, with the team making a change at head coach this offseason and in need of a personnel reset, trading the soon-to-be 31-year-old Garrett might provide a path to the next contending version of the roster.

Should the Browns trade Garrett -- and waiting until after June 1 would turn a net loss of about $17.2 million in 2026 into a cap savings of over $8.3 million -- they would have little reason to keep Ward. While not as old as Garrett, Ward turned 29 earlier this year, nearly geriatric by cornerback standards. He will almost certainly not remain a key piece of the Cleveland defense by the time a post-Garrett roster has a shot to make noise.

The Packers have already made a big bet on a cornerback this offseason, drafting South Carolina’s Brandon Cisse in the second round. Still, a corner of Ward’s caliber would at least necessitate a discussion at 1265 Lombardi Ave. And even if Gutekunst decides he can’t justify the cost, that doesn’t mean Ward couldn’t land elsewhere in the NFC.

The Packers knew going into the offseason that relying on Lloyd was an enormous risk. But the calculation may have been as simple as the Green Bay front office believing in Matt LaFleur’s offensive architecture, Jordan Love’s mastery of the scheme, and a team built around two types of playmakers: underneath and vertical.

When Gutekunst drafted Jayden Reed, an undersized-for-the-Packers receiver who profiled as a vertical slot player, he immediately brought a skillset the team didn’t have. They could create designed touches for him, low-risk plays that served like running plays, and in some cases were actual running plays, to give him opportunities with the ball in his hand without having to run a route.

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So far, 2026 has seen no shortage of legal trouble for NFL players. An inexhaustive list of those charged with crimes includes Jordan Addison, Marshon Lattimore, James Pearce Jr., Rashee Rice, and Rasheed Walker. Though not all of them face felony charges, each has at the very least complicated their immediate future.

And now, a current member of the Green Bay Packers has jeopardized his NFL career. Josh Jacobs, the team’s lead running back over the past two seasons, was arrested in connection with an alleged domestic incident that occurred over Memorial Day weekend. According to the official report from the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department, officers responded to a disturbance complaint involving Jacobs. On Tuesday, he turned himself in to the Brown County jail for booking.

The Leap contacted the Hobart-Lawrence Police Department for any incident reports related to Jacobs. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, the department declined to release any documents until the prosecutor makes them available.

The Packers acknowledged Jacobs’ arrest Tuesday evening, stating in a press release, “As it is an ongoing legal situation, we will withhold further comment.” Head coach Matt LaFleur offered little more the following morning, saying, “I’m going to stick with the statement that we put out as an organization and just let the process play out.” The team canceled the player availability previously scheduled for Wednesday and staged LaFleur’s press conference outside, where only local media could view it live.

Jacobs remained in custody until Wednesday afternoon. At that time, the Brown County district attorney’s office put out a statement to explain that Jacobs, at least for now, will not face formal charges.

“While the standard for arrest is probable cause, when the District Attorney’s Office makes a decision to issue criminal charges, it is bound to apply a higher standard. That is, whether there is admissible evidence available that rises to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

“After reviewing the available evidence in this case, the Brown County District Attorney’s Office is not yet prepared to make a formal charging decision. Our office has requested additional investigation, as there is reason to believe that additional evidence may exist that would impact whether criminal charges are appropriate, and what charges would be issued. Mr. Jacobs will be released from custody at this time, and a final charging decision will be made by our office at a later date.”

Jacobs, through his attorneys David Chesnoff, Richard Schonfeld, and Clarence Duchac, “vehemently” denied any allegations. The same law firm represented Jacobs in 2021 when Las Vegas police arrested him on suspicion of DUI. Ultimately, that legal matter resulted in a misdemeanor charge of failure to exercise due care, with the case closing later the same year after he completed community service and paid a fine.

