{"id":761118,"date":"2026-02-18T21:57:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761118\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:57:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:57:23","slug":"3-players-packers-must-let-walk-in-free-agency-during-nfl-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/761118\/","title":{"rendered":"3 players Packers must let walk in free agency during NFL offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green Bay Packers<\/a> wen all in on the 2025 season after trading for Micah Parsons<\/a>. Unfortunately, Parsons tore his ACL in December<\/a> and the Packers simply could not make the postseason without their superstar edge rusher. Green Bay should be feeling a huge sense of urgency to reload the roster so they can get back to the playoffs next season.<\/p>\n

That could be tricky if the Packers are on a tight budget.<\/p>\n

The Packers are currently $1.59 million\u00a0over the 2026 salary cap<\/a>. Green Bay will need to make some tough choices, perhaps including cutting a few players<\/a>, to get their salary cap in order.<\/p>\n

To be clear, Green Bay’s cap situation is completely manageable. But it could limit how active they are in free agency. It could also keep them from retaining a few of their players on expiring contracts.<\/p>\n

But which players might the Packers let walk this offseason?<\/p>\n

Below we will explore three Packers players who Green Bay needs to let walk in NFL free agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Packers need to let someone else pay Romeo Doubs<\/a>\"GreenMike Dinovo-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It is time for the Packers to move on from Doubs.<\/p>\n

Doubs had his best season as a pro during the 2025 season. He hauled in 55 receptions for 724 receiving yards and six touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Those may not sound like eye-popping numbers, but that’s largely because of how Green Bay runs their offense.<\/p>\n

For example, the Packers averaged 194.1 passing yards per game in 2025. That ranked 22nd in the NFL, just outside of the bottom 10 teams in the league. So there’s often fewer yards to go around for Green Bay’s receivers in recent seasons.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Green Bay has thrived without a legitimate WR1 in their offense ever since losing Davante Adams. Since the Packers diversify their targets so much, no one receiver ends up having incredible statistics.<\/p>\n

We can take away a few important facts from all of that.<\/p>\n

First, there’s no reason to doubt that Doubs could become a more productive wide receiver in a change of scenery. Doubs could be a great addition<\/a> for multiple teams around the league. In fact, that seems to be baked into his price as a free agent.<\/p>\n

Spotrac lists Doubs with an estimated market value of $12 million per season<\/a>. That puts him in the same earnings tier as players like Christian Kirk, Gabe Davis, and K.J. Osborn.<\/p>\n

The second thing is that Doubs should be fairly replaceable in Green Bay because of how they’ve structured their offense.<\/p>\n

Personally, I expect the Packers to replace Doubs with a mid-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The Packers can afford to part with Rasheed Walker, right?<\/p>\n

On the face of it, it seems ridiculous to assume that the Packers should simply give up on Walker.<\/p>\n

The former seventh-round pick back in 2022 has been a great player over the past few seasons. He’s a decent run blocker, but he earns his paycheck by being an excellent pass protector. That is still what NFL teams often want from a left tackle.<\/p>\n

Personally, I’m not convinced that the Packers will be better off by parting ways with Walker. But it is simply a matter of necessity.<\/p>\n

Walker projects to be the top left tackle on the free agency market this offseason. He could easily cash in on a big-money contract, especially with teams like the Raiders boasting a ton of cap space and need upgrades on the offensive line.<\/p>\n

In fact, Spotrac estimates that Walker has a market value of $20.3 million per season<\/a>. If he lands a contract in that range, he’ll earn about as much as Jordan Mailata, Alaric Jackson, and Dan Moore.<\/p>\n

That is well outside of Green Bay’s price range this offseason.<\/p>\n

It helps that the Packers have Jordan Morgan on his rookie contract. The worst-case scenario in Green Bay would be moving either Morgan or Zach Tom to left tackle. That would leave the other player at right tackle.<\/p>\n

The Packers would be wise to keep left tackle on their radar during the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Green Bay should try to replace Quay Walker<\/a> at middle linebacker<\/p>\n

\"Quay<\/p>\n

The Packers are in a similar situation with Quay Walker.<\/p>\n

The former first-round linebacker has been a mainstay on Green Bay’s defense over the past four seasons. He is a sound tackler who sprinkles in some big plays every season.<\/p>\n

But just like with Rasheed Walker, Quay may be a little too expensive for the Packers moving forward.<\/p>\n

Spotrac calculated Walker’s market value at roughly $8.3 million per season<\/a>. That’s giving him a contract similar to Jordyn Brooks and a little higher than Quincy Williams. That’s a pretty fair assessment of Walker’s talents.<\/p>\n

But as we’ve already established, the Packer are working with a somewhat tight budget this offseason. It makes too much sense to let Walker test free agency.<\/p>\n

As for a replacement, I think Green Bay has a few options.<\/p>\n

One route is signing a veteran to a one-year contract to simply kick solving the problem down the road a ways. There are a few veteran linebackers who could be available at half of Walker’s price (or less) who could offer similar enough production.<\/p>\n

Green Bay could also seek out a new middle linebacker during the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

Either way, they need to find someone cheaper than Walker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Bay Packers wen all in on the 2025 season after trading for Micah Parsons. Unfortunately, Parsons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2072],"tags":[18731,7,41,345,2514,2513,6,18732,2592,428,468,3995],"class_list":{"0":"post-761118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-editorials","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-green-bay","11":"tag-green-bay-packers","12":"tag-greenbay","13":"tag-greenbaypackers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-editorials","16":"tag-nfl-free-agency","17":"tag-packers","18":"tag-quay-walker","19":"tag-romeo-doubs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116093875986816435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761118","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=761118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}