No team is a finished product with the draft and subsequent cut opportunities coming up. From the Super Bowl champs to the lowly Raiders, every team has holes to fill. The Packers are no exception.

Curiously enough, the lack of a proven edge rusher to start the season was not addressed in the article. You figure Gute is going to try really hard to find a solution here; otherwise everyone is going to be fretting about whether or not he has evolved from the Pin the Tail on the Donkey approach he has previously used in the draft for this position (not really, but the results are about as good).

I'm glad the need for kicker competition was mentioned, though. McManus left a sour taste in everyone's mouth with his (lack of) playoff performance, and besides, he's getting old. Everyone says never to use a draft pick on a kicker, but if the Packers see an opportunity with one of their seventh-rounders, then why not? At least we won't be worrying about any advice Bisaccia will be giving this time.

I find myself agreeing with Zach. Most of the roster moves Gute made were in line with what I was thinking. Banks is the only move I would question. But in looking at our OL options I can live short term with Banks. We are just trying to keep the ship afloat. We need to get better and I don't think that has happened yet. We need to come out of the draft with 2 maybe 3 guys that will be contributing this season. Remaining FA this off season probably just more stop gap guys. Next year with all those picks in the draft, depth will definitely get better. We need to find a few more blue chip players.

The situation at Nose tackle is beyond concerning. We need a vet who can play right away. Especially when we only would stand to lose a 6th round pick.

CB is a real problem too, although 2 picks could alleviate my concern there somewhat. We need to recycle the WR room, either through re-signing Watson and one pick, or two picks, and depth on the IOL is concerning as well.

Not to mention I have zero faith in the offensive coaching staff.

Yeah. This loss to the Bears felt like a regime ender indeed. I hope I am wrong.

We have not had the draft yet, and with contracts like those held by love, Parsons, McKinney and Tom and those coming like Walker and certainly Kraft, there is a finite amount of cap.

The draft simply has to provide some of the solutions (on a rolling basis). That means perhaps a contributor or two from the current year but also ones coming through from prior drafts and filling out the quality of the roster. To ignore the draft as a necessary source of talent is to fail.

It’s not optional, this growth has to happen due to the league dynamics once a team has players on major contracts. We have not been good at elevating our carry over roster members from year to year and that is a major problem.

We have actually been a draft and really not develop team. Our successes are FAs and a few who proved a lot better than expected from the outset unfortunately.

That has to change significantly. We need to see players coming through as viable depth and others becoming guys it’s hard to take off the field not merely position holders while a few difference makers take a breather.

Green Bay can't fill or fix all of their holes in free agency. There just isn't enough money to fill needs at NT, CB, RB, OL, and TE. Those are all areas to make an upgrade FA purchase. Filling the NT position hole with a FA is the most important one to address. It would be great if Stackhouse or Ford could legitimately improve that position, but there is a reason they were late round and UDFA players. Calais Campbell would fix the problem short term. If healthy and the price was right, Christian Wilkins would be a game wrecker for us. In the draft I like Chris McClellan. Or maybe FA Tedarrell Slayton for $3 million? Doesn't cost a comp, neither would Wilkins.

RB would be a cheap FA fix if we could sign either Antonio Gibson @ $1.1 million or Brian Robinson @ $3.0 million. Sign 1 of them and we can push this need to next year when we have more premium picks. Neither costs a Comp pick either.

I would try the hardest to fill these 2 holes before the draft. Then we only have 3 big needs to fill, CB, OL, & Edge and that makes the 2026 draft more manageable.

Trades could still be in play and reduce salary as well. Musgrave and Wickes have been floated as expendable.
If I was considering trading for a player, it might be the Giants CB, Deonte Banks. A former first round pick in 2023 that they are said to be ready to move on from. He has size, speed, and skill, but has not gotten better since his rookie season. We would have to address his salary which is $2.6 or $4.3 million depending on who pays his signing bonus. But trading for Banks would at least get us a potential, young, talented starting CB at a position of need, instead of a 4th or 5th string QB like Richardson. The Giants need WRs, I'll float a Wickes for Banks trade since Wickes name has been mentioned in trades so much. Hell, maybe they throw in a 7th round pick to get rid of the money on Banks.