Absent more information, how Jacobs’ current legal predicament unfolds remains entirely uncertain. Speculating on if or when he plays again doesn’t illuminate anything meaningful about the situation, given all the unknowns involved. Regardless, the Packers need a plan in the event he never suits up for them again. They have already closed the door on several possibilities, leaving them with limited alternatives.

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The Green Bay Packers are officially back in the building this week with Organized Team Activities, with minicamp around the corner in early June. So far, it’s been a drama-free offseason with the Pack, and we don’t expect any ultimatums, holdouts, or weirdness for offseason work.

With that in mind, we aim at one of the most undercovered stories of the 2025 season (our hands are up): the disappearing rushing attack.

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What happened to the Green Bay Packers running game, and how can they fix it moving forward?

Peter Bukowski: The Packers finished as the fourth-best offense last season by EPA/play, and sixth in DVOA, but the lack of a killer rushing attack is one of the biggest reasons they never felt that level of elite.

In 2024, Josh Jacobs and the running game carried the offense for long stretches of the season, especially with Jordan Love hurt.

Matt LaFleur told one of the television production crew he liked to start the first drive establishing the run because it set a tone for the game. But the 2025 Packers never established that tone, despite investing in bigger bodies upfront. And while there is a Jacobs conversation to be had, and we’ll have it, that’s where this problem starts.

When the underwhelming offensive line gets criticized for the Packers, the discussion tends to center around pass protection. Love and LaFleur showed last year they can mitigate some of those issues with playcalling virtuosity and playmaking in the passing game, but this offense hums at its precision peak when the run game and pass game work in tandem.

The Packers sixth-ranked offense last season by DVOA finished 18th in rushing. That fourth-ranked EPA/play offense landed 21st in EPA/rush and ninth in success rate. Those numbers are down from third in DVOA and ninth in EPA/play in 2024, with the success rate holding just about steady (11th in 2024).

They could get four yards on first down, but rarely broke explosive runs and weren’t nearly as automatic in the low red zone as they had been in 2024. And there is the matter of being one of the worst short-yardage run games in the NFL on third and fourth down.

That, undoubtedly, is an offensive line issue.

When it comes to measuring the effects of offensive line vs. running back, the first four to five yards come from the line. After that, it’s up to the back to create explosives above and beyond what is blocked.

Last year, Jacobs averaged just two yards before contact per attempt. Jahmyr Gibbs managed 3.4 before contact. Now, some of that is Gibbs gets downhill in a hurry, and he’s harder to contact with his speed, but that Lions offensive line, for all its faults, moves bodies (It’s worth noting David Montgomery, in the same backfield, averaged 2.3 yards before contact).

Last year, the Packers finished 19th in ESPN’s Run Block Win Rate and 22nd in Pro Football Focus’ run block grade, which makes it tough for the Green Bay backs to make it all work.

That’s on the offensive line, and that has to be better.

But here’s the thing: In 2024, the Packers actually finished worse in Run Block Win Rate and were the same in PFF grade on the ground. The blocking wasn’t materially different in 2025, but the running backs were.

Or should I say, running back, singular.

It was more than Jacobs was not as good; it’s just not fair to blame it on him. He dealt with injuries, and while he flashed some explosiveness, he looked slower and less elusive than he had in his first season with the Pack.

That’s undeniably true. Jacobs finished 29th in yards after contact per attempt in 2025. The season before, he was seventh. That was the difference.

That yards before contact figure? The exact same in 2024.

But that’s not to say this is Jacobs’ fault. It’s not! He was awesome in his first season with the Packers, covering up for the offensive line's faults. Last year, while dealing with an injury, he was not, but that doesn’t change the flaws he had to cover for in the first place.

He somehow still managed to bank more runs of 10+ yards than in 2024.

In some ways, it makes Jacobs’ 2024 season even more remarkable. Saquon Barkley averaged almost double the yards before contact that Jacobs saw. In fact, his offensive line was almost a half-yard worse per attempt than every running back who wound up with more rushing yards than him.

