With training camp still ahead and Green Bay’s roster basically set for the moment, the Packers’ annual 90-man ranking rolls on with a pair of players whose 2026 outlooks feel very different: one is trying to justify a huge free-agent investment, the other is trying to hold off new competition in a contract year.
Aaron Banks lands at No. 20 after a first season in Green Bay that never really got on track. The Packers handed the veteran guard a four-year, $77 million deal last offseason, a move that drew immediate attention because Banks had shown quality stretches with the San Francisco 49ers without fully establishing himself as one of the league’s premier guards. Even so, Green Bay paid him like a top-tier player, and that contract still sits among the top 10 for guards by average annual value.
The problem was the debut season. Injuries kept Banks to just two starts over the first five weeks, and even when he was on the field, he was missing snaps.
That pattern continued into Week 9, when he lasted only nine snaps in the loss to the Carolina Panthers. His availability issues helped fuel the offensive line shuffle that turned into a weekly game of musical chairs throughout 2025.
Still, Banks hasn’t been written off. When he was healthy late in the year, he showed what the Packers were paying for.
From Week 11 through Week 14, he played every snap and didn’t allow a sack or a quarterback hit, which was easily his strongest stretch in Green Bay. That kind of steadiness matters more now because three of the other four spots on the offensive line are expected to feature either a new starter or a player with less than a full season at his current position.
The Packers need Banks to be solid in 2026.
Carrington Valentine checks in at No. 19, and his situation is more about pressure than payoff. The seventh-round pick from 2023 earned praise early in his career for holding up in limited duty, including a stint filling in for Jaire Alexander during the 2024 season. In 2025, though, Valentine was pushed into a much bigger role and became a de facto starter, logging 70% of the defensive snaps.
That heavier workload came with rough edges. Valentine allowed a team-high seven touchdowns and also let multiple “gimme” interceptions slip away.
Now he’s entering a contract year, and while he still has a path to the starting job in 2026, the Packers have made the cornerback room more crowded. Green Bay drafted Brandon Cisse in the second round and added Benjamin St-Juste early in free agency, so Valentine can’t assume anything.
He’ll have to win the job again in training camp and the preseason if he wants to keep things the same.
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Bears Player Just Said What Packers Fans Always Suspected
The Packers-Bears rivalry has a way of resurfacing even when the teams are in different places on the calendar, and Colston Loveland just added another reminder of how deeply it runs inside Chicago. The Bears tight end said the organizations emphasis on beating Green Bay feels familiar to the college rivalry he knew at Michigan, a comparison that fits the long history between these two NFC North neighbors and helps explain why every meeting seems to carry a little extra weight.
Lovelands comments line up with the broader tone around the Bears after their recent success against Green Bay, when the rivalry felt especially charged inside the building. Chicago handled the Packers in Week 16 and then again in the Wild Card Round before its season ended against the Rams, and now the next chapter is already on the schedule for Week 5 next season. For Packers fans, it is another sign that the matchup still shapes how the Bears talk, prepare and measure themselves. [Read more 🡒]
Packers No 10 Debate Just Got A Surprising Modern Twist
The Packers No. 10 conversation has a way of pulling in all kinds of names, from old-school linemen to kickers to quarterbacks who flashed for a moment and then moved on. Babe Parilli, Cub Buck, Jan Stenerud, Lynn Dickey and Matt Flynn all left their own imprint on the jersey, with Flynns wild finale in 2011 still standing out as one of the more memorable single-game explosions in recent Packers history.
Lynn Dickeys case is especially interesting because his best Green Bay seasons came after he moved off No. 10, following a broken leg in 1977 and a long stretch that cost him nearly two full calendar years. Even with that kind of history in the mix, the modern twist comes from Jordan Love, whose place in the No. 10 lineage keeps the debate tied to the present as much as the past. [Read more 🡒]