{"id":670824,"date":"2026-01-12T07:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/670824\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T07:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:17:12","slug":"green-bay-packers-top-2026-draft-pick-is-locked-in-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/670824\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Bay Packers\u2019 top 2026 draft pick is locked in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With the Green Bay Packers finishing with the second-worst record among NFL playoff teams, following their loss and the loss of the Carolina Panthers in the wild-card round, the team will now officially send the 20th overall pick, their original first-round pick, to the Dallas Cowboys for the Micah Parsons trade. As a reminder, the Packers will also be down their 2027 first-round pick, too, for the same trade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">This also means that Green Bay\u2019s first selection of the 2026 NFL Draft is locked in. The Packers\u2019 top draft choice will be the 52nd overall pick in next year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p>Packers\u2019 2026 draft picks<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Packers could have received two more compensatory picks this offseason with defensive tackle T.J. Slaton (sixth-round pick) and cornerback Eric Stokes (seventh-round pick) leaving, but those losses in free agency were offset by Green Bay signing guard Aaron Banks and cornerback Nate Hobbs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As of right now, the current projections have the Packers owning the Mr. Irrelevant pick, the final selection of the draft, with the seventh-round compensatory pick the team should receive for losing Eric Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>Packers\u2019 2027 draft picks<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Packers will only be awarded a maximum of four compensatory draft picks in 2027 for losses in 2026 unrestricted free agency. Don\u2019t expect the team to do much in free agency, no matter who the coach is in 2026, because of their cap situation and the way they\u2019ll want to protect those compensatory selections.<\/p>\n<p>52nd overall picks &#8211; draft history<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Here\u2019s a list of the last decade of players who were taken 52nd overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If the Packers make the 52nd overall pick, it will be the seventh time in club history that they\u2019ve done so. Here are the other players that they\u2019ve taken in the slot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Under general manager Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst, here\u2019s how many games the Packers\u2019 rookie second-round picks have started over time:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">For whatever it\u2019s worth, Gutekunst\u2019s second-round picks have started 8.5 games per selection (10, 2018-present) in their rookie years, while Thompson\u2019s started 5.7 per pick (18, 2005-2017) as rookies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Green Bay Packers finishing with the second-worst record among NFL playoff teams, following their loss and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,623,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-670824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-green-bay","10":"tag-green-bay-packers","11":"tag-green-bay-packers-draft","12":"tag-greenbay","13":"tag-greenbaypackers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115880908894391706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}