{"id":787323,"date":"2026-03-02T19:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787323\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T19:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:22:21","slug":"potential-packers-free-agent-signings-with-jonathan-gannon-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787323\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential Packers free agent signings with Jonathan Gannon connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was combing through the data on our consensus 2026 NFL free agent rankings<\/a>, which is now up to 26 data points, and decided to look at a different angle today: Players with connections to new Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. As we\u2019ve seen in the past, connections to a coach on the staff have produced some of the team\u2019s biggest free-agent signings over the years, such as Josh Jacobs (Rich Bisaccia), Nate Hobbs (Bisaccia), Xavier McKinney (Derrick Ansley), De\u2019Vondre Campbell (Matt LaFleur) and Christian Kirksey (Mike Pettine).<\/p>\n

So who are those players with Gannon connections? Here are the defensive tackles, off-ball linebackers and outside cornerbacks, the defensive areas where Green Bay should be looking to add talent based on their current depth chart, who are top-150 free agents.<\/p>\n

#32: Nakobe Dean, LB, Philadelphia Eagles<\/p>\n

Generally, 3-4 defenses<\/a> play with one smaller run-and-chase Will linebacker (for Green Bay, this is Edgerrin Cooper) and a plugger Mike linebacker (Quay Walker, who is set to be a free agent in 2026). In Philadelphia, Nakobe Dean was the Will, not the Mike, a role that went to Zack Baun.<\/p>\n

Signing Dean would be a little redundant with Cooper\u2019s skill set, but ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler stated that the Dallas Cowboys, who are also transitioning to a 3-4 defense this year, consider Dean to be a green-dot middle linebacker<\/a>. The Cowboys\u2019 new defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, also comes from the Eagles\u2019 coaching tree.<\/p>\n

In Gannon\u2019s final year in Philadelphia, Dean was drafted in the third round, after sliding from his first-round projection<\/a> due to injury concerns. Dean didn\u2019t start until 2023, when Gannon was already in Arizona, and has missed 21 games over the last three seasons due to injury.<\/p>\n

#62: Calais Campbell, iDL, Arizona Cardinals<\/p>\n

Calais Campbell will turn 40 years old on September 1st, so don\u2019t expect him to learn new tricks. For Arizona last season, he was pretty much a pass-rushing specialist, which isn\u2019t surprising considering the 6\u20198\u201d, 315-pounder essentially played an edge rusher position for the Atlanta Falcons in 2023. He\u2019s not really trying to bang heads in the run game at his big ole age.<\/p>\n

While he started 17 games for the Cardinals, he only played 46 percent of the total snaps, with a lean toward obvious passing downs. He didn\u2019t play the nose tackle position much outside of these passing downs, too, so don\u2019t expect him to solve the Packers\u2019 run game nose tackle issue.<\/p>\n

To me, Campbell would be more of a luxury signing than one that would fill a need. Another non-run-down guy whose snap count must be managed on a 48-man gameday roster isn\u2019t really what the team needs right now, but maybe they could sign Campbell and push out someone like Karl Brooks, who is on an expiring contract.<\/p>\n

#115: Josh Jobe, CB, Seattle Seahawks<\/p>\n

Like Nakobe Dean, Josh Jobe\u2019s rookie season overlapped with Gannon\u2019s last year in Philadelphia, but he didn\u2019t play much for Gannon. In 2022, the undrafted free agent played 220 of his 232 snaps in the regular season on special teams.<\/p>\n

Jobe hits all of the Packers\u2019 height\/weight\/speed thresholds and comes from a quarters-based system (both in Philadelphia and Seattle), but there are two hangups. First, Jobe wasn\u2019t really an above-average player until this past year. Second, how much was his 2025 production helped by the fact that the team around him was extremely talented? That\u2019s what teams will be asking themselves before turning in contract offers.<\/p>\n

#128: Alex Singleton, LB, Denver Broncos<\/p>\n

During his first season as the Eagles\u2019 defensive coordinator, Alex Singleton was a part-time starter for Gannon at linebacker. The former CFL all-star ended up leaving the Eagles in free agency to sign a one-year $1.12 million contract with the Denver Broncos in 2022, which then turned into his three-year, $18 million extension.<\/p>\n

Singleton is on the older side at 32 years old, but he\u2019s still an option if all else goes wrong on the linebacker market.<\/p>\n

Beyond just the top-150 free agents, two players worth mentioning here are nose tackles Roy Lopez and Khyiris Tonga. Lopez was the Detroit Lions\u2019 backup nose tackle this year, but graded out well for Pro Football Focus. Tonga had a breakout year as a part-time starter as a significant run defender for the AFC championship-winning New England Patriots.<\/p>\n

Both are under 30 years old and played for Gannon in Arizona.<\/p>\n

As it stands now, here\u2019s how the nose tackles rank<\/a> on the consensus board:<\/p>\n

#53: David Onyemata#69: DJ Reader#94: DaQuan Jones#164: Roy Lopez#173: Tim Settle (coming off foot surgery)#177: Khyiris Tonga<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a great crop of nose tackles, so teams could find themselves getting to Lopez and Tonga faster than some of these analysts who ranked these players outside of the top-150 think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was combing through the data on our consensus 2026 NFL free agent rankings, which is now up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,9684,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-787323","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-free-agency","12":"tag-greenbay","13":"tag-greenbaypackers","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116161213097353229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787323","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=787323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}