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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst.<\/p>\n
No one in the NFL saw as much of their talent from last season sign with other teams in free agency than the Green Bay Packers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Packers may have signed seven new players<\/a> to their roster, but that may not make up for the 10 they lost, most of whom were starters last year.<\/p>\n According to The Athletic\u2019s Mike Sando<\/a>, players that left in free agency or who were traded commanded $97.6 million in combined APY, which ranked for second most in the league.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a big part of the -$70.8 million APY differential for the Packers, the second-largest negative differential this offseason (Miami is at -$79.0 million \u2014 no other team is beyond -$60 million). The differential would have been more extreme if left tackle Rasheed Walker, who is facing a gun charge, hadn\u2019t found a cool market,\u201d Sando wrote.<\/p>\n While the numbers may tell enough of the story, NFL executives didn\u2019t exactly have a lot of confidence in what the Packers did in free agency either.<\/p>\n Packers\u2019 Lack of Aggression in Free Agency Raises Questions<\/p>\n Green Bay\u2019s approach this offseason has been viewed as largely passive, especially when compared to how much talent they lost. Rather than aggressively replacing departing starters, the Packers mostly stayed put, relying on smaller moves and internal options.<\/p>\n That stood out to executives across the league.<\/p>\n \u201cGreen Bay didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d an NFL exec told Sando. \u201cThey are a team that historically drafts very well. They are really not a player in free agency.\u201d<\/p>\n As Sando noted, even their most notable additions came without won\u2019t cost them anything. Javon Hargrave\u2019s deal won\u2019t result in a loss of a compensatory pick since he was released, and the trade for Zaire Franklin didn\u2019t cost them any draft capital after sending Colby Wooden to Indianapolis.<\/p>\n Hargrave signed a two-year, $23 million deal with $10.5 million guaranteed, while Franklin was brought in to help fill the void left by Quay Walker\u2019s departure to the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>. Still, around the league, those moves were seen more as maintenance than meaningful upgrades.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is hard to say they did anything beyond just stay pat,\u201d another exec said.<\/p>\n Micah Parsons Trade Still Limiting Packers<\/p>\n The Packers already made their biggest move \u2014 and it came before the 2025 season when they traded for Micah Parsons.<\/p>\n That deal paid off immediately on the field, but it continues to impact how the team is building its roster now.<\/p>\n Green Bay sent its 2026 and 2027 first-round picks to the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> in the deal, limiting its ability to reload through this year\u2019s draft. That lack of premium draft capital has also made it harder to add talent in free agency.<\/p>\n \u201cWith no first-round pick because of the Parsons trade, Green Bay has few avenues remaining to make impact additions,\u201d Sando said.<\/p>\n And now, there\u2019s another layer to it.<\/p>\n Parsons is expected to miss the beginning of the 2026 season due to recovering from his ACL injury, meaning the Packers won\u2019t even have their biggest acquisition available early on.<\/p>\n That only adds more pressure to a roster that already lost significant talent this offseason \u2014 and makes the lack of aggressive moves in free agency stand out even more.<\/p>\n For a team that already paid a steep price to acquire Parsons, the timing couldn\u2019t be worse.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tShane Shoemaker<\/a> Shane Shoemaker is a sports journalist covering college football and the NFL for Heavy.com. His work has also appeared in The Sporting News, Athlon Sports, USA TODAY, and ClutchPoints, along with high school sports coverage for the Marion Tribune. More about Shane Shoemaker<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Packers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Green Bay Packers GM Brian Gutekunst. No one in the NFL saw as much of their talent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2072],"tags":[7,41,345,2514,2513,6,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-852731","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-greenbay","12":"tag-greenbaypackers","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116344720338223713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852731","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=852731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}