2026 NFC North Preview: The Green Bay Packers
Last Season: Yet Another 7 Seed
For the third straight season, the 2025 Green Bay Packers finished in the 7 seed of the NFC. For the second straight season, they lost in the Wild Card round, this time through a gut-wrenching collapse that saw their rival Chicago Bears erase an 18-point halftime deficit.
Perhaps the highlight of the season was the performance of QB Jordan Love, who quietly posted the best season of his career. Love finished 2nd in the NFL in EPA/play behind Drake Maye, 5th in PFF grade, and 3rd in QBR. With better team performance, Love may well have snuck into the MVP conversation, but with an average run game and a slightly below-average defense, the Packers were unable to give Love the support he needed.
Biggest Move: Betting on Continuity
The 2026 Green Bay Packers may well have put together the most boring offseason of any NFL team. They did not have a first-round draft pick thanks to the Micah Parsons trade, they did not make any especially noteworthy signings in free agency, and the only major contract they handed out was a 4-year, $110.5 million extension to WR Christian Watson.
Perhaps their biggest move was trading EDGE Rashan Gary to the Cowboys for a fourth round pick, a move that saved the team $10.9 million in cap space. Gary’s performance was adequate last season, but his role was somewhat redundant after the acquisition of Parsons, and there is a chance the team would have cut him for cap space if they hadn’t found a trade partner. A 4th round draft pick is great return value for a player in this situation, but in the grand scheme of things it hardly moves the needle.
For several years now, the Packers have eschewed spending big money on veteran free agents and instead chosen to bet on a young core of players. In the three previous seasons (2023-25), the Packers fielded the youngest 53-man roster of any team in the NFL, and they will likely contend for that honor once again in 2026.
Biggest Loss: A Handful of Role Players
The 2026 Packers will be absent several names that are familiar from recent years: in addition to Gary, WR Romeo Doubs, OL Elgton Jenkins, OT Rasheed Walker, and LB Quay Walker all departed Green Bay this offseason. Of these, the versatile, two-time Pro Bowler Jenkins is probably the biggest loss, but at age 30 Jenkins is no longer the stalwart blocker he was in his prime.
Bottom Line: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
Gone are the days when the Packers were the class of the NFC North. The team’s last division title came in 2021, the longest drought of any team in the division.
Since then, the Packers have been the epitome of mid. They have won no more than 11 games and no less than 8 in each of the past four seasons, posting a 1-3 record in the postseason.
All this goes to show that the Packers’ performance in 2025 was not an aberration. Unlike the Bears (who seemingly used up a decade’s worth of luck en route to an unexpected division title) or the Lions (who may well have been the best division loser in NFL history), the 2025 Packers are who we thought they were.
Yet, looking at the 2026 Packers’ roster, there is no discernable evidence of improvement from last season. Anything can happen in a 17-game season, and it’s possible that the Packers could put together the sort of serendipitous season that lifted the 2025 Chicago Bears or the 2022 Minnesota Vikings to their respective division titles. But talent alone will not suffice, and in all likelihood, this Packers team is destined for another season in the middle of the pack.