There is no way you can lose players in Free Agency.
And cut and trade players, without crumbling.

Point to Hargrave and Franklin all you want.
The Walkers, Jenkins,and I'll include Clark were better.

So lets get to this. -
Who believed Gute when he said the CBs were OK?
He then turned around and dumped Hobbs
For Ben St -Juste. Ok - We now have a Outside Cb.
But Hobbs played the NB/S more. Win Gute.
So what is the Fix at CB.? - IT is This draft!
He has to draft CB knowing - Dts are dropping.
Replacing Hobbs (NB/Slot Depth) is a must now.
@52 Stukes is climbing and the answer.
And he can't stop there.
Which is why they're interested in Tacario Davis CB.
Climbing and should @84.
It takes a strong secondary as much as a DL
to Advance in the play-offs.
The CBs match up and are deep. (Draft Value)
No OL is going to start. He shoving Banks up are ass.
But he still needs to replace what he's lost.
#52. Treydan Stukes. NB./S. Arizona - Hobbs
#84. Tacario Davis. CB. Wash. - Nixon
#120 Bryce Lance. WR. N. Dakota. - Dobbs
#160 Zxavian Harris. Dt. MIS - Clarke
#201. Aiden Fisher. LB Ind. - Q. Walker
#236. Enrique Cruz Jr. Ot Kansas. - R. Walker
#255. Fa”all Fa’Moe. Ot Wake Forrest - Tom back-up

If we are honest, there have been major failures in both Draft (esp potent early rounds) and Development.
There is a tendency among a vocal segment of posters on this site to lay the majority of the blame on MLF. The blame lies squarely on both Gute and MLF. Gute has especially failed re: roster building on both Lines. Coaching is never going to substantively transform most of the current Line players into top NFL caliber players. Tom and Wyatt are exceptions.

A little perspective here: The average PFF score is 60.0, so those grades in the 60s for Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine are a little above average. While I believe that a team should always try to replace average players with above average players, or in this case, replace slightly above average players with players who are more above average, a defense can still be very good if it has a few average players. It's just about impossible to have all 11 players be above average.

By all means, I hope they draft a CB in the second or third round, and they should probably get another one in a later round, but Nixon and Valentine will most likley be the starters again. They can do the job if we have a decent pass rush. They are not nearly the major liabilities that a lot of people think they are.

I'm glad that Eric Stokes had a good year for the Raiders and earned himself a big contract after the injury hell he went through in Green Bay, but releasing him made sense. I'm not completely sold on him yet. Sometimes CBs on bad teams look better than they are because they have teammates who are bad and are constantly getting thrown at. It's actually harder to play CB on a good defense, because if the other CBs are better, the ball is going to be coming your way a lot. Stokes had five pass breakups in 2025 (which is five more than he had in his last three years in Green Bay), while Keisean Nixon had 17. The biggest shortcoming for Nixon and Valentine last year was their lack of interceptions. Nixon had one and Valentine had zero. But Stokes had zero as well.

Nate Hobbs was a bust for sure. They need the #3 boundary corner to be better. Benjamin St. Juste should be an improvement, and with a high draft pick, they could be four deep at that position. That's good enough, even if none of them are outstanding.

When entire position groups are probably a detriment to the team, there appears to be too many holes to fill for the Packers to be competitive. Depending on Nixon, Valentine and St Juste to provide consistently competent play is a stretch. Depending on LVN, Cox, Sorrell and Oliver to consistently apply pressure and defend the run is a big uncertainty. There is no dependably competent NT on this team and that's very concerning.
The offensive line is an unproven commodity. Can Morgan play LT at a productive level? Will Banks show he can be consistently effective, at LG, or is he the player that failed miserably in San Francisco when Trent Williams went down? Can Rhyan play C at more than an adequate level? Will Belton be the answer at RG by playing consistently good? Will Tom come back healthy, stay that way, and be able to play at his prior level?
The running backs also provide a questionable dependability. History says Jacobs will average more than 4 yds a carry since this is an even year. After him, Lloyd is totally unproven with extreme health issues. Brooks is a blocking back but can he provide quality carries and help in the passing game?
The Packers needed a quality backup QB the last two years. Will they be able to groom another Willis, to take over, in the event that Love goes down?
That's a lot of uncertainty for now. Will Gutekunst be able to address these issues in the draft, free agency and with players after cut downs? Stay tuned. For now the Pack is back and Super Bowl bound. It will remain that way until proved otherwise.

Yes all teams have holes to fill , but Gute created this mess I’m enjoying watching him trying to climb back out of it IF he can .

I still think we could trade Wicks, Reed, or Watson from our abundant wide receiver corps for a quality player.
I hate to trade any of them, but on the other hand there are only so many pass completions to go around.
Also, Watson and Wicks are in the last year of their contracts, I think, while Reed has a couple more years. There's only so much salary cap to go around, too.
Watson has been so good for the Packers, but Golden might be just about as good as a replacement.
If we trade him or Reed or Wicks, it seems we could get a good player in return, while still having lots of talent left at WR.
As I've noted recently, perhaps trade one of our WRs for Josh Sweat.
In any case, WR is our position of strength with which we can trade to fill a position of weakness.

Wow PackerBackerAZ, until the last 2 sentences I was ready to commit suicide. That was an extremely negative post.

If GB can somehow just fill the 2 holes @ NT & RB. Then the draft and cheap players cut after the draft can fill the other holes and strengthen weaker position groups. CB would be 1 more place to find a cheap average NFL CB. Before the Free Adent Frenzy I went through every teams FA CBs and had a list of 25 or more reasonable boundary CBs projected to get less than 3 million annually. Alot of these CBs had actual NFL starting experience and decent stats while doing so.

2 other options are resigning Rasul Douglas if the price is right, he had a very good year last year. The other would be to pursue a player for player trade. Deonte Banks-Giants CB has been rumored to be tradeable. He was a 2023 first round pick that the old coaching staff selected and isn't a starter anymore. They need WRs and we have Wickes to trade. Seems like a no brainer. They need to move him and Wickes could be attractive to them. Maybe we get a late round pick too so they can dump higher salay.

The draft and lots of moves yet to come.

This article treads over the same ground that's been plowed many times before.

1)We all know the Packers blew it to end the season.
2) We all know this team needs help in some areas.
3)McManus again? No complaints when he arrived and bailed out Rich B.'s long line of lousy kickers. Mason Crosby missed five field goals in a game. He wasn't cut and bounced back. Oh, and of course, the guy on the practice squad is, of course, a better kicker.(Sarcasm intended).
4)The draft will help out. Some guys who were around last year are being asked to step it up this year.
5)When did PFF become crowned as the final word on the truth of performance? Not all human behavior can be understood by numbers. Journalists have become numbers nuts but rarely can accurately state simply what happened.

Training camp is five months away. I'm sure there will be more articles like this one. (heavy sigh).

Last year....
"The time to win Championships is now" - Guter

I agree.
Now if only we could beat the bears in the wildcard round.

I think when you proclaim it's time to win Championships, that might imply you are ready, or a player or two away.

Well....everyone got new contract extensions, so all we can do is wait and see.
Something i've been semi patiently doing since the Packer/Seahawks NFCCG.
*********
When is the best time to proclaim its time to win Championships?

How about right after you go to a NFCCG, and then draft a receiver in a receiver rich draft, instead of trading up for a QB to sit on the bench and not improve the current team.

Just thinking out loud.