The approach can’t be, ‘Hope Josh Jacobs is a superhero.’ He can be, but not reliably, and it adds wear and tear on his body, making it harder to be. The solution to the Packers’ run game issues isn’t to expect Jacobs to do more than any other back has to, but rather to make life easier on him by actually opening some running lanes.

It’s time for the revamped offensive line to actually look … revamped.

Back then, teams only played 16 games over a 17-week schedule, but the NFL had already signaled its intention to expand the schedule. A 17th game finally arrived in 2021, and commissioner Roger Goodell has made no secret of his desire to add an 18th in the near future. This development comes on the heels of the schedule adding games on virtually every day of the week, including a stark increase in the international series. Just this week, the owners voted to up the total of international games to 10 with an eye on eventually reaching 18.

In 2016, I made the case for the NFL moving to a 16-game, 18-week schedule. Sadly, the outlet where I published that article -- Sports on Earth, may it rest in peace -- has since disappeared from the internet. Fortunately, I still have a copy of that story in my personal archives.

Today’s edition of The Leap will republish that piece. While the NFL has moved past 16 games, the strategies discussed in that story would still apply to the 18-game schedule that Goodell and the owners want.

Around this time every year, the NFL releases the full regular-season schedule, ensuring endless debate about which team received the hardest or easiest path to the playoffs. While the matchups became official following the conclusion of Week 17’s slate of games, the order and timing of the games can make a significant difference. Certainly, facing a tougher opponent after a bye week makes for easier preparation than coming off a short week. In a related matter, most teams prefer their byes during the middle of the year, yet the earliest ones occur in Week 4. And perhaps above all, every club wants to know when and who it has to play for the dreaded Thursday night game.

These concerns underscore a larger problem with the NFL schedule. For a league in constant pursuit of increased revenue and creating a safer product to quell the concerns of players and fans, the scheduling model it uses does a poor job of accomplishing either goal. Too many contests have overlapping time slots, and though the league debates the increased injury risk, the Thursday tilts too often result in a substandard on-field product. With fantasy football and sports gambling increasing interest in matchups beyond the fans of the teams involved, the NFL could squeeze far more out of the games it already has with a better schedule.

The NFL and NFLPA have discussed altering the schedule, but those talks have mostly revolved around adding games to the regular season, a concept that flies in the face of the player safety both sides claim to value. Instead, the league and the union could build a new scheduling model that involves no additional games but increases revenue by making more matchups available to the fans who want them.

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Since Jordan Love became the starter in 2023, only Brock Purdy and Josh Allen have a higher EPA/play than Love.

No one would argue Love competes with Allen as a virtuosic individual talent. He’s not yet the kind of player who can take over a game the way Allen, the ne plus ultra of physical tools, can. Allen also adds significant value as a runner to the Bills offense. That’s not Love’s game.

Still, that means Love had produced more value on a per-play basis than Lamar Jackson, Matthew Stafford, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert since he’s been the starter.

Two of those guys have won MVP in that span, while Mahomes had two before Love took over.

Let’s take the argument that Love is a product of his offense for a moment. If that’s true, then LaFleur can’t be as problematic as his critics say. There have been fair reasons to worry about LaFleur's conservatism, and blowing a playoff game in such inglorious fashion will amplify those questions, but elite playcallers are more valuable than any position on the field other than quarterback. They can raise the level of an offense.

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After weeks of drips and drabs, the NFL finally released the full 2026 regular-season schedule. The Green Bay Packers finally know the order of their opponents, a slate that head coach Matt LaFleur called “probably the most unique schedule in regard to how many days you have off in between games that we’ve ever seen.”

With the dusk mostly settled on the schedule front, today’s edition of The Leap takes a look back at an important conversation from this time last year that informs how to view the 2026 Packers.

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

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What does last year’s discourse around the Packers’ left-tackle competition reveal about their offensive line in 2026?

