Packers need young players to step up in 2026

Yahoo Sports NFL analyst Nate Tice and fantasy analyst Matt Harmon discuss Green Bay’s outlook for the upcoming season. Check out the full conversation on “Football 301” – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

How many years have we been saying about the Packers roster?

They, they’re the youngest in the league, they’re the youngest in the league.

And like, it’s kind of time- Yes for some of those young players, it’s kind of time for some of those young players to take the next step.

Yeah.

The good news is, specifically talking about, like, receiver, Christian Watson finally took the next step last year.

Huge.

Romeo Doubs, who’s obviously not here, he finally took the next step, you know?

So it’s not out of the question that a guy like Jaden Reed takes the next step.

Matthew Golden takes the, you know, obviously a step finally in, in year two.

So- Yeah it’s definitely possible.

And then it, then it becomes like, all right, we just On, it’s, right now looking at it on paper, I don’t think either unit is top 10.

I don’t.

But that doesn’t mean that w- they can’t get the growth from some of those young guys to be- Yeah a top 10 unit by the end of the season.

If, and this is the big if, if Parsons and Kraft are 90%, you know, to start the season, the ACL injuries are different now, you can come back pretty early and fairly healthy, you know, relatively.

Like, I feel a lot better, but again, that’s an if.

and it might be mucky, but it’s If Kraft is back to somewhat of his ability, those receivers really slot in nicely together.

Yeah.

Like how everybody, all their- That’s true I mean, that’s what they’re trying to go for.

But all their archetypes really complement each other.

Synergy amongst their pass catchers, especially with Kraft’s there.

And then same with Van Ness and Parsons.

Of course, Parsons with the injury, but Van Ness early in the season, if he plays like what he showed those first couple weeks, kind of feeling a little bit better about their front.

and again, we’ll see how Gannon uses these guys, and it might be a little funkier.

Maybe he’s doing some different stuff, but we’ll see.

but I, I A lot of these guys have to take a step forward.

Devonte Wyatt is another guy that needs to take a step forward.

These corners have to play decently.

But, yeah, I’m, I’m right there with you

Tags: