An NFL analyst is at least leaving the door open for a Packers miss in 2026.
In a Bleacher Report piece titled "Ranking Every NFL Team's Path to the 2026 Playoffs," Brad Gagnon placed Green Bay 15th and slotted the team into the "living on the bubble" tier. His reasoning was blunt enough: "The Packers have missed the playoffs just once this decade, and they still won eight games that year," Gagnon wrote. "That said, Micah Parsons' injury is a real pain, and the NFC North is stacked."
That’s the backdrop for a team that closed the 2025 season on a rough note. Green Bay dropped its final four games, then lost to the Chicago Bears in the wild-card round after building a 21-6 lead.
The Parsons injury is a major part of the concern. He tore his ACL last season against the Denver Broncos in Week 15, and Green Bay did not win again after that.
The receiving group around Jordan Love has also changed. Romeo Doubs left for the New England Patriots in free agency, while Dontayvion Wicks was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason. That leaves Love with Tucker Kraft, Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden, Savion Williams, Skyy Moore, Jakobie Keeney-James, Isaiah Neyor and Will Sheppard as his wideout options.
Love, of course, is the one who has to make the whole thing work. He signed a four-year, $220 million contract with Green Bay in 2024, and the expectation now is simple: play like the kind of quarterback that deal demands. Last season, the 27-year-old threw for 3,381 yards and 23 touchdowns while completing 66.3% of his passes.
For his career, Love has 11,535 passing yards and 83 touchdown passes, and he’s 27-20-1 as a starter.
Green Bay opens the 2026 season against the Minnesota Vikings, and Love will have to do it without Parsons to start the year as the edge rusher recovers from the ACL tear. Love recently said the biggest area he’s working on is his footwork.
"My biggest thing that I've noticed since I got back is just my feet in the pocket, trying to be as smooth and consistent as possible," Love said. "When I go through my reads, get into my hitches and not getting antsy, not getting to that point where you're trying to move through the pocket too fast.
Just staying calm, staying relaxed, move through my reads. If I've gotta move around in the pocket, keeping those movements pretty tight and not kind of running into where guys might be peeling off and able to hit you."
In Other News...
Matthew Golden May Have Found The Fastest Way Into LaFleurs Trust
Matthew Golden is trying to turn a promising offseason into a real jump in Year 2, and for the Packers, the early signs go beyond the box score. After a rookie season that ended without a regular-season touchdown, the second-year receiver has drawn notice from Matt LaFleur for the less glamorous parts of the job, especially his blocking and his work away from the ball.
That kind of attention tends to matter in Green Bay, where trust in the offense is built on more than catches and yardage. Golden did finish last season with 361 receiving yards across 14 games and found the end zone in a playoff loss, but the bigger question now is whether those incremental gains are enough to earn a larger role when the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Are Taking A Different Defensive Bet Than The Rest Of The NFL
Around the league, last seasons defensive trend leaned toward smaller looks, with teams like the L.A. Rams and Seattle Seahawks finding ways to make lighter packages work. Green Bay has gone the other direction in its own search for answers, choosing not to simply add more defensive backs when the passing game demands it.
Instead, the Packers are exploring a different kind of flexibility by moving bigger edge players inside and keeping key linebackers on the field. The idea is to widen the pass-rush options without sacrificing size and physicality, a bet that reflects a different view of how to disrupt offenses in todays NFL. [Read more 🡒]
Keisean Nixon Repeats Himself Three Times On Contract Talks
Keisean Nixon spent his first training camp media session doing what players often do when the business side starts to creep into football season: he punted. The Packers cornerback repeatedly steered questions about his contract to his agent and general manager, making it clear he wanted the focus to stay on the field as Green Bay gets rolling under a new defensive coordinator. Entering the final year of his three-year deal, Nixon is more interested in showing he can keep building than in turning camp into a negotiation.
Nixon also cleared up one point that might have fueled the speculation. His absence from the first practice had nothing to do with contract tension, he said, but rather hamstring tightness, and he was back on the field the next day. For the Packers, that keeps the situation in the usual summer holding pattern for now, with Nixon working through camp and the front office left to sort out the rest whenever the time comes. [Read more 🡒]