Jason B. Hirschhorn: Barring an injury or some other unforeseeable development, the Packers will enter Week 1 with Jordan Morgan as their starting left tackle. This comes after Rasheed Walker, the team’s starter in that spot for the past three seasons, departed in free agency.

That Morgan has emerged as Green Bay’s primary blindside protector doesn’t seem surprising now, but that outcome hardly looked assured at this time last year. Back then, Walker had just completed his best season to date, while Morgan managed just one start during an injury-shortened rookie campaign. Still, the team’s decision-makers declared the job open for competition.

The Leap wrote extensively about the situation last May:

From the outset of the 2025 offseason, the Packers expressed an interest in allowing 2024 first-round pick Jordan Morgan to compete with Rasheed Walker at left tackle. General manager Brian Gutekunst, head coach Matt LaFleur, and other members of the staff have shared similar thoughts on the matter, and nothing that transpired during free agency or the draft has undercut that notion.

The rationale behind such a competition seems clear. Walker has provided solid play over two seasons as the starter. But the team seems to believe Morgan either could perform better or push Walker to a higher level, and the offense would benefit in either scenario. Additionally, Walker enters the final year of his rookie contract while Morgan remains under cost control through the 2028 season.

However, despite the Packers’ public position on the left-tackle competition, not many beat writers or national reporters seem to believe Walker won’t ultimately start. The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman continues to mention right guard as a potential role for Morgan. The Athletic Football Show also recently discussed Green Bay’s offseason at length and likewise landed on the idea that Morgan would factor in at guard rather than protecting the blindside.

Does that mean Morgan won’t truly compete at left tackle? Not necessarily, but the disconnect between what those covering the team say and what the Packers state publicly seems notable. When Green Bay says something that the reporting doesn’t mirror, that should always raise alarms. Reporters frequently know details on background that they cannot straightforwardly reveal, but they’ll hint at that knowledge by framing statements as opinions. The Walker-Morgan discourse could well prove to be such a situation.

That last part looks most notable in retrospect. While Morgan did not ultimately take the job, general manager Brian Gutekunst said that he outplayed Walker during the competition.

“I thought he played really well in the preseason at that spot,” Gutekunst said of Morgan during his season-closing press conference. “He probably did enough to win that job, but then we had some injuries, and we had to do what was best for the team.”

Keep in mind that those statements came before Walker left in free agency. Given the contract he signed with the Carolina Panthers -- a base one-year, $4 million deal that can max out at $10 million with incentives -- the Packers could have conceivably retained Walker if they felt uncomfortable letting Morgan take the job. Instead, they’ll roll with a former first-rounder who has just 51 career snaps at left tackle.

To at least some extent, the Packers’ stated preference for Morgan at tackle and their decision to instead play him along the interior last season combine to reveal what the team believes about its offensive line, both in 2025 and now.

Most straightforwardly, Green Bay’s coaching staff felt better about Walker at left tackle than any of its backups behind Aaron Banks, the left guard who battled injuries in training camp and throughout the season. That might not seem noteworthy at first glance, but consider those other backup options. Darian Kinnard, the multi-positional veteran, could have stepped in at guard and allowed Morgan to handle the blindside. Anthony Belton, the second-rounder who became a starting guard in Week 13 despite few reps inside, could have plausibly begun his transition from tackle earlier.

Perhaps the coaches didn’t like the idea of playing Kinnard at left guard -- he played roughly 97% of his offensive snaps on the right side to that point in his career -- and didn’t want to ask Belton, a rookie, to make a position change without more notice. Even so, the Packers had other options they could have considered. Elgton Jenkins, the starting center when the season began, had spent most of his NFL career at left guard and could have returned to that spot if needed. That would have allowed Sean Rhyan, who began practicing at center in previous years, to move over the ball and allow Kinnard to remain on the right side.

