The 2024 and '25 draft classes could fundamentally reshape the Packers offense
Receiver mania overtook the offseason storylines, but the Green Bay offensive makeover started last year with key pieces. Big changes are coming.
Good morning!
The Green Bay Packers picked a wide receiver, had you heard? And then they did it again! But it’s not just a handful of surprising Day 1 picks that suggest a reconstruction of this offense is coming. This process started last year, at least.
In today’s free Monday newsletter, we remind you not to forget about a seemingly forgotten class of 2024, at least of offense, and discuss the significant evolution set to happen in Green Bay.
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The 2025 Packers draft signals big changes to the receiver room, but there is a potential realignment coming to the offense … it could even be a full-on overhaul.
Peter Bukowski: Five. That’s how many new starters could come on offense alone from the last two Packers drafts. Not because the players are all guaranteed home runs, but because Green Bay needs them to play, or at least that appears to be the plan.
The Packers needed a take-the-top-off receiver without Christian Watson on the field, and maybe even with him on the field. That was Matthew Golden. The connection between the Golden selection and Watson’s future isn’t a stretch. But the reverberations on offense started in 2024, and we could be talking about an offense that looks entirely different in 2026.
It starts with Jordan Morgan, drafted ahead of Cooper DeJean in ‘24 (did you know that?). Though seen by some as a guard conversion in the NFL, Brian Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur insist Morgan can play four positions on the offensive line. Gutekunst told reporters last week that Morgan will get a chance to compete at left tackle with Rasheed Walker this upcoming season.
With Walker expected to hit free agency next March, thanks to the rising costs of offensive linemen—and the likely prioritization of Zach Tom—Green Bay will likely have a new blindside protector for Jordan Love.
And if it’s not Morgan, it could be 2025 second-round surprise Anthony Belton. The massive, mauling North Carolina State linemen can also play four spots, according to the Packers. Let’s say Walker wins the starting left tackle job this year, but Morgan splits time with Sean Rhyan at right guard this season.
Come next spring, Green Bay could keep Morgan at right guard for Rhyan and let Belton step into the left tackle job. Or they could flip them. Either way, they represent 2/5s of the projected starting offensive line in 2026.
They’re big, physical, mauling linemen, a transition away from the finesse style that marked the Mike McCarthy and early LaFleur era.
The outside zone is … out (kinda), and power runs are in.
And who thrives in gap schemes? Marshawn Lloyd, a player the Packers coaching staff could not stop gushing over last spring when he arrived. For as indomitable as Josh Jacobs was last year, he’ll be 28 this time next offseason and has just played only the second full season of his career.
Would it be shocking if by the start of the 2026 campaign, Lloyd earned the lead back role thanks to his explosiveness, and Jacobs played the Jamaal Williams/AJ Dillon hammer role to Lloyd’s Aaron Jones?
We haven’t even made it to the receivers.
How many receivers not drafted this year will be on the Packers in 2027? Watson and Romeo Doubs come up for contracts next spring, while Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks will be up the following year. Is there a single truly locked-up spot among that group?
Golden and Savion Williams, barring something tragic, will be on the team. I would guess Reed would be too, but his inconsistency to end the season provides ample reason for pause. Green Bay tends to only extend skill players at the extremes: either really expensive or very cheap. Reed would be neither as it stands today, or at least the Packers would likely be unwilling to pay Reed like a true WR1 given the current costs of such a player.
LaFleur still raves about Watson, and a prove-it deal to stay in Green Bay one more year post-ACL makes sense for both sides, but if Golden plays like a first-round pick, paying Watson starting receiver money would be expensive for as much as their skills overlap.
Giving Williams a true starting job, given how raw he is as a true receiver, may be a leap, but Wicks, Reed Doubs, and Watson will all attract enough attention elsewhere to price themselves out of Green Bay’s market if none of them make significant jumps. And that’s the weird subplot here: if any of those four take a step forward, they’re playing their way into a contract in Green Bay. If none do, they’re playing their way into a contract elsewhere, albeit for less money.
Williams could even slide into Reed’s role as a slot, where his lack of refinement as a route runner would be less glaring. He’ll likely shoulder some of the gadget role Reed occupied the last two years as soon as he takes the field.
A power slot in this offense could be deadly, and we’ve seen where a player with Williams’ explosive running ability and versatility can fit. Comparisons to Deebo Samuel have ended up faulty for every player who has earned the comp (even Deebo himself has failed to live up to them), but there’s a clear road map for the best version of that player.
For as effective as Gutekunst has been reshaping this team post-Aaron Rodgers, he’s facing the task of having to do it again. The Packers put together a top-five offense by DVOA last season, but they lack the kind of star power that has traditionally driven elite offenses in Green Bay.
When it was Rodgers, Josh Sitton, T.J. Lang, Jordy Nelson, and Randall Cobb, we knew who was making the big bucks and who would get rotated around until the team found the right pieces. Right now, it’s Love, Jacobs, Tom, and we’ll see. In fact, even Jacobs is, “we’ll see how much longer,” because of the age curve of running backs.
But this is why the Packers are always planning for the future. A year ago, it would have seemed crazy for Green Bay to draft a first-round receiver, much less two in the top 100 picks. Every season reveals the required evolution of the team in real time. And because Green Bay lacks the cornerstone pieces on offense, the front office will keep taking swings until it can connect.
If one of Wicks, Reed, Doubs, or Watson breaks out this year, then the Pack has a champagne (of beers) problem. If they don’t, then Green Bay has a new class of potential cornerstones, and hopefully no more problems.