ESPN’s latest roster rankings have the Green Bay Packers sitting 10th in the NFL, placing them in the top third of the league as three ESPN writers sized up the best lineups in July.
The Packers’ biggest unresolved spots are easy to spot on the depth chart. The first is who takes over as the team’s third starting defensive lineman.
The second is who lines up at outside cornerback opposite Keisean Nixon. ESPN’s answer for those jobs was Karl Brooks on the defensive line and Carrington Valentine at cornerback.
If there’s one area ESPN clearly likes, it’s the back end of Green Bay’s defense. The outlet labeled safety as the team’s strength, which fits given the Packers likely have four starting-caliber players in that room. On the other side of the ledger, ESPN pointed to the defensive line as the weakness.
The most interesting part of the Packers’ write-up was the X factor for 2026, and it centered on something Green Bay fans have been talking about for years: the run-pass ratio. ESPN noted that Matt LaFleur has helped build one of the league’s most efficient passing games, but has also leaned too hard on the run.
In 2025, the Packers posted 0.21 EPA per play on designed pass plays, which ranked second best, while their designed runs came in at minus-0.02 EPA, good for 16th. Even with that gap, Green Bay ranked 26th in pass rate over expected, per Next Gen Stats.
ESPN’s conclusion was simple: if Green Bay puts the ball in Jordan Love’s hands more often, it should win more games.
At the top of ESPN’s list were the Los Angeles Rams, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles, Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans and then the Packers.
The Chicago Bears finished 17th, while the Minnesota Vikings landed at 22nd.
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The Packers are heading toward the 2026 season with a pass rush that still feels unfinished, even after the big swing for Micah Parsons. With Parsons expected to miss the first half of the year as Green Bay eases him back from injury, Lukas Van Ness is likely to be one of the main edge options when the season opens, which puts added pressure on the front office to keep looking for help.
That is why Maxx Crosby has suddenly become a name to watch again. The Raiders star was already the sort of player who would change the look of a defense, and now Green Bay has a real chance to enter the conversation if it decides the price is worth it. The question is whether the Packers would be willing to spend the draft capital needed after already making such a major investment in Parsons, or whether they will trust their current plan and let the market sort itself out. [Read more 🡒]
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He was at his peak in the early 1960s, when he piled up points, earned league MVP honors in 1961 and helped Green Bay win four NFL titles. Vince Lombardi later treated No. 5 as if it were off-limits, even if the Packers never made that retirement official, and only a handful of players have worn it since. [Read more 🡒]
One Packers Bears Stop Still Fuels The Keisean Nixon Debate
The play that keeps coming up in Green Bays cornerback conversation came in the final seconds of a Week 14 rivalry game, when the Bears had already pushed quickly into Packers territory and were threatening to flip the night on its head. On fourth down with 27 seconds left, the Packers were clinging to a 28-21 lead, and Keisean Nixon came up with the interception that ended Chicagos comeback bid and turned a tense finish into a defensive exhale.
Nixons value has always been tied to his playmaking, but this one also reopened the broader debate about how much freedom he should have to freelance in key moments. The sequence was messy before it became memorable, with a breakdown in coverage creating the kind of split-second opening that can decide a rivalry game, and it left the Packers once again weighing whether Nixons instincts are exactly what they need or part of a larger gamble. [Read more 🡒]