That the Packers didn’t opt for one of those alternative configurations while Banks worked his way back from injuries underscores the concerns about Rhyan at center and, at least in 2025, Belton at guard. Rhyan did eventually make the move after Jenkins’ lower-leg fracture, and though he provided capable play as a run blocker, his pass protection suffered overall. Belton graded as one of the worst starting guards in football, though the lack of preparation for the switch and his minimal NFL experience surely played a factor.

Entering 2026, the Packers have made significant bets on both Rhyan and Belton to improve considerably. History suggests that Belton, now a second-year player who finally has a full offseason to rep at guard, has the better shot of the two at dramatic improvement. Rhyan also will have his summer tailored to center, but those dynamics don’t apply in the same way. He enters his fifth season in the NFL and has already spent time working at his current position before making the full-time switch.

Regardless, the Packers don’t have an obvious Plan B if either one fails to hit their goals. Kinnard returns as the team’s most experienced backup, and both Rhyan and Belton played ahead of him last year. Rookie Jager Burton offers promise, but asking a fifth-round pick to contribute in Year 1 will always present a challenge. The situation looks dicey even if Morgan establishes himself as a starting-caliber left tackle, not a guaranteed outcome either.

If the Packers have an ace up their sleeve, it comes in the form of their quarterback. Jordan Love just delivered his best season to date behind last year’s shaky offensive line and rarely turns pressure into sacks. Entering 2026, he boasts a 4.27% sack rate, the lowest such mark among qualified active players. Those skills will come in handy if Rhyan and/or Belton continue to struggle in pass protection.

Of course, Love can’t fix everything by himself. The Packers can scheme around one inconsistent starter along the offensive line, but if that number grows to two or more, then the passing game could run into some big problems that don’t have obvious in-season solutions.

As has become an annual tradition, seemingly every sportswriter breathlessly “analyzed” the order of the games and the related travel logistics for their team coverage. This, of course, ignores that any fan who actually cares enough to check a schedule for games that take place five or more months in the future can decipher that information without assistance.

For anyone who didn’t tune in for the schedule release, here is the Green Bay Packers’ schedule for the 2026 regular season:

As a reader of The Leap, most of the big details will already stand out to you. So, rather than simply recite what this highly invested audience already knows, this edition of the newsletter will instead focus on the weird (but not necessarily less important) quirks of the schedule.

The Packers won’t draw the Raiders, but they could still face Maxx Crosby

No move from this NFL offseason garnered more headlines than the one that didn’t make it to the finish line.

On March 7, the Las Vegas Raiders agreed to send Maxx Crosby to the Baltimore Ravens for two first-round picks. Like all trades, the deal couldn’t become official until the player involved passed a physical with his new team. But while that process rarely unwinds blockbuster deals, the Ravens’ medical staff ultimately balked at the condition of Crosby’s knee, resulting in the cancellation of the move.

Following Baltimore’s decision to back out of the trade, Crosby posted on social media about his recommitment to the Raiders. Meanwhile, Las Vegas reportedly doesn’t plan to shop the five-time Pro Bowler again in 2026. On paper, that would put an end to any potential Crosby movement for the foreseeable future.

Of course, just because a team doesn’t intend to do something doesn’t mean it won’t. The same factors that led to the original Crosby trade remain in place. Though his productivity hasn’t dipped, he turns 29 in August and has played over 7,000 career snaps, including playoffs. Crosby also recently underwent surgery to repair a “significant meniscus tear and the related stress injury to the bone and cartilage in his knee,” according to the surgeon who performed the procedure.

If the Raiders fall out of playoff contention by the time the trade deadline arrives, they could again consider Crosby’s future. They just spent the No. 1 overall pick on quarterback Fernando Mendoza and brought in a new coaching staff, a major reset at the two most important roles in the organization. That timeline might not align with Crosby’s, forcing the team to reopen trade discussions.

Should that happen, Las Vegas will probably find a healthy market for the superstar pass rusher’s services. Some of those potential suitors will play the Packers this season and, importantly, will do so after the Nov. 10 trade deadline.

