Brenton Cox Jr. has spent more than three years in Green Bay doing everything a team could ask for and saying almost nothing at all.
That kind of steady presence matters now, because the Packers suddenly need him. With Micah Parsons expected to miss roughly the first month of the 2026 season, Cox gets a brief opening to turn all that quiet reliability into something much bigger.
Cox’s path to this moment has never looked like a straight line. He arrived in Green Bay as an undrafted free agent in 2023, despite the kind of talent that usually gets a name called on draft weekend.
He put up strong tape at Georgia and Florida and had the physical tools that make edge rushers interesting to NFL teams. But his college career was also marked by repeated issues, and those concerns followed him out of school and into the draft process.
An anonymous scout told The Athletic’s Dane Brugler before the 2023 NFL Draft, “He wears you down with his antics,” and Brugler ranked Cox as his 39th edge rusher in that year’s edition of The Beast. Cox still went undrafted. His departure from Georgia was hastened by a misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession in April 2019, and Billy Napier later described his time at Florida as ending because of an “accumulation” of issues.
Since then, Cox has done exactly what the Packers hoped he would do. He’s handled his business, earned trust, and delivered when given a chance. In limited work, he’s shown real pass-rush juice.
Now the door is open wider than it has been before. Green Bay has options on the edge, even if none of them has separated yet.
Lukas Van Ness was a first-round pick for a reason. Barryn Sorrell showed enough as a rookie in 2025.
Dani Dennis-Sutton came in as a fourth-round steal. Collin Oliver brings traits and versatility.
Cox belongs in that mix, too.
The difference is that this moment is probably the best one he’ll get. Parsons will be back, and when he is, he’s going to soak up a heavy workload.
Cox is also on a short-term deal, which leaves him in a vulnerable spot. Sorrell, Dennis-Sutton and Oliver are under contract into 2028 and beyond, so the Packers have plenty of incentive to keep pouring developmental reps into those younger, cheaper players instead.
That’s what makes this stretch so important for Cox. There are snaps to claim, a role to carve out and money on the line next spring in free agency. If he can make the most of this opening, he can help the Packers right now and help himself in a major way, too.
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Packers Face A Josh Jacobs Worry That Could Hit Before Week 1
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ESPNs Adam Schefter reported that the NFL is looking into the matter and that discipline could come before the season begins, leaving Jacobs and the Packers in a holding pattern as Week 1 approaches. Jacobs has denied any wrongdoing and was released from jail, while the case remains under investigation, creating a murky situation for a backfield that was hoping for a clean start. [Read more 🡒]
Packers New Alternate Look Has Fans Debating What History It Honors
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For now, the club has only offered a teasing video and a few hints from president Ed Policy that the design will draw from a distinctive slice of Packers history. That has left fans doing what they do best anytime Green Bay puts out a cryptic reveal, debating which era, color scheme or tradition the team is trying to honor, and waiting for Tuesday to settle the argument. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Fans Still Dont Talk Enough About This Lombardi Era Defender
Among the Packers greats to wear No. 46, Hank Gremminger still deserves a bigger place in the conversation. A defensive back drafted in 1956, he became part of the foundation of the Lombardi era and helped drive Green Bays championship rise in the early 1960s, a stretch that also tied him to one of the franchises most successful periods. He later earned Packers Hall of Fame induction in 1976, a fitting nod for a player whose impact went well beyond the usual name recognition.
Gremmingers value showed up in the way the Packers trusted him over time, from the ball production to the leadership. He finished his 10-year run in Green Bay with 28 interceptions and served as a defensive captain in 1964 and 1965, the kind of details that remind you how much of a title team is built on reliable, underappreciated defenders. For fans looking back at the Lombardi years, he is one of those players who helps explain why those teams stayed so tough for so long. [Read more 🡒]