The 3 biggest questions training camp can actually answer for the Green Bay Packers
After an inglorious end to the 2025, the 2026 version of the Green Bay Packers will have to answer all sorts of questions about their ability to close in the playoffs. That's not an August problem.
Good morning!
This week, the Green Bay Packers open camp for the 2026 season, and while the Chicago Bears playoff loss looms over the start of the year, along with Micah Parsons’ health, there’s not actually anything the team can do about that in late July and August.
But training camp can still provide plenty of answers to essential questions for this team as they set themselves up to make a run the 2025 team couldn’t muster.
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Who is starting at cornerback?
Peter Bukowski: Expect this competition to go right up to Week 1 and perhaps even into the season, with Matt LaFleur proving himself willing to rotate players in search of a positional winner.
Neither Keisean Nixon nor Carrington Valentine have contracts beyond this year, and Valentine didn’t open the 2025 season as the preferred starter either; Nate Hobbs did. His injury opened the door for Valentine, but once Hobbs returned, he immediately captured the lion’s share of snaps.
His ineffectual play and injury problems gave Valentine a firmer grasp on that starting job, but his own inconsistent play caused the Packers to see if Kamal Hadden could steal a spot. He also got hurt, leaving Valentine as the last man standing.
Benjamin St-Juste got a bargain deal to compete for a starting spot with the Packers, and Brian Gutekunst tabbed Brandon Cisse with his first pick in the draft to come in and compete.
Coverage breakdowns led to 25 fourth-quarter Bears points, including messy play from Valentine and Nixon. It’s possible the 2026 team will open with two new starters on the boundary, with St-Juste coming off the No. 1 graded zone corner season according to Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, Cisse already does one of the most important things most rookies struggle to do: tackle.
Can the Packers trust rookie kicker Trey Smack?
PB: It may be a little unfair to put this on training camp, but after a spring that saw Smack miss a slew of kicks, the Packers rookie has a chance to show Green Bay was right to trade up for him in April’s draft.
It will be yet another proposition for Smack to go out and show it during the regular season. Still, at the very least, if Smack wins the kicker job over Lucas Havrisik, who does have the Packers record for longest field goal, it will show the team’s faith in his trajectory.
The last time Green Bay put its faith in a rookie kicker, Anders Carlson hardly covered himself in glory, culminating in a debut campaign that saw him miss a crucial field goal in the fourth quarter of the playoffs. Smack would replace Brandon McManus, who did the same back in January against the Bears.
The season hardly hinges on Smack being capable. Havrisik flashed plenty of his own ability last season in place of McManus, but training camp will be the first chance for these two to truly have it out for that spot.
Does the defensive front have enough to make it by while Micah Parsons is out?
PB: Players like Lukas Van Ness and Barryn Sorrell may not be able to prove definitively the defense will be fine without Parsons, but they certainly can show the opposite.
Van Ness had one of those camps last season when he started to dominate consistently. It felt like a lightbulb moment. Then he got hurt. Again. Another injury would seal the team’s fate as plainly not good enough. But even if he’s healthy and has another one of those camps, Jonathan Gannon will need more than that.
Sorrell, Collin Oliver, and rookie Dani Dennis-Sutton have to show something too, and if they don’t, the calls for Gutekunst to rescue Josh Sweat from football purgatory in Arizona will only get louder. Sweat began training camp on PUP, and his reported disinterest in remaining a Cardinal has already been reported.
If Sweat can be pried from the other LaFleur, it’s worth exploring in any case, but a discouraging camp from the Packers’ other edge players would create far more urgency to make some sort of move, whether it’s Sweat or signing a veteran like Jadeveon Clowney.
There’s also the time element. As we move into August, the Packers and Parsons will have a clearer health picture for their superstar pass rusher. Will it be six games or eight? Nine? The longer the projected window, the better the players on the roster have to be for the Packers to feel comfortable moving forward with them as temporary replacements.
Well said. Should be an interesting camp.