At least two opponents reportedly interested in Crosby face Green Bay after the deadline. On Nov. 25, the Los Angeles Rams host the Packers at SoFi Stadium. The Rams have already made some major personnel moves this offseason, upgrading their secondary with former Kansas City Chiefs corners Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Waddle. However, general manager Les Snead could still strike a deal for Crosby, as The Athletic’s Nate Atkins suggested this week:

I’d also keep an eye on Maxx Crosby. He seems to have mended things with the Las Vegas Raiders after the trade to the Baltimore Ravens was reversed, but the organization’s approach could change if the Raiders hit another tough start to a season.

Likewise, the Chicago Bears will host the Packers on Christmas. Chicago’s need for pass rushers has hardly flown under the radar, but the team didn’t use significant resources to address the problem in free agency or the draft. At present, the Bears’ front four looks identical to the one with which they opened the 2024 season: Montez Sweat, Gervon Dexter Sr., Grady Jarrett, and Dayo Odeyingbo.

Crosby, if healthy, could transform that group. His price tag at the deadline might not match the one the Ravens briefly committed to pay in March.

A few other late-season opponents could plausibly have interest in Crosby as well.

The Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions have considered deadline trades for veteran pass rushers in the recent past, and both enter 2026 with some questions along their defensive fronts. The Bills’ current rotation features Greg Rousseau, Bradley Chubb, and the recently signed Mike Danna. If they determine that Danna can’t adequately fill the shoes most recently occupied by Joey Bosa, perhaps a move for Crosby -- along with some salary-cap gymnastics -- makes sense. Meanwhile, the Lions continue to search for a bookend to Aidan Hutchinson, and if Derrick Moore, D.J. Wonnum, and the team’s other projects don’t pan out, Crosby could supercharge that front.

If any of those teams trade for Crosby before the deadline, the complexion of their matchups with the Packers changes accordingly.

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The Green Bay Packers enter the 2026 season without Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks, elevating the roles for Matthew Golden, and, potentially, Savion Williams as well. But injuries make projecting this group particularly difficult, especially if Matt LaFleur finally decides to lean more into the passing game.

In today’s newsletter, we dig into the numbers and try to predict how the target share will work in a streamlined passing game where the playcaller wants everyone to eat.

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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It’s dangerous to take one season’s numbers and use them to extrapolate the next. Schemes, roles, and players change. They evolve and grow. But what has been constant for the Packers over the last three seasons with LaFleur and Jordan Love has been the democratization of the passing game.

The days of Davante Adams getting 140 targets are gone, due in no small part to the fact that Adams is gone. Green Bay doesn’t have a player capable of handling that type of volume.

And even if one arose, it’s worth wondering if LaFleur would even want to call his offense that way. The playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers, the bed-wetting of epic proportions, stemmed from Aaron Rodgers’ unwillingness to throw anyone but Adams the ball. That was partially a Rodgers problem, but it reflects a defect we see in the NBA all the time in the playoffs as well: heliocentric offense doesn’t work as well in the playoffs.

Better defenses, more bespoke game plans, and the nature of volatility make building the passing game around one player a risky proposition.

Green Bay loses 131 targets to Wicks and Doubs this offseason, so those have to go somewhere. Without Doubs and Wicks, we can safely expect Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed to see increased usage, but to what degree?

That’s the tricky part.

It’s not enough to suggest Golden vacuums up all of the Doubs targets, Savion Williams takes on the Wicks passes, and Watson extends his 2025 second-half with a monster 2026 campaign.

Injuries are the biggest reason why. Tucker Kraft missed half the season, as did Reed. Before the injury, Kraft got 18% of targets in the Packers offense when he played, which was 11th among tight ends. Kraft led all tight ends in yards per catch and yards after catch per reception last season. He was on his way to a true TE1 season, the kind of year that announces him as a star. Had the season ended on Halloween, Kraft would have made an All-Pro team.

