by his own admission<\/a> \u2014 at his new position, and he also suffered a season-ending lower leg fracture. Having turned 30 on Dec. 26, he\u2019s an old man by the Packers\u2019 standards, and the $19.529 million in cap space the Packers would create by cutting him is massive.<\/p>\nGutekunst, when asked what the deciding factor is on Jenkins: \u201cI thought he was playing pretty well. Obviously, the move to center certainly was to help the Packers and to help him as well. [With] him getting hurt, I think we lost a lot of veteran leadership there when he went out, so that was difficult. But at the same time, we\u2019ll kind of see where that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Josh Jacobs, running back \u2014 $14.543 million 2026 cap number<\/p>\n
Jacobs\u2019 production fell precipitously from his first season in Green Bay (1,329 rushing yards, 15 touchdowns) to last season (929 yards, 13 TDs), but the guy toughed it out through a painful left knee injury that severely hampered him during the second half of the season and ran behind an offensive line that did him no favors with its inconsistent blocking. He turned 28 earlier this month, and while releasing him would $8.293 million in cap room, there\u2019s no proven replacement on the roster and no one in the locker room who commands more respect than Jacobs.<\/p>\n
Gutekunst, on if Jacobs will be the team\u2019s No. 1 running back in 2026: \u201cYeah absolutely. Obviously Josh played really well for us last year, major part of our football team. Very durable, tough. Yeah, he\u2019s a very important cog in what we\u2019re trying to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nate Hobbs, cornerback \u2014 $12.838 million 2026 cap number<\/p>\n
Releasing Hobbs wouldn\u2019t net the Packers much cap space (roughly $838,000), but like Banks, his free-agent signing did not live up to the Packers\u2019 expectations. His season was derailed before it even started by a training-camp knee injury, and he wound up playing in only 11 games (five starts) because of inconsistent play and knee and ankle injuries and finished the year on injured reserve.<\/p>\n
Gutekunst, on whether Hobbs will return: \u201cHe\u2019d had a little bit of [injury] things [in the past] \u2014 certainly not as much as he had this past year. Those are always risks you take whenever you get into the free agency pool. If you\u2019ve played four or five years in the National Football League, you\u2019re going to have some things. You\u2019ve got to have to take some risk on, and we did. It didn\u2019t work out this year, particularly with Hobbs. But we\u2019ll see how it goes in the next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
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