{"id":749161,"date":"2026-02-13T11:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/749161\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T11:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T11:51:33","slug":"packers-news-green-bay-free-agency-expect-more-departures-than-arrivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/749161\/","title":{"rendered":"Packers News: Green Bay free agency &#8211; expect more departures than arrivals\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With the Super Bowl mercifully behind us, it\u2019s on to the offseason, and the Green Bay Packers face some sobering roster realities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/stories\/nfl\/2026-nfl-free-agency-top-100-players-available-potential-fits\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">list<\/a>, published by Greg Auman, highlights just how many Packers could hit the open market or become cap casualties. The list gathers a supposed top 100 free agents for 2026, and I\u2019ll give you one guess as to which team tops it. Ok, that was facetious trickery, the Seahawks top the list \u2014 but the Packers rank second with five players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Honorable mention to Emanual Wilson, who isn\u2019t a \u201ctop 100\u201d player on this list, but who has been a vital-at-times role player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Now you may not be sad to see the backside of a handful of these players, but the fact is that GM Brian Gutekunst has his work cut out for him. Compounding that likely roster churn is a severely restricted salary cap outlook, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acmepackingcompany.com\/green-bay-packers-salary-cap\/79333\/the-green-bay-packers-rank-25th-in-cap-flexibility-in-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as outlined recently<\/a> by our own Justis Mosqueda. The TL;DR (though you should definitely read the article; we\u2019ve got bills to pay) is that Green Bay ranks 25th in cap flexibility for 2026, and are only able to generate roughly $52 million through restructures. That\u2019s a fraction of what other teams should be able to muster in the coming months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Without letting guys walk in free agency and aggressive space creation via cuts or restructures (a possible necessity given looming cap hits for Jordan Love, Micah Parsons, and others), the Packers simply won\u2019t have room to pursue marquee free agents \u2014 despite whatever yarn Brian Gutekunst may be spinning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Add in significant depth needs across both lines and in the secondary, and you get a team that may lean heavily on its draft class and internal options. Rather than bolstering through free agency, Green Bay appears set to let several veterans walk, fill spots cheaply and hope its young core takes another step forward in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Somewhere in the ether, Ted Thompson is smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Super Bowl mercifully behind us, it\u2019s on to the offseason, and the Green Bay Packers face&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[52136,7,41,345,2702,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-749161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-cheese-curds-daily-green-bay-packers-news-and-links","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-green-bay","11":"tag-green-bay-packers","12":"tag-green-bay-packers-news","13":"tag-greenbay","14":"tag-greenbaypackers","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116063180210705847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749161","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=749161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}