Watson checked in at 19.9% with his target share, but most of that time was spent without either Reed or Kraft on the field. He was also wildly productive, finishing top 10 in yards per route run.

Doesn’t he deserve a bigger piece of the pie, too?

But then the Packers extended Jayden Reed, called him a “winning player,” and there’s plenty of room in 11 personnel for Watson, Reed, Golden, and Kraft to be on the field together. In fact, we would expect that to be the most-used grouping the Packers play in 2026, assuming reasonable health.

We also can’t safely assume Bo Melton will suddenly see the field materially less, or that Williams will see it significantly more. LaFleur likes to rotate his receivers, despite the protestations of fans and fantasy football players.

Last year, Packers quarterbacks attempted 489 passes, though Malik Willis and Clayton Tune each had starts, and Willis played most of another game. Eleven quarterbacks played 17 games last year, and only two failed to get to 500 attempts.

Let’s use 500 attempts as a baseline.

In 2024, Reed had a 16.2% target share, slightly down from 17.6% in 2023, and considering he’s only on the field when the Packers use three-receiver personnel, that seems like a fair number. Let’s split the difference there and get him 17% of the targets.

Reed has finished over 20% in target rate in all three seasons he’s been in Green Bay. He finished second in targets as a rookie (just two behind Doubs), and led the Packers in catches in 2024, despite getting out-targeted by Wicks (by one!). After the offseason extension, there’s no reason to expect his targets to fall off a cliff.

There’s no reason to expect LaFleur to use Reed in a much different way than in the past.

That would mean 85 targets for Reed, the second-most of his Packers tenure.

Let’s see the rest of the receivers aside for the moment because they’re trickier to figure out.

Dalton Schultz finished sixth in tight targets last year and had a 19% target share, which was 10th among tight ends, just ahead of Kraft. In the Kyle Shanahan offense, George Kittle regularly slotted between 20-25% target share, and Kraft is trending toward being that type of weapon for the Packers.

If Kraft got a 20% target share, that would mean 100 targets. That would have led the 2025 Packers, but for reference, Jake Ferguson and Juwan Johnson each went over 100 targets last season. That kind of volume is more than reasonable for Kraft.

It would be the most any Packers pass catcher saw in the Love era, but back in 2023, Doubs and Reed each went over 90 targets. What’s more, that same season, Kraft and Luke Musgrave combined for 86 targets when Musgrave entered the season as the starter.

Getting to 100 would represent only a modest increase in tight end usage from some previous LaFleur offenses. It’s also worth noting that Kraft finished eighth in target rate, which means when he was on the field, he was targeting more than his total share would indicate. This is a reflection of the egalitarian style of offense.

I think this is a much more useful way to look at boundary receivers in this offense now that the group has been streamlined.

For example, Christian Watson’s 19.9% target share jumps to 23.8% as a rate. In other words, when he’s on the field, he’s getting almost one in four targets from Love. If he’s all of a sudden playing more snaps, we wouldn’t need to see his rate jump for his share to move significantly.

If Watson got 22% of targets, that would be 110 targets, by far the most he’s ever seen in this offense, but a figure that would have been 26th in the NFL last season. It’s how many targets Jacobi Myers saw.

Watson is a much better player. If he’s healthy, getting to 100 should be no problem.

Now, what do we do with Golden? In this exercise, there are still plenty of targets to go around. The incumbent core has gobbled up 295/500 possible targets, leaving plenty of meat on the passing bone.

Josh Jacobs got 40+ targets each of the last two seasons, the backup running backs will get 20-30 over the course of the season, and Musgrave will likely get 15-20, so let’s call it 385/500.

The highest number of targets a Packers third receiver saw in the Love era is 75 targets, which would still leave a massive hole in the offense.

Golden earned an 11.8% target share last year, but for the first eight weeks of the season, when he was playing starter snaps, he finished 35th in yards per route run, ahead of guys like Michal Pittman, Jameson Williams, Devonta Smith, and AJ Brown.

