The Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots should all be keeping an eye on the Green Bay Packers this offseason.
That’s because the Packers have a cut candidate in $96 million edge rusher Rashan Gary and all three of those teams need help along the edge.
But we aren’t the only ones who consider Gary a cut candidate. The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman listed Gary as someone the Packers could release this offseason.
“Another cut candidate is defensive end Rashan Gary, who has a 2026 base salary of $18 million,” Schneidman wrote. “Cutting him after he went missing in the second half of the season would free up about $11 million in cap space.”
Gary’s disappearance in the second half of the season has him on the hot seat in 2026. Gary looked like he was going to have a monster season after posting 7.5 sacks over his first seven games before getting blanked the rest of the way.
The problem with cutting Gary is the Packers would be very thin at edge rusher.
Outside of Micah Parsons, who is not guaranteed to be ready for the start of 2026 after suffering a torn ACL in December, and Gary, no other Packers EDGE had more than two sacks.
That said, if the Packers do cut Gary, the Bears, Seahawks and Patriots could all come calling.
The Bears need an upgrade opposite Montez Sweat, the Patriots could lose K’Lavon Chaisson in free agency, leaving them with a hole across from Harold Landry, and Seattle might see Boye Mafe depart once he hits the open market.
Given their far superior cap space situations, the Patriots and Seahawks are best positioned to afford Gary, who is still going to be paid well in free agency.
But we would not count the Bears out. There are a multitude of ways Chicago can open up cap space, and they’ll be extra motivated to do so if it means acquiring an upgrade at edge rusher.
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