In games he played at least 40% of snaps, he averaged 3.9 targets per game, which, rounding up, would mean 68 targets on the season. Getting to 75 would mean another extra target every other game. In an offense that already has Kraft, Reed, and Watson, that feels clean, and would still leave 40 targets for Williams, Melton, Skyy Moore, and the backup tight ends.

Of anyone, the numbers feel low for Kraft, who could easily get to 110 or more targets if he plays 17 games, but the Packers’ conservative handling of injured players suggests a slightly more modest approach.

This could finally be the season LaFleur and the Packers treat offense like the rest of the NFL. But the biggest question will be if it actually makes this team better, particularly in the playoffs.

The answer will rest on whether these players are as good as we think they can be.

Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine, the incumbent starters, are each players with experience in big games for Green Bay, though in Nixon's case, he has to hope Jonathan Gannon skipped the two most recent Chicago Bears games in his 2025 tape study.

Brian Gutekunst brought in competition via free agency with Benjamin St-Juste, a similar caliber of cornerback who happens to be coming off his best season as a pro. He likely would have competed to start regardless of who the Packers drafted.

Cisse, still just 20 years old, was always going to have a hard time breaking into the starting lineup barring injury. There’s reason to believe he could do it — more on that later — but as a starting boundary corner, Gannon saying ‘No one has a spot yet,’ doesn’t carry much weight.

The rookie enters spring ball as boundary CB4 at best.

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If that history provides any indication, one or more prospects who didn’t hear their name called during the draft will land a job on Green Bay’s 53-man roster or practice squad in 2026.

As the Packers bring in far more undrafted rookies than they have available spots, projecting which ones ultimately stick around presents a serious challenge. Multiple factors come into play when evaluating UDFAs and their path to success. Certainly, a prospect must possess talent. But if he plays in a crowded position group, the coaching staff might not provide him with enough opportunities to demonstrate his skill set.

The Packers UDFA prospectus, one of my favorite projects from my time at Acme Packing Company, dates back to the 2013 season. In all but one year, the prospectus featured at least one undrafted rookie who earned a spot on the 53-man roster or practice squad. The lone attempt without a hit came in 2017, though that comes with a sizable asterisk. That prospectus picked two players Green Bay hoped to sneak onto the practice squad: QB Taysom Hill and offensive lineman Geoff Gray. Hill wound up with the New Orleans Saints as a waiver claim while Gray chose to join the New York Jets’ practice squad over an offer from Green Bay.

Last year’s prospectus fared particularly well, correctly identifying three undrafted rookies who earned jobs with the Packers. Johnathan Baldwin spent most of the season on the practice squad before signing to the active roster in late December. Jamon Johnson spent all of 2025 on the practice squad but received multiple game-day elevations. Nazir Stackhouse did even better, making the initial 53 and remaining there all year. Though Green Bay released Johnson in April, Baldwin and Stackhouse return to push for roster spots in 2026.

For the latest crop of UDFAs to stick around come the regular season, they’ll have to overcome some roster math. In 2025, the Packers drafted eight players and kept seven between the 53-man roster, practice squad, and reserve lists. Green Bay added another six prospects in the 2026 draft, including two for whom the team traded multiple picks to acquire. The totality of that investment over the past two years will limit the number of undrafted rookies that general manager Brian Gutekunst can retain this season.

And those figures illustrate only part of the personnel logjam. According to Over the Cap, players on rookie contracts -- those with three or fewer accrued seasons -- make up 58.5% of the Packers’ roster. Although that marks a decrease of over 13 percentage points from this time last year, it still ranks as the third-highest such percentage in the NFL. Even with the league expanding the practice squad in recent years and the team’s latest draft class featuring only six prospects, UDFAs will again face long odds to earn a job in Green Bay.

With those qualifiers out of the way, here are the undrafted free agents best positioned to stick with the Packers in 2026.

Read more

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.

• 2026 Packers UDFA Prospectus

• 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.